Osho (Rajneesh)

Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and later as Osho, was an Indian spiritual guru, philosopher, and the leader of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic. In the 1960s he traveled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, arguing that India was not ready for socialism and that socialism, communism, and anarchism could evolve only when capitalism had reached its maturity. Rajneesh also criticised Mahatma Gandhi, and the orthodoxy of mainstream religions.

Rajneesh emphasized the importance of meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity, and humour - qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition, and socialisation. In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".