Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was born on December 11, 1931 in Kuchwada, India. In 1951, he graduated from high school and started attending Hitkarini College in Jabalpur. Rajneesh's philosophy courses were the catalyst for his spiritual struggle. In 1953, after taking a year off from college to soul search and meditate, Rajneesh claimed that he had achieved enlightenment. In 1955, after graduating from Hitkarini, he went on to pursue a Master of Arts degree in philosophy at Saugar University. Following graduation in 1957, he accepted a position as an assistant professor of philosophy at Raipur Sanskrit College. Just one year later, he became a full professor at Jabalpur University, located in his hometown.
After pleading guilty, Rajneesh renamed himself Osho and returned to India, where his number of followers had significantly decreased. Osho spent the remainder of his life in India, Greece and Uruguay, among several other countries.
On January 19, 1990, Osho died of heart failure at one of his few remaining communes in Pune, India. Following his death, the commune was renamed the Osho Institute. Osho's followers continue to spread his beliefs by opening Osho Mediation Centers in major cities across the globe.