Shri Rajneesh is one of the new Indian gurus. His teaching is a synthesis of various philosophical and religious elements of the East and West, which are reflected in theoretical and practical parts of the teaching. His attraction to Sufism, a mystical way of Islam, which of no doubt is one of the sources of new guru’s teaching, encouraged a lot the forming of his theory. Sufism is concerned by some researchers as a form of some social caveat against the dominant political system and official doctrine, considered as one of the forms of religious freethinking, also appealing for the new guru. Osho enjoyed as well that Sufi believed into the power of knowledge and its role in the improvement of human being. This search of the truth, some kind of inner knowledge, could be perceived by a man during a divine revelation. This attitude of Sufism conserved the “question mark”, that is essential and natural for human, according to the new guru. We can face some elements of Sufism in the theoretical part of Osho’s teaching as well as in practical one. For instance we can count his method of self-observation, his attention to godliness and holism, various symbols, which he uses and which can be encountered in the Sufism theory. Osho also borrowed the practical method of Sufism, the cosmic dance sama’, which he has adopted for his ashram as whirling meditation. Now it is an integral part of its everyday timetable. According to the alikeness of philosophical views of Sufi and the new guru on a number of basic aspects of the teaching we can suppose that Sufism is one of the most important sources of Osho’s teaching.

Key-words: new Indian guru, Osho, mysticism, Sufism, godliness, enlightenment, self-observation, consciousness

About the author

Yulia A. Uimina – Postgraduate student, Yekaterinburg University for Humanities; 19 Studencheskaya str., Yekaterinburg, Russia, 620049; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.