The Cycle of Osho’s Names

Most neo-sannyasins have had more than one name, but what of Osho’s six previous  names?

Apart from his birth name, his own adopted name cycle began from Acharya, and then moving on to Bhagwan. From “teacher” to  “the blessed one”.  This second name change Osho later said was something he had not liked. But it was a Hindu tradition for those at the peak of spiritual achievement and clearly he wanted to join that game. I am not sure when that happened, but around 1970.

When he gave up the name “Bhagwan”, in the late eighties, which was a bit of a shock to many, he explained – but in Hindi -  about his dislike of the word associations with the name.  “The word “Bhag” in Hindi means cow’s vagina. And because Hindus revere the cow as the holy mother of humanity they think the name Bhagwan is supremely holy. “But I am not a Hindu, and have never liked to be named after a cow’s vagina, holy or not!”

He then adopted the appellation, “Our Beloved Master” .  He then asked for his 640 books to have that name change, which caused great consternation within his administrators and publishers!  This was a struggle, and one is not sure how far they went with this.

Following a reported dream by a close disciple, just a short time later Osho said he would now be known as “Maitreya the Buddha”. The dream had recognised “Our Beloved Master” as a living incarnation of Gautama Buddha. (Buddhist scriptures state that Maitreya was the name given by Gautama Buddha for his future incarnation.)  Osho announced in discourse that  he had invited Gautama to step out of 2,500 years of timelessness to occupy himself, an invitation that Gautama had accepted.

However, quite a short time later, Osho explained that Gautama had found life in the 20th century too much, especially the bathroom technology of the Jacuzzi!  So Osho dropped that name too. This led to further great difficulties for the publishers as they had begun changing the books author to Maitreya the Buddha.

Finally, Osho adopted his last name, but who knows, had he lived, what he would have progressed to by now. Quite a long cycle of names had been gone through at the point he died.

What can one make of this? Well, indeed a sense of humour. But the result caused much chaos in the administration. Was  this was a ‘device’ to continuously keep everyone on their toes, like: what name should we use today? And to upset those responsible for getting his words out?  Those closest to Osho physically did say he could be very difficult  at close quarters!   What do our SN bloggers think?

Parmartha

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33 Responses to The Cycle of Osho’s Names

  1. lokesh says:

    No big deal. People in different places know me by half-a-dozen different names. Can’t be bothered explaining how that came about, so don’t ask. What it does for me is make me remember that I am not a name. What’s in a name? For me, nothing of much importance.

  2. Arpana says:

    I didn’t know if I was coming or going during that time. Utterly disoriented.

  3. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Cycle song in `November´ cool and ´October´ rain passed over to a space ( c-chat) where no climate in terms of rain or cool weather is happening, just bits and bytes to play with…

    What spirit in me was triggered to dance with, related to a chat invitation to think about something this morning was that.

    It could be all about a Genius, rebellious enough not to want to be ‘administrated’ at all, and His never-ending invitation to His Lovers to come to know some of the joy, when you don´t bite fingers pointing to the moon, thereby demolishing not only your teeth, but also a possibility of dignity in human existence provided in taking care of something which is not administrable.

    A never-ending journey of discovery. Amongst Friends of This.

    Love,

    Madhu

  4. frank says:

    Re Osho not wanting to be named after “a cow`s vagina”…

    I`m sure some of you guys must be familiar with the classic scatological sanskrit Hindu comedy duo Dhaaruk and Chintan:

    D. I was down the Samadhi the other day and this Bhagwan comes up to me and says: “You Bhagwan.”
    C. Yeah?
    D. So I says, “Who you callin’ Bhagwan, Bhagwan?”
    C. Wot a tantric Bhagwan!
    D. Yeah, so I says, “Who you callin’ a tantric Bhagwan, you tantric Bhagwan?”
    etc etc.

    Classic stuff…
    I think they were banned for that one….

  5. Kavita says:

    A new name probably signifies a fresh beginning / new life for the person concerned. We all go through this process, either by our own choice & many times /sometimes due to choices of our loved ones, but maybe it’s only just another name.

    I liked the name ‘Whosoever’ Swami Chaitanya Bharti gave himself!

