Rajneesh Agrawal, 46, energetically raises his arms and quotes Gautam Buddha before lapsing into verse by Kahlil Gibran. Clad in maroon robes with a flowing beard and dark bulbous eyes, the resemblance to his master, the original Rajneesh/Osho is startling, and almost eerie. But then Rajneesh who dropped Agrawal from his name 30 years ago, has spent almost three decades devoted to his guru and has just written a book, Tears of the Mystic Rose, an autobiography that also talks about his experiences with Osho in the Pune commune.“My father named me Rajnish, Bhagwan changed my name to Rajneesh,” he says, quietly proud of this connection to Osho. The son of a prominent industrialist, Shiv Agrawal, Rajneesh counts Lord Swraj Paul and the Paul family that runs the Apeejay Group among his first cousins. However, it’s his mother, the actress Vimmi who was serenaded by Sunil Dutt in Na sir jhuka ke jeeo, na munh chhupa ke jeeo, whom Rajneesh recalls fondly. “When my mother died, I left home and stayed with an aunt in Delhi where I started reading Bhagwan’s discourses,” he says. “I knew instinctively that’s where I belonged and I left for Pune immediately.” The year was 1981. Eventually, Rajneesh followed Osho to Oregon in the US and Manali, where he continued to live after Osho died, or as Rajneesh puts it, left his body. Now he divides his time between Pune and Delhi.
“I decided to write this book, because lots happened between Osho and me that no one knows about,” he claims mysteriously. A beautifully designed production, Tears of the Mystic Rose is far from typical; it has no punctuation or capital letters, and it opens vertically, like a scroll, deliberately, says Rajneesh, to open the readers’ “third eye”, and because all spiritual growth is vertical. In one chapter he talks of his divine experience of achieving Samadhi or enlightenment, and in another, he has drawn fantastic comparisons between Osho and himself. “My birthday is the day Osho left his body,” he explains and says it’s no coincidence that right after his Samadhi, Osho was released from prison. While he avoids spelling it out, it is clear Rajneesh believes he’s the reincarnation of Osho. The only dampener being that he’s banned from the Commune in Pune, nor has he managed to convince anyone of his deep connect with the Master.
In his Tears of the Mystic Rose, he has drawn on teachings by Mahavir and J Krishnamurti and emphasised the need for meditation for inner peace. “Once you experience the joy sanyas brings, everything else becomes irrelevant,” he says.
After being estranged from the Paul family, of late Rajnish is back in touch with them. They look at him with bemused tolerance, if not slight embarrassment. Rajneesh is unperturbed. “There’s more to life than money,” he says. His spiritual journey continues, and Rajneesh hopes to have an Ashram in Kerala soon. More than money, there’s fame to look out for.
