Many people have been asking me about Osho’s biography and I tell them that he is a mystic without a biography. They become puzzled and ask me then, why don’t you write his biography. I tell them that I cannot go against his vision, though I can say a few things which I have learned from being in his presence.

Osho has been known with various names — and he is not his names. The first name that he was given after his birth on December 11, 1931, was Rajneesh Chandra Mohan. At the young age of 21 (on March 21st, 1953 to be precise), when he was living in Jabalpur, he attained his enlightenment. And with this existential gift, his biography ended completely. From that moment onwards, he did not exist as a person. Yes, there was certainly an illumined presence, but no person, no ego, just a state of no-mind — an oceanic consciousness in a physical form.

In the Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Osho himself describes this: The biography is bound to be very superficial, so superficial that it is not worth reading at all. No biography can penetrate to the depths, particularly the psychological layers of a man. Especially if the man has come to the point where the mind is no longer relevant to the nothingness hidden in the centre of an onion. You can peel it layer by layer, of course with tears in your eyes, but finally, nothing is left, and that is the centre of the onion; that is from where it had come in the first place. No biography can penetrate to the depths, particularly of a man who has known the no-mind also.

Talking about enlightenment, Osho says: Mind was disappearing; it was millions of miles away. It was difficult to catch hold of it, it was rushing farther and farther away, and there was no urge to keep it close. I was simply indifferent about it all. It was okay. There was no urge to remain continuous with the past.

Osho talks about that fateful night of enlightenment — the night of 21st March 1953: That night I became empty and became full. I became non-existential and became existence. That night I died and was reborn. But the one that was reborn has nothing to do with that which died, it is a discontinuous thing. On the surface, it looks continuous but it is discontinuous. The one who died, died totally; nothing of him has remained. Believe me, nothing of him has remained, not even a shadow. It died totally, utterly.

He concludes: That night the death was total. It was a date with death and God simultaneously.

As an illumined presence, Osho continued to remain in the body till January 19, 1990. During this period, he has been known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh — and finally, his disciples started calling him Osho — which simply means: The Oceanic Consciousness. He has explained that the word “Osho” is derived from William James’ expression “oceanic experience” which means dissolving into the ocean.

Our world is full of religious people — and most of them are believers, following the traditional rituals taught to them from their childhood. They make no effort to explore the meaning or significance of the rituals; they simply carry on participating in the rituals in their family or society. And then there is a certain percentage of educated people who will not do anything without going to the root of such rituals. It is not so easy to convince them to continue following the traditional ways. But there are some grave occasions in life when they also toe the line. For example, there’s a death in the family, some rituals have to be performed — and willingly or unwillingly, with some sense of duty, they do participate because they don’t want to feel guilty later on.

This is not a very happy or healthy situation, where people are forced to participate in religious ceremonies either out of ignorance or out of fear. It is the ignorant people or people suffering from fear and greed, who are mostly exploited by the crafty priests. In such a situation, religion does not appeal to the young generation. It will be a great danger to the traditional religions if a majority of people in the world become educated. And pretending to be religious does not mean anything.

The religions all over the world need to go through a deeper transformation if they want to survive and grow. They need an intelligent and creative approach towards it — based on sincerity. And sincerity does not mean seriousness. Most of the religions have already created so much seriousness and grimness in the world, which is sickening and needs to be balanced by humour.

Osho shares his insight on this subject: Knowing brings sincerity, but all seriousness disappears. Knowing brings a playfulness; knowing brings a sense of humour. This sense of humour is a must. If you find a saint who has no sense of humour, then he is not a saint at all. Impossible. His very seriousness says that he has not achieved. Once you have some inner experiences of your own you become very playful, you become very innocent, childlike.

A religious person can joke; he can laugh — not only at others but laugh at himself too. Osho remembers Bodhidharma when he became enlightened, he started laughing — and he never stopped till he died. Many people asked him, “Why do you go on laughing?” He said, “I go on laughing because what I have been searching for was always within me. I was such an idiot; I cannot believe that for so many lives I have been searching for something which was already within me. In fact, the searcher was the sought, the seeker was the goal. There was no other goal except myself to be found. And when I see others are doing the same, I cannot stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole search, of the whole spirituality.

People around the world are greeting each other Happy New Year and declaring their new year resolutions. I am also contemplating my resolution, though I am not sure if it will change anything in my life — but I do want certain change within me. The atmosphere outside has become very toxic. The people who matter in our society — the politicians — have created such a toxic atmosphere — by their hateful utterances against each other. And it seems that we are also following them to a large extent, enjoying spreading hate statements all over the media and the social media. This is our daily food.

Every new year as we age, we resolve to do something different and better, but it does not happen, because, on the level of our collective consciousness, we are creating a mountain of hate over the head. And all heads are busy fighting with the hypnotic idea of survival of the fittest — the idea that belongs to the animal world, not the human or the spiritual world. Jesus, Guru Nanak, and Tao did not teach us survival of the fittest. Jesus said: Blessed are the meek… Guru Nanak told us: Nanak Nanhe Ho Raho…. Lao Tsu of the Tao religion reminded us: The softest thing in the universe, overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.

The world created by the politicians is totally opposite and makes us fight with each other all the time. We go on ageing thinking that we are maturing — but this maturity is very toxic. I suggest that we drop this idea of maturity and be children again. As Jesus says: Unless you are a child again, you cannot enter into my Kingdom of God.

