Broken limbs were common, as were broken relationships. They wore blindfolds – or nothing at all – and explored their deepest selves by screaming, fighting and, inevitably, shagging. In these sessions, known as dynamic meditation, pupils were encouraged to destroy their religious and social conditioning to find out who they really were. Marked out by their happy expressions and orange clothes (dyed at the Bhagwan’s instigation, to reflect the colour of the sun) they quickly spread their guru’s teachings and popularised his unique forms of taboo-breaking therapies. It attracted thousands of young Western disciples sold on the charismatic teacher’s mercurial wit and unique brand of Eastern mysticism. The ashram he established in Poona in India in 1974 quickly became a New Age Mecca. ‘The more you risk, the more you grow.’ His was an intoxicating promise: enlightenment, bliss and lots and lots of sex. Basically an amalgam of Western psychotherapeutic practices and Eastern religion.īhagwan Shree Rajneesh had a simple commandment for his followers, the Sannyasins: ‘Enjoy!’ Unlike other more ascetic gurus to have emerged from India in the 1960s and 1970s, he demanded little from his followers in the way of renunciation – and lots in the way of carnal pleasure. Man determines what conduct is permissible. God is the universal consciousness and the enlightened Bhagwan himself is the beginning of a totally new religious consciousness. Gods and guiding voices: The Hindu pantheon, Bhagwan Shree Rajneeshīasic beliefs: Bliss is a birthright. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the Sannyasins AKA Osho