What do you think about Osho?

When I was staying in Ahmedabad, Osho, who then went by the name of Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh, came for the first time to our city to give some public talks. His disciples came to ask me in his name to preside over his talks. I took it as an honour as he was already a very well-known person, yet I had to decline. The reason was that his talks were going to be about a book he had just published in Hindi and whose title was Sambhogse Samadhi Tak, which literally means “From Coitus to Contemplation”, and, honestly, I did not consider myself an authority in the matter. When they told him about my refusal, he answered them: “It does not matter. I have given Fr Valles a mental appointment, and when his hour comes he will come to me.”

I’ve read several of his books and have even quoted some in my own writings, and I know he helped many people to get rid of taboos and complexes common at the time. But he also overdid things, proclaimed absolute sexual freedom and fostered a personality cult which do not seem acceptable. We never met. Apparently my hour had not come.

I’m going to reveal to you a little secret. Tony de Mello never quoted Osho in his books, but he read him and used some of his ideas and his stories. He would ask me about Osho whenever we met, as I knew about his activities and he wanted to know. When Tony died they found in his room a large Godrej cupboard totally filled with Osho’s books. He had published very many, as they were not exactly books written by him but transcriptions of his talks very well edited by his publishing team in his Lonavla Ashram. Tony had collected them and had studied them. But he never quoted them.