The Rajneeshpuram Cult Led by Chandra Mohan Jain

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Rajneeshpuram was a cult from the 1980’s which was located in The Dalles, Oregon and led by Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh or Osho. He was born in India and lived his early life there, traveling throughout and speaking publicly about his spiritual philosophy. He was infamously known for his free opinions on sexuality and was considered to be the “sex guru” (Vasant Joshi, 1982) by press all across the world. His first set of followers called themselves the neo-sannyasins and followed him to his first developed ashram in Pune, India. Due to his provocative teachings and continuing growth of the neo-sannyasins, attention was escalating in regards to government officials and community members. In attempts to avoid any legal problems, Rajneesh and the neo- sannyasins fled to Oregon State in 1981 and established what is now known as Rajneeshpuram. Although Rajneesh had a following of several thousand people, he, as a guru, was far from legitimate. His main focus in life was money, his elected leaders was full of criminals and his teachings were inexcusable.

In the eyes of Rajneesh it seemed that his teachings alone were enough of a gift to give to his people, and in return had them buy him gifts. The neo-sannyasins had used their hard earned money to buy Rajneesh multiple Rolls-Royce automobiles, with one individual stating “I wanted to buy Osho enough so that he could drive one for every day of the year”(Les Zaits, 2011). It is estimated that a final count of 93 Rolls-Royces were in possession of Rajneesh, the largest amount owned by any one person in the world at that time, and his reasoning being that “the anger and envy that his possession of so many—so absurdly, unnecessarily, outrageously many—of them ...

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...ur child is born with any defects such as blindness, deafness or dumbness they “should be put to eternal sleep” (Osho, 1997). As a parent, to hear somebody tell you because your child was born with a birth defect you should euthanize him/her, would be unbearable. That should never be an option, let alone for a child who has no say.

Throughout his time teaching whether it be in Poona, India, The United State, or somewhere else in the world, he made an impact on his followers. With his love for money, horrible choice of leaders and offensive teachings, it is safe to say his impact was not for the best. Not only did he give a bad name to the neo-sannyasins, but also to the places and people he associated himself with. He was denied entry in 21 countries, before he returned to Poona, India which demonstrates that nobody wanted this man to be a part of their culture.

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