Osho and his Rolls Royces: When Osho Stimulates the Envy in You

To understand the complexity of his character beyond the cars, you might want to explore: Who is Osho and why is he so controversial?
 

Osho, Rolls Royce, and Envy

When I first learned about Osho, I searched and read a lot of information about him on the Internet. One of the first pieces of information that caught my eye was: Osho had 93 Rolls Royces. Yes, that's ninety-three. Not 9 and not 3. But 93 supercars of the most expensive range.

At that time, still full of doubts, I concluded that Osho was just another spiritual master "who knew how to make money." And, this judgment was further reinforced when I read many other spiritual websites that also claimed Osho was "not pure." They were full of arguments: If he is a spiritual master, why is he still concerned with material possessions, with supercars? Isn't material form just temporary? And, not just one, Osho owned 93 cars - more than any millionaire.

But gradually, as I explored deeper into what Osho said and did, I realized that Osho's 93 Rolls Royces merely served as "spiritual teaching tools." In other words, through the Rolls Royces - the symbols of materialism - Osho wanted to convey a profound message: There is envy in every person, and he wanted to provoke it to surface so that people could observe and transform it.

And indeed, Osho succeeded in doing just that. People talked a lot about Osho and his Rolls Royces - their envy was quickly activated by the image of the 93 Rolls Royces. According to historical accounts, former President George H.W. Bush himself publicly criticized Osho for this "wealth"! By having 93 Rolls Royces, Osho turned the world around him into a "joke" - exactly what he wanted. From this joke, he had the opportunity to express his view on the hypocrisy in society.
 

What Did Osho Say About His 93 Rolls Royces?

So what did Osho say about his supercars? Listen to what he said, and you will understand many interesting things.

"It is not necessary to have ninety-three Rolls Royces. I cannot ride in ninety-three at once - it is the same brand, the same car." - Osho spoke up like this.

According to Osho, "Ninety-three Rolls Royces... but I have never looked back at them, at what happened. They don't belong to me, and with or without them, I am just as joyful. I never go down to the garage to see how they are. I have a manager for the garage called Avesh. I often tell him that one day I will go down to check them, but that day never comes. I have never seen the whole fleet. Whenever I go for a drive, it is Avesh who decides which car I will take. And I don't care which one it is."

And the 93 Rolls Royces fulfilled their purpose. They provoked envy across America, even within the elite circles there.

"I was just a visitor there, and I made the whole of America feel embarrassed. They have enough money; they could buy more Rolls Royces if they wanted. But they don't have the courage to do it," - that was the message Osho wanted to convey.
 

Rolls-Royce and the Abundance of the Universe

Behind the story of Osho and Rolls Royces is another valuable message: Do not let your mind separate the material from the spiritual. In other words, do not live in the judging habit of the mind.

As Osho once said: "I live in abundance because for me there is no separation between the material and the spiritual. Teaching people to live in poverty is a very dangerous thing: you will be materially poor, and you will also be spiritually poor, because there is no separation between the two. I teach you to live richly, to live in abundance, both materially and spiritually. The problem is not whether you should be materially rich or spiritually rich. The fundamental issue is whether you can live in abundance, in richness - which is the nature of existence. Your fundamental desire is to blossom in abundance, to know all the colors, all the songs, all the beauty in life.

However, in doing so, I have come into conflict with the old, because the past of the whole of humanity has always celebrated poverty and equated it with spirituality, which is utterly meaningless.

Spirituality is the greatest richness a person can have; it contains all other richness. It is not against any kind of richness; it is simply against all kinds of poverty. So I am trying to do something so fundamental that it is bound to create resistance from all corners of the world. People have lived with certain values for so long that even though those values have brought them only suffering, they cannot see the connection. Those values do not fulfill them, do not make them happy - but they still cannot see the connection.

I want my followers to become an image that makes the whole world aware that their suffering comes from their wrong values, that they are poor because they worship poverty - and their action is utterly insane. On the one hand, they worship poverty, and on the other hand, they say: 'Help the poor.' How strange! If poverty is so spiritual, the most respectable thing to do would be to turn all the rich people into poor people, to help the rich become poor, so that they can be spiritually rich. What is the point of helping the poor? Do you want to destroy their spirituality?"

The 93 Rolls Royces are just a very small symbol of the abundance of the Universe. Look at the existence and its abundance. Why are there so many flowers in this world? Just roses would be enough, but existence is so rich: millions and millions of species of flowers, millions of birds - everything is abundant. Nature is not ascetic; it is joyous everywhere - from the ocean to the deep forests. It sings everywhere - in the wind blowing through the pine trees, in the chirping of the birds...

Why are millions of solar systems needed, each solar system having millions of stars? It seems unnecessary to have so many, yet richness is the nature of existence, abundance is the core of existence, and existence does not believe in poverty. Look at existing nature, and you will see that everything humanity has done is contrary to it.