The Rajneesh Movement (Osho)

Movement·Founded 1970 CE·No membership roll and no published count. The movement takes initiation, not enrolment, and does not track who is still practising.

The Rajneesh Movement (Osho)

Branch
Community of The Rajneesh Movement (Osho)

Sannyas, and no successor.

Initiation gives a mala and a name and asks for nothing you have to leave. When he died in 1990 he named no heir, which is why there is a foundation and an archive rather than a church.

How you joinSannyas initiation — a mala, a new name, and no requirement to leave your life
Who leadsNo successor was named; the Osho International Foundation holds the archive and the trademarks
The unitThe meditation resort at Pune, and independent centres that use the name
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Taking sannyas costs nothing and requires nothing to be given up. The mala and the name are the whole of the outward form, and Rajneesh dropped the robe requirement more than once. There is no membership, no tithe and no succession: at his death he said he was leaving his people his way of working and named no heir, and the twenty-one-person inner circle he constituted was for administration, not authority. What exists now is the Pune resort, the Osho International Foundation in Zurich holding the copyrights and trademarks, and several hundred independent centres — some of which are in litigation with the Foundation over the use of the name.

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