Having grown up with Rajneesh (Osho) in our student days and as a family friend, I am often asked, what his teachings were! I don't think that even Osho could have given a straight answer.

Anon-conformer, Osho was different from other spiritual or religiouspreachers. Others generally focus on their own religion or any otherbelief system they subscribe to. Theirs is the only way, theyproclaim claim! But Osho had a bewildering assortment of interestsand he seemed to appreciate and criticise whichever prophet orphilosophy he spoke on. Over 600 books have been published, which arecompilations of his lectures, subject wise. The catholicity of hisviews can be realised from his lectures from just one compilation,viz. 'Books I have loved'.

'BooksI have loved' is a series of lectures on his 168 favourite books.As a self confessed bookworm, I was suitably impressed. They rangefrom 'Alice in Wonderland', to lesser known obtuse sects. Asampling of just 20 books he lectured on is:

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Book of Mirdad by Mikhail Naimy

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

The Parables of Chuang Tzu

The Sermon on the Mount

Bhagavad-Gita by Krishna

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore

The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa

The Book of the Sufis

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The Book of Lieh Tzu

Dialogue on Socrates by Plato

The Notes of the Disciples of Bodhidarma

The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam

Masnavi by Jalaluddin Rumi

The Isa Upanishad

All and Everything by George Gurdjieff

In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky

Hisashram claims, that 'Having read more than 150,000 of theworlds greatest books on every conceivable subject, Osho shares thefragrance of some of his favourites, in these spontaneous andintimate talks. From the very first book, 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'by Friedrich Nietzsche, to the 167th entry a book by Alan Watts, hetakes us on a journey of discovery, sampling gifts from authors wehave known along with some surprises from mystics and poets neverheard of before'.

Generalisationsare odious, but if I were do so:

Hewas in tune with philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy and encouragedothers not to get into the groove, by adopting blindly the beliefsystems and life styles, handed down to us. But to test theprinciples oneself and tread 'the road less travelled', if needbe!

Myfather had concluded an article in 'Philosophy East West' bysaying, 'More harm is done to a religion, by its followers ratherthan by its worst enemies!' Osho echoed this repeatedly. In a bookon Kabir and other mystics, he wrote:

'Iwill speak for Christ, not on Christianity. Christianity has nothingto do with Christ. In fact, Christianity is anti-Christ, just asBuddhism is anti-Buddha and Jainism anti-Mahavir. I am all forChrist, but not even a small part of me is for Christianity. If youwant Christ, you have to go beyond Christianity. If you cling toomuch to Christianity, you will not be able to understand Christ.Christ is beyond all churches. Christ is the very principle ofreligion. In Christ all the aspirations of humanity are fulfilled.That's the beauty of Christ. Buddha is beautiful, superb. Krishnais lovable!'

Theinimitable writer Kushwant Singh, after meeting Osho wrote: 'Soonafter meeting him I began to read his books. I was very impressedthat there is one teacher who is highly erudite. He could talk aboutany subjects religion, psychology etc. His range and vision wasenormous and unmatchable. The strong point is his lucidity. There isno confusion about what he said. Also he impressed me as he liberatedpeople from their preconceived notions, superstitions and beliefs. SoI got more books to read. I kept reading. I have written anintroduction to one of his books based on whatever I have read. Hewrote so much that it is difficult to say that I have readeverything. I have not. I wrote this introduction because of agenuine admiration for the man who had the courage to speak hismind'.

Herewas a man, who delivered to you a recipe, within your own faith.However, not as your religion dictated it. But as Buddha, Mahavir,Christ and other founders had directly experienced it themselves!

Igave a copy of his Hindi book on Kabir, to my mother-in-law with sometrepidation, not knowing how a deeply pious lady would react to it.To my relief, she said, that the book had helped her to understandKabir even better, though from childhood we have been reading andreciting, 'Kabirke dohe' - 'Kahat Kabir suno bhai saadho ..

'Kabirajab hum paida huay,

Jaghanse, hum roay.

Aisikarni kar chalo,

Humhanse, jag roay'!

PS

Formore on Osho:

1.http://www.merinews.com/article/osho-my-friend-/135596.shtml

2.http://www.merinews.com/article/cashless-with-osho/15922102.shtml

See the original post here:
Osho: A man for all seasons - Merinews