Bhagwan Rajneesh

Osho (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990) was an Indian spiritual teacher and the founder of the Rajneesh movement.

He taught philosophy at Indian universities before becoming a full-time spiritual teacher in the mid-1960s, known successively as Acharya Rajneesh, then from 1971 as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and in the final months of his life as Osho. He rejected organized religious dogma in favor of individual spiritual experience and developed a method he called "dynamic meditation."

In 1974 he established an ashram in Pune, India, which drew a large international following. In 1981 the movement's focus shifted to a commune, Rajneeshpuram, in Oregon, United States; the commune collapsed in 1985 amid criminal prosecutions of senior members, including a 1984 bioterror attack on the town of The Dalles.

Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration-related charges under an Alford plea and was deported from the United States. He returned to Pune, where he died in 1990.

His public talks were recorded, transcribed, and published as books under his name; readers and critics remain sharply divided on his legacy, from acclaim as an influential meditation teacher to lasting controversy over the Oregon commune.