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stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

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CHAPTER XVIII<br />

THE MANGO KID<br />

(BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH)<br />

[Rajneesh] stated that he himself had attained [Enlightenment]<br />

at <strong>the</strong> age of twenty-one.... [H]e went on to declare<br />

that ... <strong>the</strong>re was only one Enlightened Master at any particular<br />

time, and that he was <strong>the</strong> one (Milne, 1986).<br />

The Rajneesh Bible ... was really “<strong>the</strong> first and last religion”<br />

(Gordon, 1987).<br />

BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH, BORN in 1931, achieved his first<br />

satori/samadhi at age fourteen. Prior to embarking on a world<br />

mission which was to secure his place as one of <strong>the</strong> world’s most<br />

infamous guru-figures, he served as a philosophy professor at central<br />

India’s Jabalpur University in <strong>the</strong> late ’50s and early ’60s.<br />

In 1974, he founded his first ashram in Poona (Pune), sou<strong>the</strong>ast<br />

of Bombay.<br />

Rajneesh’s followers have reportedly included <strong>the</strong> Japanese<br />

composer Kitaro, and <strong>the</strong> former Françoise Ruddy. She earlier,<br />

along with her <strong>the</strong>n-husband Albert, had produced The Godfa<strong>the</strong>r<br />

(Fitzgerald, 1986). They and Bhagwan Rajneesh’s o<strong>the</strong>r disciples<br />

followed teachings which were a combination of “rascal”/“crazy<br />

125

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