From 25 to 28 December, an Osho Meditation Retreat took place at The School of Ancient Wisdom near Bangalore. Soon afterwards, I was invited to facilitate a large meditation gathering at the Pyramid Spiritual Societies Movement headquarters in Telangana. Both experiences left me deeply nourished and grateful – and they revealed, in different ways, how alive meditation is today.

Four days immersed in Osho’s meditations

Maybe it was after a decade that I returned to Bangalore to facilitate an Osho Meditation Retreat. There was no special theme – just Meditate, Celebrate, Here and Now. The location felt perfect: close to the airport, yet far from the crowded city and its noise.

The School of Ancient Wisdom is not an ashram and not a resort. It is simply a beautiful space for seekers of body, mind, and soul. Surrounded by forest, the place carries a quiet, welcoming energy. One feels nourished simply by being there. I felt strongly that our world needs more such spaces – places where transformation happens naturally, without effort.

The retreat brought together 55 participants, most of them young professionals from the IT and medical worlds. Fifteen people were initiated into Osho’s Neo-Sannyas during these days.

Our daily rhythm included Osho’s Dynamic and Kundalini meditations, Nadabrahma, Gibberish meditation, silent sitting, relaxation, dance, kirtan, and discourse. The programme flowed smoothly thanks to the dedicated support of Shimon, Ashish, Pratiyan, Sakshin, Kushaj, Ma Anu Bodhi, Ma Sonali, and the entire team, who held the space with care and love.

One participant, Kuheli Das, described the retreat as “truly life-changing”.

“We went there knowing almost nothing, with open hearts and curious minds, and we returned completely transformed – lighter, clearer, and deeply touched.”

She speaks of joy, laughter, and deep inner connection, and expresses heartfelt gratitude for the initiation and for everything that was shared.

Saravanam, another participant, reflects on the setting itself. He writes of the tranquil surroundings, nourishing food, and heartfelt hospitality that created “an atmosphere of deep comfort and ease”.

“What made the experience truly special was the sense of connection – arriving as strangers and departing as friends.”

For many, it was this feeling of connection – beyond technique or teaching – that stayed strongest.

For Swami Bodhidharma Zen, the retreat became an inner turning point. He arrived with hesitation, believing he was not ready for sannyas initiation.

“Love does not wait for readiness. Love simply arrives.”

In that space of trust, form and protocol dissolved. Initiation happened not as a decision of the mind, but as grace.

“I did not choose sannyas – sannyas chose me.”

What followed, he writes, was surrender, tears, and the feeling of finally coming home. His gratitude extends to the whole group, each shared silence and smile becoming part of his inner journey.

Swami Chaitanya Keerti, one of the famous spiritual guru Osho’s (Acharya Rajneesh) close disciples since the 1970s, was in the Devanahalli, near Bengaluru, recently to conduct a 3-day dynamic meditation camp

Even as new-age spirituality picked up steam around the world in the late 1960s, with the West becoming fascinated by eastern spiritual practices, including Indian ones like yoga and meditation, 20-year-old college student Swami Chaitanya Keerti did not care much for it. “I always avoided the spirituality column, thinking there would be some nonsense there, but one day , I thought I might be becoming prejudiced against religion and decided to read everything. That was the day Osho had written a piece – ‘Is man a machine?’, which talked about how we function like machines, becoming happy when someone says nice things and sad when it is bad and how the remote control remains in others’ hands. his point was that meditators would respond, not react,” he recalls.

That piece took him down the path of ‘neo sanyas’ shaping up around Osho, dropping out of college, and taking sanyas in 1971, when the guru was operating out of a Bombay apartment. What he remembers is a magnetism: “My first meeting with him, I was alone and I could not look into his eyes because there was so much radiance. he asked me ‘What brought you here?’ It took me a while to answer that, but I said, ‘I want to be with you’. Sometimes, I would write things down before meeting him, because when I looked into his eyes, I would forget.”

55 years later, he is still on that journey , teaching dynamic meditation, a cathartic meditation process popularised by Osho, most recently at The School of Ancient Wisdom in Devanahalli, organised by Friends of Osho. he explains, “Osho felt that people suppress so much, unless they detox, meditation cannot happen. So you have to get rid of it with catharsis.” The steps involve breathing vigorously , releasing pent-up emotion through open expression, followed by a phase of yelling ‘hoo’ to activate the root chakra. The last two steps, 15 minutes each, involve freezing in position and expressing joy.

When it comes to Osho, fresh in popular memory are two documentaries about the guru’s infamous disciple Ma Anand Sheela’s return to India, ‘Searching for Sheela’ (2021) and ‘Wild Wild Country’ (2018). The latter investigated Ma Anand’s involvement in a mass salmonella poisoning case in Wasco County , Oregon, where the guru’s ‘Rajneesh-puram’ ashram was, the duo’s arrest and more. Among those who lived through the time, Keerti says he ‘loved the documentary because it took Osho’s name all over the world,’ adding, “There were many people against us at the time (in the US), but Osho never bothered about the negative.”

On the controversies that have followed Osho’s attitudes toward sexuality and spirituality Keerti says, “All Osho was saying is ‘do not suppress sexual energy , live it and transform it’. If you are fasting for two or three days, then all you think of is food. When you bring consciousness to it, then even a single experience can be a liberating one.”

Osho Songs & Keertan Celebration with Live Music

9 – 13 July, 2025

Facilitated by :

Ma Dharm Jyoti & Swami Chaitanya Keerti

“The word ‘guru’ is untranslatable.
Neither does the word ‘teacher’ nor the word ‘Master’ have that beauty.

Guru literally means ‘the light’.
Meeting with the Master on the outside is the beginning of a great hope, a great aspiration.
Between a master and disciple the greatest mystery is lived, the deepest is lived, the highest flows.

It is a relationship between the known and the unknown, between the finite and infinite, between time and eternity, between the seed and the flower, between the actual and the potential, between past and future.

A disciple is only the past; the master is only the future.
The disciple is all that he knows, and a master is all that cannot be known.
When the bridge happens between a master and a disciple, to bridge the known with the unknown, and time with eternity it is a miracle.

Guru Purnima is the day of all the Buddhas, all those who have become aware. In their remembrance, become aware. ”
Osho

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