Even today when I am with old timers, they suddenly use the word Bhagwan…. after all
it had been our bread and meat for 17 years…
As far as I know in Poona two an English sannyasin who had worked for Satchi and sons in the UK began to network the idea that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh needed “re-branding”. His was plain advertising thinking. The BSR name was besmirched rightly or wrongly by the history of the Ranch, etc, and it would serve the movement and Bhagwan well if fresh “naming” happened, and definitely improve the sale of the books, etc.
Whether his views had any influence within the ruling elite, or Osho, one doesn’t know. Anyway in January 1989 Osho dropped the Bhagwan name, but he did retain the name Rajneesh. The “official” line is that disciples, (whoever they were) asked at the same time to call him Osho - as he seemed to indicate that he was to have “no name” after dropping the Bhagwan name.
In December, 1988 Osho had talked derogatorily about the name Bhagwan and said his use of the word was to provoke the Hindus (with whom it had special significance as a name) and the “joke was now over”! In the same lecture he said people should simply now call him the”Beloved Friend”. …
The name Osho was actually pretty much unheard of at the time, but a few Zen aficionados knew that Basho, the well known 17th century Zen Haiku Master himself had a Master called Butcho Osho with whom he practiced Zazen before his enlightenment – and Bhagwan’s last talks were all about zen. (In fact one well known London sannyas cafe in the nineties was called “Osho Basho”).
Bhagwan appeared to make a different western connection, he said the name was another word for “Oceanic” and should be associated with William James use of “dissolving into the ocean” However for whatever reason he retained the name Rajneesh until September, 1989, which he then dropped and this was to symbolise a complete discontinuity with the past. From then on he is to be simply called “Osho”, and the commune renamed Osho Commune International.
So there was actually a spirit of confusion for much of 1989 about Osho’s name… and Osho did little to relieve the confusion!
However the name change did have an effect on individuals, and the collective. There were emotional attachments to the name Bhagwan. I saw it as a shock myself, but one of those shocks to disturb all detachments. Others seemed to genuinely see it as a preparation for his death which happened a few months later… Bhagwan had left his body, but Osho sailed on….
Something which our readers here may have had their own feelings, and theories about… and how it was experienced by them… …
Parmartha (with acknowledgement to Arpana for the idea and research)
Beloved Villain of Bhagwan Shree theater still will not utter the word Osho..She feels no connection with this name Osho, she knows only Bhagwan!
In different way, people who were participating actively during Poona 2 did not hesitate for a minute to shift from Bhagwan to Osho. for few days, there were few in-between stations too.
It is like when you are flowing with the stream, you don´t care about the clothes lying on the river bank. Those who are part of history-making in any form, feel no interest to read that history in their children´s text books.
In any way, like a commander-in-chief, Osho did not have the time to care for his wounds, He became busy to lay new foundation for His work.
‘Osho’ is a fairly common term in Zen lore, far as I know. It’s not particularly special. It’s just a term for a Zen priest, something like ‘Father’ or ‘Reverend’ in English. The connection to William James appears to be entirely Osho’s invention.
I never thought the name change was too big a deal, although over the years I did hear more than one cynical author state their conviction that the change was purely for commercial and marketing purposes. I personally doubt Osho cared too much about all that. As he neared his death he seemed to express more and more a desire to be seen as a human being, and less and less in a grandiose light. One can hardly blame him for that. I think in the end he was exhausted by the whole guru trip; the name change was one of his ways of expressing that.
From the opening article above:
“…the well known 17th century Zen Haiku Master himself had a Master called Butcho Osho…”
This means pretty much nothing. ‘Osho’ being a religious honorific in Japanese, all Zen priests are typically called ‘Osho’ (or ‘Osho-san’). So Basho’s teacher’s name was simply ‘Father (or Priest) Butcho’. See this article here:
http://www.meister-z.com/meister_z/BASHOBIO.htm
For a the Japanese meaning of ‘Osho’:
http://translation.babylon.com/english/Osho%20%28japanese%20zen%20term%29/
as regards concidences…
consider these facts…
william james coins “oceanic” to denote experience of vastness that he experienced under the influence of various drugs,most notably,nitrous oxide.
osho relates word osho to james` oceanic.
osho has nitrous oxide room in samadhi…
zen master gasho writes haiku:
soft silent sound
seeping gas
oceanic osho samadhi
sssshhhh…
Teertha, were you their in Pune during those fast moving days, when not just name change, Osho was creating His world with His people, and therefore like a snake shedding the old skin?
To say Osho was getting exhausted from guru trip is almost like saying Steve jobs was getting exhausted by the apple. May be he will feel irritated if you tell, iPhone is like any other mobile!
Even a casual observer can say from seeing Osho´s photos that man was almost following his inner calling to create better religious products and He did it and attracted people to try and taste.
If Shantam is Osho product nobody will be buying anything from CEO of MacSannyas outlet because product is a dud.
