Believing in the Rajneesh


By: Zach Schultz

       The Rajneesh was a utopian community who that was more or less a place/group where one could find a better spiritual path for themselves. The group had now chosen or associated religion or beliefs, and was science-based with a reliance on their followers eventually finding a religion to pursue throughout their life. Personally, I am fond of this part of the Rajneesh and find it to be structurally accepting to anyone, and is developed to suit your own personalized beliefs/interests. This has a profound effect on me because you always see groups or people trying to force or convert their religion, ideas, or beliefs onto you and think strictly based on that certain book/teachings. I think the strategy the Rajneesh go by was successful in actually recruiting and getting loyal members because it didn’t enforce a certain core religion or values, but was solely a means of helping one who may be curious and “lost” find themselves and their true nature.
         The openness of the Rajneesh is in my opinion the most refreshing part of the community, which is why it was disappointing that they created their own religion based around Osho, yet it was still composed of many of the same aspects of their openness attitude. The tightknit community layout that the Rajneesh preached and preached was another driving force behind my fascination with them. I really appreciated their decision of making small communities that function by everyone working together and cooperatively because it accentuated how much they both rely on, and value the person as an individual and their importance in a community as a whole. It is refreshing to me to see how they made a more modern, open minded approach to outdated ideas/practices. Most small communities all follow the same religion and systematic teachings, but the Rajneesh continued to push for more intellectual, personal thinking and religious passions.
      This ironically is also what thwarted me the most about the Rajneesh, they arguably overvalued the individual, which led to the group and its followers frowning upon having kids, which is vital for a small community to flourish and their practices to continue on and spread. Being someone who is actively interested in the market and located here in the Silicon Valley area, the Rajneesh’s ability to create wealth was impressive. Amassing over 90 Rolls Royce’s in an incredible feat that stuck out to me more than anything else about the Rajneesh. I was blown away at how someone could own that many of the same luxury car, and why he did? It was pretty awesome nonetheless.

Comments

  1. Maggie BillingsleyDecember 13, 2017 at 2:52 PM

    Great post! I agree with the fact that the Rajneesh are so open and that it is a good quality this commune has. They had a way of making people feel very welcomed and blessed to be where they were. I too agree that it was disappointing to see this commune spread based around Osho because just like Synanon, I think that the success would have been even better if they had different leaderhip styles. Regardless, it all worked out and the members of Rajneesh were more than happy to be there. They made sure to adapt to the people around them making everyone feel special and that they were at home.

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