  6. frank says:

    What about Baba Free-Lunch?
    He changed his name a few times and took loads of drugs, too.

    It`s standard fare for any self-respecting rascal-sage knocking out a bit of crazy wisdom…
    You get the disciples wondering what the f*** is going on – they can`t figure it out `cos its too bonkers…but they keep going till their minds are so fried they get to the point of not knowing who the f*** they even are…
    then…
    bingo…
    another one bites the dust, transcends on a banana-skin and disappears into the Void…
    Job done.

  7. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Sometimes, Frank, I scroll upon older posts of yours to get in balance with ´newer´ ones – it’s amazing what a wide range is available for you (others too) in responding.

    And it’s good when I am stressed psychologically, as I am in these days in so-called everyday life.

    How are you?

    Madhu

  8. prem martyn says:

    SN has gone through a variety of names…

    The Meditative Googler

    Pune and Camden Psycle Advertiser

    The Tantric Bugle and Chronic-leer

    Swamicide News

    Sense and Censorability Gazette

    The Demon Haranguer

    The Dangling Modifier

    Also as:

    Los cojones de mi Guru ( Spanish Language version)

    The Daily Master Berater

    The Vile and Spuming Vindicator

    The Consensualist Echo

    The Felicitous Life , Death & Allotment Joynal

    New Scientdrivvel

    The Stirling Observer

    The Sussex, North Wilts and Tantric Couple Advertising Post

    The Dualist Mirror

    The Low and Stooping Recorder (featuring the bone-shakingly funny cartoon comic :
    Pam and Arthur’s-Ridiculist )

    The Sanny Season Summarizer

    The Spiritual and Occult Litigator. (available in Swiss as; Der Emmentholier Gewriter, printed by Schweiz Charitee et Fondation Grand Charitable de Pune et Munich)

    The In-Flight Drone and Tax-Free Thinker.

    …..
    …..
    Why they ended up calling it SN..? No idea, really….

    • satyadeva says:

      Haha, a good lol…Would like to get past copies of ‘The Sussex, North Wilts and Tantric Couple Advertising Post’ and ‘The Spiritual and Occult Litigator’ – but neither appear to have websites. Presumably, confidentiality and legal issues, PM?

      • prem martyn says:

        A man with a deer-stalker hat, beige-chequered cape and meerschaum pipe came in this morning and took the remaining copies away in a wheelbarrow.

        Never saw him before – although he had a copy of the Gangha and Coolie Asian Scouts Campfire Song Book tightly held under his arm!

  9. shantam prem says:

    Because of this changing the name tradition, someone changed the name of Osho´s lifetime creation, Osho Commune International to Osho Meditation Resort.

    Next administrators will have the right to rename according to their fancy.

    Is it similar to transmission of the lamp?

  10. bodhi vartan says:

    When Osho went from India to America he changed his clothes style from the plain white robe to the maharajah apparel (apparently due to the colder weather) but he did not go back to the white robe when he returned to India. Looking for logic in Osho’s actions is a pointless exercise. Just because the mind finds patterns it doesn’t mean they are there…

    On the name change subject, it depends on who you are. If you are a sannyasin, the name changes signified spiritual change in direction and if you are not a sannyasin, they were to conceal criminal activity.

    • satyadeva says:

      “If you are a sannyasin, the name changes signified spiritual change in direction”

      Presumably, as we’re told, arising from ever-changing, ever-expanding consciousness….

    • swamishanti says:

      Before Osho went America he was known simply as ‘Bhagwan’. He wore a simple, white robe and his celebrated,and bald shining cranium was on display almost all of the time.

      When Bhagwan moved to America, he started wearing more fancy outfits and special hats, apparently due to the colder weather, and his previously shining head was covered.

      When Bhagwan returned to India,he could have stopped wearing these fancy hats but chose to remain ‘capped’, for the large majority of the time. This could be down to a combination of several different factors:

      a) Air-conditioning technology had improved since Bhagwan had left India, and he was in a cold, air-conditioned enviroment almost all of the time. (In contrast with his earlier years, when he travelled India and often lived in humid,sweaty enviroments)

      b) He took a liking to this style of particular hats, almost considering them as his ‘trademark’.

      c) He wore the hats as a provocative act to the Indians, and had them sewn with jewels, diamonds and pearls.

      d) ‘He’ simply never thought about removing the hats.

