Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) is a contemporary enlightened master whose wisdom, insights and humor have touched the lives of millions of people around the world.

Osho was born in Kuchwada, India on December 11, 1931. From his earliest childhood, his was an independent and rebellious spirit, insisting on experiencing the truth for himself rather than acquiring knowledge and beliefs given by others. Osho becomes enlightened at the age of 21.

After completing his academic studies he spent several years teaching philosophy at the University of Jabalpur. Meanwhile, he travelled throughout India giving talks, challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debate, and meeting people from all walks of life.

By the late 1960s, Osho had begun to create his unique active meditation techniques, based on the understanding, that for modern man is necessary to go through a deep cleansing before he starts discovering the thought-less, relaxed state of meditation. By this time Osho began to hold meditation camps around India.

By 1974, a commune had been established around Osho in Poona, India, that started attracting a lot of visitors from the West. Many of them were therapists who had faced the limitations of Western therapies, focused mainly on treating the mind and its psychology, while for Osho and the Eastern tradition as a whole, the mind itself, or rather, our identification with it, is the real problem. Therefore, therapy, with its cathartic effect, must go hand in hand with the process of disidentification and witnessing, known as meditation.

Unlike most traditional methods of meditation, according to Osho, every single moment of our daily life can be a door to self-awareness and become an experience of meditation. Osho sees his mission in the creation of conditions for the emergence of what he calls the New Man - a completely new kind of human being who is aware, life-affirmative and free, bringing together daily life and meditation.

By the end of 1970s, the commune in Poona housed the largest therapy and inner growth center in the world, and thousands of people were coming to participate in therapy groups and meditations, and to be with Osho. Later, a number of them returned to their countries to set up Osho-meditation centers there.

Between 1981 and 1985, the Commune moved to Oregon, USA, where its activity and scale continued to expand. At the end of 1985 the Oregon commune dissipated because of political reasons.

Osho returned to India in mid-1986 and a few months later the commune in Poona resumed its activities, and still continues to be the largest spiritual growth center in the world.

Osho left his body in 1990, but he asked always to be referred to in the present tense. The words on the crypt containing his ashes, dictated by Osho himself, read:

OSHO
Never Born - Never Died
Only Visited this Planet Earth between
December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990