Osho always sounded to me like the name of some new washing powder. I first saw the name in a Japanese strategy book, the meaning there was ‘priest’. I don’t feel I had an emotional attachment to the name Bhagwan, but I also never really took to the name Osho, It all sounded a bit corny. Considering that Osho changed a lot of peoples’ names I think it was totally in order. I agree with Teertha in the sense it was no big deal.
Back in the mid-seventies, a man fom Goa, named David, ended up on Osho’s back porch. I was aquainted with David from Arihanta’s Prem Kutira Rajneesh meditation centre on Goa’s Chapora road. He was a little older and a little wiser than me at the time and I can remember being fascinated by his foxy girlfriend. So David ends up at Osho’s feet and it’s business as usual. Osho bends forward and drops a mala over David’s head. ‘Your new name will be….’ Crack! David ripped the mala from his neck and apart from the sound of 108 beads bouncing on the polished marble floor silence reigned supreme. There was a few seconds shocked dumbfoundedness, until Osho chuckled and said, ‘This is your first act of feedom.’ I admired the way Osho handled the situation and I also admired David for performing such a rebellious act. I wonder what became of him and I also wonder about Osho’s statement; ‘This is your first act of feedom.’ There was sometimes a lot in the names Osho gave, mines for instance had the effect of acting like a Zen koan on me for a couple of years until I broke the rules and asked him what it meant. He said, ‘The world gives you a body and a mind and you are consciousness.’ At which point I understood and left the darshan completely mindblown. Ultimately we are all beyond name and form.
The name changing was not restricted to Osho’s later life.
At some point presumably after Osho had finished his university career and started on travelling the roads of India he or those close to him started to use the name Acharya Rajneesh.
As far as I know Acharya is the Hindu name for “teacher”. I have an old historical booklet called “Who am I?” published in 1968 by Motilal Banarsidas with the Archarya name on it. It is a translation by Dr Bhargava, and edited by someone with the felicitous name of Miss Margaret Poss!
I know nothing about how he became Acharya, or actually how he changed this to Bhagwan. Some say the latter was a suggestion from Laxmi. Anyone reading this have any knowledge of the earlier changes?
osho changed his name a quite a lot,but to be fair i think
freewheeling franklin blubber freelunch avahoot adidas avabash avatard laughing man bananananda just edged it……..
Yes, it’s a close race between those two, but I think it may be a draw:
1. Franklin Jones
2. Bubba Free John
3. Da Free John
4. Da Love-Ananda (probably the worst of the lot)
5. Da Avadhoota
6. Da Avabhasa
7. Da Kalki
8. Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj
9. Adi Da Samraj
1. Chandra Mohan Jain
2. Rajneesh (was actually a nickname given to him by his grandfather who thought he was a ‘kingly’ child)
3. Acharya Rajneesh
4. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
5. Maitreya the Buddha
6. Shree Rajneesh
7. ( ) (his nameless period)
8. Osho Rajneesh
9. Osho
This result to be decided by penalty kicks.
wow.
nine names each…
it all slides esoterically into place…
revolution number 9…
ashoka`s nine unknown men…
dante`s nine circles of hell..
the nine muses…
9.the hermit wise man of the tarot..
plus the most successful players in penalty shoot-outs wear the no 9 shirt…
PT…looks like you`ve got another book to write….
hang on a moment..
wasn`t there “rajneesh zorba the buddha”,too?
yep.
10-9 on penalties.
…and the crowd goes wild as
baba avabash freedrinks hits the bar…!
Yeah, yeah, I can like dig it….’number nine’. I always wondered about that and now I know…wow, far out.
Settling on the name Osho always seemed to me to be the end of a process, begun when he said we did not need to wear the mala and red clothes any more,which was the beginning of preparing us for life with his successor Osho.
(I mean this in a metaphorical sense, rather than something that can be analyzed objectively, as a concrete fixed absolute. Smoke and mirrors. These are symbolic actions etc.)
Basically to discuss name change from Rajneesh Jain to Acharya to Bhagwan Shree to Osho should be the time pass work of those Osho sannyasins who will be born in few decades in different parts of India or may be Russian belt.
As far as west is concerned, Osho sannyas is almost like that movie line where almost no one is standing( May be they were all “In” during the premier)
People will buy his books the way they buy hundreds of other books of self help to read on Ibiza like beaches and feel a bit superior to those who are reading a novel!
As with most of your comments, Shantam, you are coming from a perspective that is biased snd fail to inspire. It would appear from your comments that you live in a bleak world, where the sky is always overcast and dark grey, and of course inhabited by dimwitted white-skins, who haven’t a clue about Osho’s vision and are preoccupied with reading bibles whilst atanding in line waiting for a Big Mac and fries..
supermarket managers of oshos vision,using all modern methods to market legacy products,like pornstars on the facebook sucking politicians for votes and praising english queen while white skinned colonists reading newage books,like playboy, to promote enlargenment on nudist beaches in ibiza…
then indigenous sannyasins with less cms doing a bit of self help to increase size of members and feeling superior!
So much knowledge about Osho; seems like Frank @sannyasnews was holding Osho Parachute during his flying years.
Naturally now on wheel chair at the age of near about 80, finally he has got the courage to drop parachute…should one say Bravo!, basically it has to be like this.
