In 1959 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Jabalpur.For the next nine years he travelled widely in India, challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debates.
Osho left the University in 1966 to devote himself entirely to the raising of human consciousness. He developed the revolutionary Dynamic Meditation technique in which a cleansing catharsis precedes silence and stillness. One of many techniques he developed to guide people into Meditation.
In 1968, he settled in Bombay, and in 1969 began initiating people into “Neo-Sannyas” or discipleship.The first westerners were initiated the following year. Among them were leading psychotherapists from the human potential movement in Europe and America.
In 1974, Osho moved to the Pune, which rapidly expanded into a large international community. By 1980, over 100,000 people a year were passing through the gates.
Osho gave daily discourse, offering insights into all the major spiritual paths, including Yoga, Zen, Taoism, Tantra, and Sufism. He also spoke on Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, and other mystics.
Osho’s books are not written but are transcribed from audio and video recordings of his extemporaneous talks to international audiences. As he puts it, “So remember: whatever I am saying is not just for you… I am talking also for the future generations.” Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by American author Tom Robbins as “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ.” Sunday Mid-Day (India) has selected Osho as one of ten people – along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha – who have changed the destiny of India. About his own work Osho has said that he is helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being. He often characterizes this new human being as “Zorba the Buddha” – capable both of enjoying the earthy pleasures of a Zorba the Greek and the silent serenity of a Gautama the Buddha. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho’s talks and meditations is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of all ages past and the highest potential of today’s (and tomorrow’s) science and technology.

Osho is known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, with an approach to meditation that acknowledges the accelerated pace of contemporary life. His unique OSHO Active Meditations are designed to first release the accumulated stresses of body and mind, so that it is then easier to take an experience of stillness and thought-free relaxation into daily life.

In 1981, Osho travelled to the USA. The same year, Osho’s American friends purchased a 64,000 acre Ranch in Oregon and invited him to visit. He eventually agreed to stay on and allowed other friends to file a residency application on his behalf. Within two years, the Ranch mushroomed into a city of 5000 residents. It was the biggest and most controversial spiritual community ever pioneered in America. Annual summer festival drew 15,000 visitors from all over the world.
As fast as the community grew, so did political opposition at local, state, and federal levels. In a campaign led by Edwin Meese, then President Reagan’s closest ideological advisor, the US Government spent four years and millions of dollars trying to find ways to destroy the Commune in Oregon.
In October 1984, Osho ended three years of self-imposed silence, and began a new series of highly controversial discourses called “The Rajneesh Bible”.

He dissected the traditional beliefs of Christianity and with compelling logic exposed the hypocrisy of the church hierarchy, calling god “the greatest fiction invented by man”. He described America as “a hypocrisy, not a democracy” and called Ronald Reagan a “third-rate cowboy actor”. He said that organized religions, nations, and the family unit have destroyed man’s capacity for love, ecstasy and meditation.

In October 1985, a federal grand jury indicted Osho on minor technical charges of immigration fraud. Contrary to their own rules, federal officials arrested Osho at gunpoint, without a warrant and he was kept in jail for 12 days. During this time he was poisoned, most likely with thallium or some other slow acting poison which took a heavy toll on his health in his last years in his body.

Knowing they had no evidence for a conviction, the federal attorneys offered Osho’s attorneys a plea bargain which would avoid a trial.
Fearing for Osho’s life, his lawyers agreed to the “bargain” in which he could maintain his innocence while giving the US Government the “guilty” tag it needed to deport him and brand him a criminal.
He paid a fine and agreed to stay out of the US for a minimum 5 years.

Osho returned to India, where the Indian Government attempted to isolate him, cancelling visas issued to his personal staff. He then went to Nepal, but was not allowed to remain.
In February 1986, Osho embarked on a World Tour to visit his friends and followers but because of pressure from the US Government he was refused entry into 21 countries.
He returned to Bombay (now Mumbai) in July 1986 and in January 1987, to Pune where the Commune opened again for his, soon, daily discourses and the continuation of his work.

Despite a period of difficulty with the Indian Government refusing visa’s to visitors and trying to extract cash for “services” that might not be delivered. The Commune grew and evolved under Osho’s direct guidance. This period became colloquially known as Pune 2 and hundreds of thousands of people again were able to come and meditate with him. Larger facilities for both group work and his discourses were needed in a period of rapid expansion and over 5000 people were attending discourses, at first both morning and night and then as his health deteriorated for Evening only Discourses, in Pune.
Suffering a great deal of pain in his joints and his teeth from the effects of the poisoning, his hair falling out, Osho talked intermittently, primarily focussing on Zen and the creation of Meditative Therapies. The years 1987, 1988 and 1989, were incredibly creative. As he guided us through the change from Osho Ashram to an Osho Resort. He gifted us with the Mystic Rose, Born Again and No Mind meditative therapies.
Osho Mystic Rose is a powerful meditative therapy Osho said, “I have invented many meditations, but perhaps this will be the most essential and fundamental one…it is the first major breakthrough since Vipassana 25 centuries ago.”

The Inner Circle was also set up to manage the Resort, on the basis of consensus and while the wearing of the Mala was dropped as requisite, the use of Maroon robes while inside the Resort and White Robes for Evening Meeting was established. All buildings were painted black and new buildings were created as pyramids in the ever expanding Resort.

His failing health had caused him to stop giving discourses, periodically, before he left his body and he created Evening Meeting so that we would always come together in Osho Communities all around the world to celebrate and meditate with him.

Many of his friends and followers had already collectively decided to call him Osho and he accepted this name in 1988. He has explained that the word ‘Osho’ is derived from William James’ expression ‘oceanic experience’ which means dissolving into the ocean. “Oceanic describes the experience,” says Osho, “but what about the experiencer? For that we use the word ‘Osho’.”

In the following months, whenever his health permitted, he would appear in the evening to sit with his friends and followers in a meditation of music and silence, after which he would retire to his room while the assembly watched one of his videotaped discourses.

Finally as his personal visits to Buddha Hall became fewer he asked that a new grand “bedroom” be created for him in Lao Tzu house, his residence inside the Meditation Resort at Pune.
We did not realise that he was preparing this place as a Sammhadi, a place for his ashes, Osho left his body on January 19th 1990. Osho’s ashes were placed there with the inscription “Osho, never born, never died, only visited this planet Earth between December 11th 1931 – January 19th 1990.

Osho had left a clear message to those close to him that there was no ‘successor’ and that without a body he would now be more available than ever, this is certainly true as his work has expanded exponentially.

Just a few weeks before that time, he was asked what would happen to his work when he was gone. He said:
“My trust in existence is absolute. If there is any truth in what I am saying, it will survive… The people who remain interested in my work will be simply carrying the torch, but not imposing anything on anyone…
“I will remain a source of inspiration to my people… I want them to grow on their own – qualities like love, around which no church can be created, like awareness, which is nobody’s monopoly; like celebration, rejoicing, and remaining fresh, childlike eyes…
“I want my people to know themselves, not to be according to someone else. And the way is in.”