In the West we see cults. They have a very long history. Christianity itself started as a cult. It became religion through Roman power. The most destructive cults in recent memory have originated from the vision of apocalypse and Armageddon, which are an integral part of Christian worldview. Jonestown massacre/mass suicide of almost 900 people (1978) was crafted by Jim Jones, who preached apostolic socialism a variant of liberation theology encouraged by the mainstream Church to create militant movements in post-colonial countries.

In 1993, Brach Davidians, a Christian religious group, believing in the second coming of Jesus as being near imminent went up in flames in Texas killing 70 inmates including women and children in an apparent mass suicide after an armed confrontation with law enforcing officials. Heavens Gate cult (1997) performed a mass suicide with their vision that combined a cocktail of UFO-Armageddon beliefs. Between 1994 to 1997 Order of the Solar Temple cult, which aimed at unifying Christianity and Islam, effected mass suicides of more than 25 people.

The only Eastern cult which did such a gruesome mass murder was Aum Shinrikyo. Originally a yoga movement that combined Buddhist and Hindu thoughts, it became a doomsday cult after incorporating in it the vision of apocalypse from the Christian Book of Revelation and prophecies of Nostradamus. Obsessed with Biblical vision of the Doomsday, they struck the Tokyo subway in 1995 with poison gas killing 12 and damaging the visions of 5,000 people.

Another movement that combined the elements of guru and cult was the Rajneesh movement. When in Oregon, establishing their own township, the group got into conflict with local administration as well as Christian and Islamic fundamentalists. In 1983, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, an US and Pakistan-based Islamic fundamentalist group bombed a hotel with a Zorba the Buddha nightclub run by Rajneesh group. In 1984, Rajneesh organisation tried to sway local elections by, if had gone undetected, what could have been the largest bio-terror attack in United States history. Rajneesh Chandramohan then Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh pleaded guilty and escaped imprisonment. Then he made a complete image makeover.

Alleging CIA-Christian conspiracies against him he became a genius of pop-spirituality. Today, Acharya Rajneesh alias Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh alias Osho is associated with absolute freedom and not Uzi-wielding private militia and centralised surveillance of every member of the commune much less a bio-terror attack. Osho commune has also cultivated the art of associating with those in power. In 2004, when United Progressive Alliance came to power, they did not hesitate to offer the project of building meditation hall at Osho Commune of Pune to a little known engineering firm Backops, whose 85 per cent shares were then owned by Rahul Gandhi. Rajneesh (1931-1990) is now well entrenched in the mainstream spiritual legacy of India. Many of the so-called corporate gurus today can be considered as Rajneesh-clones none of whom, nevertheless could never match his original brilliance.

Rajneesh movement provides a good case study into how a guru phenomenon can transform into a cult and then retract back to become the guru phenomenon in the modern socio-political context.

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Of Gurus, Cults And The Future - Swarajya