Vinod Khanna was an ardent follower of Osho and even worked as a gardener at his ashram. He was called Swami Vinod Bharti by Osho and frequented Pune’s Osho International Meditation Resort before shifting to Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, US, in 1982. However, before Vinod Khanna went to Osho’s ashram in Pune, Mahesh Bhatt had visited the ashram to seek guidance after box office failures. While Mahesh did not echo the guru’s sentiments, Vinod became his follower. Osho even sent him to threaten Mahesh to return to the ashram.
Mahesh Bhatt told Arbaaz Khan in season one of The Invincibles, “I remember Vinod calling me to Filmistan [Studios], ‘I’ve got something very important to talk to you’. He said, ‘Bhagwan is very angry with you.’ I said why. ‘You broke the mala and put it in the commode.’ I said, ‘I broke it and put it there. It’s worthless. I’m a damn fool, it’s a dog collar.’ ‘No, no, he says, ask Mahesh to bring back the mala and give it to me in person, otherwise… (and Vinod dropped his voice) he will destroy you.'”
“Rajneesh told Vinod, ‘I had worked so hard on Mahesh. He perhaps did not have in him what you have.’ So I said, ‘Oh my god, he’s using you against me. He’s telling you you’re something special.’ I’m too unimportant. I was a nobody at that time,” Mahesh added. Years later, Mahesh returned to have a conversation with Osho, but the guru’s words did not affect him.
Mahesh said, “I was not the same. He was not the same. But when I got up, I discovered that he was not responsible for anything. I wanted to hear things that he told me. He was an entertainer, a wordsmith and a very successful, charismatic man. He provided comfort to people for a certain time. It became a kind of spiritual drug. Gurus have a social role to play, so do prostitutes. They fulfil some social need in people.”
In 2020, Vinod’s son, Akshaye Khanna also talked about his father’s belief in Osho. “As a five-year-old, it was impossible to understand it. Osho had nothing to do with my thoughts about why my dad wasn’t there. That came much later… It’s a life-changing decision, which he (Vinod Khanna) felt that he needed to take at the time. Something must have moved him so deeply inside, that he felt that that kind of decision was worth it for him. Especially, when you have everything in life. And when life doesn’t look as though there’s much more that you can have,” Akshaye said.
Vinod Khan passed away on April 27, 2017, after a long battle with cancer.
Comments
0 comment