Encounters with an Inexplicable Man: Stories of Osho as Told by his People by Savita Brandt

Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, drew world attention by driving Rolls Royces, dressing in otherworldly robes and attracting vast numbers of red-clothed followers. Savita Brandt brings together stories of those who lived through extraordinary times close to this man whose views so challenged Indian and Western society and whose hundreds of books continue to sell in scores of languages.

What was it like to live in the community of a spiritual anarchist? To be buffeted in the energy-field of the most controversial mystic of the 20th century? Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, drew world attention by driving Rolls Royces, dressing in otherworldly robes and attracting vast numbers of red-clothed followers. His iconoclastic views punctured the serenity of both Indian and American society, and the world press had a field day attempting to discredit him. Yet the power of his radical spiritual vision has infiltrated the 21st century in broad swathes, his hundreds of books still sell in scores of languages and his work continues to be celebrated worldwide.

These simple tales of the jolts and joys along the way to transformation give us an intimate glimpse into the relationship between this rare contemporary mystic and some of his thousands of ‘sannyasins’, who came from all walks of life and several continents to live and work around him.