Osho

Born Chandra Mohan Jain and also known during his lifetime by names such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Acharya Rajneesh, and Rajneesh, the spiritual leader known as Osho lived from 1931 until 1990. He rejected established religious systems, arguing that spiritual truth cannot be bound by organized dogma. Following a reported spiritual awakening in his youth, he worked as a philosophy lecturer at the University of Jabalpur before stepping down to travel across India. During these travels, he publicly challenged orthodox mainstream religions, established political ideas, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Beginning in 1970 in Mumbai, he started initiating followers called neo-sannyasins and delivered extensive discourses interpreting writings from global religious traditions, mystics, bhakti poets, and philosophers. He relocated to Pune in 1974, opening an ashram that attracted a growing Western following by integrating therapies from the Human Potential Movement. Financial friction and tax disputes with the government of Morarji Desai eventually constrained the ashram's expansion during the late 1970s.

The movement shifted its center to the United States in 1981, founding a commune named Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. This endeavor faced intense local and state opposition through numerous legal battles regarding development and construction. In 1985, after Osho urged local officials to investigate his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her allies for multiple serious crimes—including a 1984 mass food-poisoning attack, an aborted assassination plot, and electronic surveillance of his quarters—several members were convicted. Osho subsequently faced deportation under immigration charges following an Alford plea and was refused entry by twenty-one nations.

Returning first to Mumbai and later settling back in Pune in 1987, Osho re-established his ashram until his death in 1990. Today, his former ashram functions as the Osho International Meditation Resort, overseen alongside his intellectual property by the Osho International Foundation. His concepts regarding meditation and spirituality continue to shape Western New Age thought, with interest in his teachings growing significantly following his passing.