Problem is ex. sannyasins like frank are still holding their adolescent years. They will never accept that they were having good time with the Auntie, who was teaching them the way to manhood. At home to mummy they will always say, ” we were just helping Auntie in her bushy”garden”.
Surely Sannyas with Osho was a forbidden Joy for many!
shantam,
in fact, i agree with you…surely the best way to advance oshos legacy and vision is to have osho representatives sucking racist indian nationalist politicos on the youtube and british royal family-loving brownskin subjects of HM showing whiteskins a lesson about devotionalism to british crown…?
to me,all this is as obvious as the enlargenment cms of an indigenous devotee using self-help(manual) on an ibiza nudist beach!
Who is biased?,whether it is Lokesh or in the dictionary of many other machos.
Person who does not confirm their opinion!
“Oh God Oh God Oh God..He cannot be my spiritual guide..i was so much in illusion. I must search for a new guru”, exclaimed Jimmy to his waiter friend Banta Singh in Edinburgh.
“why, what happend?”, enquired Banta.
” incidentally i saw Him changing clothes. His dick was looking quite smaller compared to me, compared to us”. Jimmy gave the reason for his disillusionment.
Many comments are really funny,especially from Teertha..keep ‘em commin!
And here Osho, back when he was Acharya, some good old video recently posted to YouTube:
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Filmed before he became allergic to people.
This one here, also from 1972, is quite interesting as well. I think as much as any film of Osho it gives some idea of his charismatic force, particularly since it was from his ‘formative’ years as a guru before all the bells and whistles and trappings of large-scale gurudom were heaped on him:
The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.
Could it be that Shree Shantam lives in a cardboard box round the back of Freiburg Hauptbhanhof, wearing a nappy, dark sunglasses and a thick plastic sack over his head? I ask this because the poor fellow is so obviously blind to much of what can be viewed as very good in the western world. All this hokum about the great Indian heritage and Osho’s 20/20 warp factor nine vision sounds so very out of touch with the world at large.
Last night I had the pleasure of watching a documentary about a wonderful man called Buck. BUCK has won numerous film awards and quite rightly so, because it is a truely inspirational film about an incredible man and the way he communicates with horses.(Gurdieff thought we were close to horses in internal ways) Buck is a great example of a spiritual person who has probably never read a book about eastern mysticism in his life yet he has got it. Meanwhile India and the gurus who are so much part and parcel of the great spiritual heritage have brought the subcontinent to exist as a rubbish-covered nuclear power where much of the population live in abject poverty, hoping for a better life next time around.
I feel pity for fools like Shantam and his identification with any number of utterly lost causes…perhaps he is also a devotee of Ganesh the overcomer of obstacles and patron of those who pursue lost causes. To me Shantam illustrates perfectly the folly of worshiping the creed or credo, while totally missing the far more important message. Much of Osho’s message concerns individual freedom and has nothing to do with the outdated set of values that Shantam is so identified with inside that carton he’s boxed himself into, hopefully with the forsight to drill air holes in it…who knows, perhaps he intends to suffocate himself in a cloud of hot carbon monoxide(what most Indians take for fresh air)….blind to all the beauty that exists outside of his cramped mindset.
And whats with this new guy called Osho Rajneesh..looks good!
Osho Rajneesh = ‘Tribute Band’
Some tribute bands rock.
Fools gold, and that’s a compliment
Wow! listen to the ‘tumbleweed’ blowing through Sannyas news while we are waiting for somebody to say something positive about our ‘new’ dear friend. Anybody?
to be fair,
its actually a pretty good piece of method acting by brian rajneesh…..
it goes beyond just impressionism…
i doubt that dustin hoffman,helen mirren or meryl streep ever put in a fraction of the hours he did for a part….
if he got the part of playing osho in a biopic,he could pick up a few oscars….
but,dont forget that osho himself gave him the name rajneesh……..
he`s probably doing the “legacy” and “vision” the greatest service of all…
a few minutes of watching his show can be a steep learning curve in the tragi-comic sheer silliness of gurutrips…..
Yes, I met him in California and he offered to sell me a fake Rolex. Now he is selling fake enlightenment. He occassionaly checks into SN in the vain hope that he gets a mention…a vain Buddha…whatever next?….where did he get the idea that vanity had something to do with enlightenment. Was Osho vain? Perhaps a new thread…enough material there to knit an eskimo overcoat for pesky white-skins methinks.
All quiet on the Shree Shantam front. Extra extra read all about it….crazed Indian found asphyxiated round the back of Hauptbhanhof, clutching wooden necklace with locket containing photo of deceased Indian mystic…who will be most remembered for his fleet of Rolls Royces and his terrorist gang of thugs who perpetrated the only successful biological attack on American soil back in the selfish eighties..
from wackopedia…
“brian rajneesh, the doppelganger….
founder member of tribute band “rajneesh too”…”
and have you seen that youtube video of him leading a mass silly walk with the inmates of a lithuanian electro-shock hospital?
classic!
he`s a legend in his own lunchtime and no mistake….
Tee hee hee.