Recently I was reading Childhood of the Magician by Hermann Hesse. He wrote: I was an active and happy boy, playing with the beautiful, many-coloured world, at home everywhere, not less with animals and plants than in the primeval forest of my own fantasies and dreams, happy in my powers and abilities, more delighted than consumed by my burning desires… It was beautiful and it pleased me, but more beautiful still was the world of my wishful thinking, richer still the play of my waking dreams. The reality was never enough, there was need of magic.

In my meditation in the new year, I wish to regain the magical childhood. And I know that meditation can do wonders — bring about a metamorphosis in the human psyche. An old man can become fully childlike, without losing the consciousness that happens in the age of maturity.

Osho says: Maturity is not concerned with age at all. Maturity is growth, and the growth must be through childhood, not against it, remember. Your maturity is false because it has been against the child. The child was born; maturity has been created. The child was natural; you are artificial, cultivated. You will have to go back to the child to regain the source from where growth is possible.

It is a Sufi whirling meditation — learning the art of whirling consciously and settling into consciousness.

Most of the times, we human beings find ourselves dealing with the ups and downs of our lives. We may like it or not, but the complexities of life are bringing such situations all the time. We get pulled into whirlpools and lose our centring. And if we are not deeply rooted in our being or our soul when such situations happen, it is very certain that we will go mad.

What then is the way to get out of the whirlpools? The way is inward — to find the centre of our being within us.

Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi gave a wonderful method of meditation for such a centering to happen. It is a Sufi whirling meditation — learning the art of whirling consciously and settling into consciousness. He himself experimented and found himself — in the centre of his being.

Osho tells us that, “Sufi whirling is one of the most ancient techniques, one of the most forceful. It is so deep that even a single experience can make you totally different. Whirl with open eyes, just like small children go on twirling, as if your inner being has become a centre and your whole body has become a wheel, moving, a potter’s wheel, moving. You are in the centre, but the whole body is moving.”

This meditation technique is done in three stages —
First Stage: 45 minutes — Whirling. Keep your eyes open and feel the centre point of your body. Lift your arms to shoulder height, with the right hand palm up and the left-hand low, palm down. Start turning around at one point — at your own axis. Let your body be soft. Start slowly and after 15 minutes gradually go faster and faster. You become a whirlpool of energy — the periphery a storm of movement but the witness at the centre silent and still. Gradually your eyes de-focus and the surroundings will become a whirl. As you move faster, you become more still inside.

Second Stage: 15 minutes. Let your body fall to the ground. Roll onto your stomach immediately so that your navel is in contact with the earth. Feel your body blending into the earth. Keep your eyes closed and remain passive and silent.

Third Stage: Celebration. Gradually, get up and join the celebration dance if you feel or sit still if you want.

Osho gives the example of children doing this naturally in their childhood. He says: “When a small child goes on whirling he loses the sense of being a body, he starts hovering above his body, he can see his own body turning — and that is the miracle of the method. But we are stopped by our parents very early.”

Mevlana Rumi himself became enlightened by 36 hours of continuous whirling; day in, day out he went on and on. He was riding on a cloud, he could not stop till he fell down. But when he opened his eyes and got up he was a totally new man, the old was gone.

It is good news that Bill Gates is meditating daily — for precious 10 minutes. And now for him, meditation is no longer a “woo-woo thing”, whatever that means. He might have thought that meditation is “tied somehow to reincarnation”.

Well, such misconceptions have always been there about meditation and people in the West have been ridiculing the Eastern meditators as navel-gazers, escapists and renunciates. Such fallacious assumptions discourage these intelligent people all over the world in using such a wonderful tool to raise their consciousness and transform themselves and the world at large. As we all know that when intelligent people do something remarkable and great, the ordinary people follow them, because it looks like a success story. People become followers of these great people. It makes sense to them.

If in India similar statements are given by Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai or Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that the secret of their success is meditation, this will create a huge impact on the minds of intelligentsia and the ordinary people. Recently, superstar Rajinikanth said in an interview that he has been meditating since he was seven years old. He explained: “From childhood, I had the Vedas, the Upanishads, meditation with me. Later, there were many gurus and I made many trips to the Himalayas. It is a deep subject. Only someone who experiences it knows about it. It is difficult to convey in words. Mainly, you get peace. When your mind is peaceful, whatever you do, you do it well.”

Rajinikanth did not renounce the world and made a tremendous contribution to the world of movies.

Osho, the enlightened mystic of modern times, made meditation the central point of his spiritual teaching. Thousands of Osho centers around the world are offering meditations on a regular basis. He has a very unique take on this subject. According to him, meditation is a way of life. It is life-affirmative. One does not have to run away from life and practice meditation in some ashrams in the Himalayas. Yes, one can take a few days off to go somewhere and learn meditation, but one has to return to the world and continue living meditatively.

He says: “Meditation cannot be a fragmented thing. It should be a continuous effort. Every moment one has to be alert, aware and meditative. But the mind has played a trick. You meditate in the morning and then you put it aside. Or you pray in the temple and then forget it. Then you come back to the world, completely unmeditative, unconscious, as if walking in a hypnotic sleep. This fragmented effort won’t do much. Consciousness is a continuum. It is like a river, flowing constantly. If you are meditative the whole day, every moment of it — and only when you are meditative the whole day — the flowering will come to you.”