  11. shantam prem says:

    In recent years, chairman’s younger brother in Pune has changed his name to Raj. As I know from the reports, some girl complained against him to police about sexual harrassment.

    It seems to befool people and legal system is not that difficult, but can anybody dare to play chess with the unknown and unwritten existential laws?

    Decline of Osho movement is a contemporary case history. How it has gone to the footnotes is evident to zap through the TV channels in India. All the religions and almost all the spiritual movements have their own TV channels, whereas what Osho management has created, it is Retro Radio, where few Osho cassettes remain on play mode.

  12. shantam prem says:

    If you cannot face the shit reality, be sarcastic!

  13. shantam prem says:

    Very few people have in their destiny a rare reward called, “Glory after Death” (mrityoprant khyati).

    In recent times, Swami Vivekananda and Sardar Patel are two such names. By reaching the top of the pyramid, Mr. Modi brought them in the limelight decades after their death.

    Spiritual forefathers of the past; Rama, Buddha, Jesus too are such names. I don´t think any of them have ever thought to grow like a wild forest and cover big part of human heartland and grow on expanding centuries after centuries.

    When Amrita Pritam, renowned author, enquired from a well-known astrologer about Osho´s expansion after his death, answer was unexpected. Osho´s torch will go dimmer and dimmer and that too because of disciples’ folly.

    Articles at SannyasNews are the reminder about that dimmer reality. Most of them are about that mysterious and enchanting past which has no future, not even remarkable present.

    • satyadeva says:

      So what good has been done in the names of such as Vivekananda and, er, who was that other one, Mr Patel of the Corner Shop, was it?

      You do realise, I trust, that Modi almost certainly only brought up their names and ‘examples’ to serve certain ends (not least, his own), not in order to encourage any genuine spiritual search (as he almost certainly wouldn’t be that interested)?

      And similarly, for Jesus, Ram etc: Have they truly been kept alive or have they just degenerated into relatively life-less shadows, their essence missed, their ‘message’ manipulated by power-hungry control freaks, vested interests, the unintelligent, the desperate and sentimental fools (no names mentioned, of course)?

      Perhaps the counter-intuitive truth is that Osho and ‘his work’ stand more chance of staying truly alive – inside humanity – by resisting the knee-jerk, conditioned responses of ‘certain people’ (again, no names) that would prefer to turn him into another bloody religious icon, replete with ceremonies, ‘uniforms’, ‘pilgrimages’ etc. etc. (not to mention warring factions, of course).

      Perhaps spiritual truth works in a different way…perhaps (and to quote some astrologer hardly enhances your case, in fact it sounds rather desperate, frankly) there’s a whole lot more going on than you and others perceive, Shantam, fixated as you largely are on outward forms and observances, based upon the self-defeating wish to resuscitate a ‘glorious past’ (more than somewhat ironic, of course, given your criticism of SN articles as ‘past-oriented’, but all too typical of your particular brand of sentimental myopia).

      I’m afraid you and your ilk are just the type to start a ‘religion’ – meaning just the type to ultimately miss the point, to essentially destroy the master’s work. All with the very best of intentions, but of course…Has it crossed your mind that Amrita Pritam’s astrologer might perhaps have been referring to such people?!

      On the other hand, I suppose some mediocrities have got to play that role, so it might as well be you….

    • lokesh says:

      Funny enough, just finished a biography on Ramakrishna, so I am up on Swami Vivekananda general knowledge. Was it he who said, “Nothing is more ridiculous than being concerned about how one will be remembered once dead”?

      Ooops…hold on…let’s take a few notes…I made a mistake…it was Osho who said that.

  14. shantam prem says:

    I was really naïve, gullible and childish when some Indian with long beard told me to change the name and wear a locket with his photo.

    In all the biographies I have read in-between, not a single one has gone through such kind of ridiculous process.

    Who changes the name and wears the locket of some stranger?

    I must be damn fool!

    (from the latest entry in the Diary of a wise old man)

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