At the height of spiritual renunciation, Osho saw through Vinod Khanna’s emotional unrest — not as familial longing, but as buried envy of Amitabh’s rise.
April 10, 2025: “Return and Challenge Bachchan”: Osho’s Bold Advice to Vinod Khanna During His Sanyas Journey
In the early 1980s, Vinod Khanna made headlines not for a blockbuster, but for turning his back on Bollywood and family to follow spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh to his Oregon commune in the U.S. What seemed like an act of deep personal introspection took an unexpected turn when Osho offered him startling advice — go back to India and challenge Amitabh Bachchan in politics.
According to Swami Shailendra Saraswati, Osho’s brother and a close witness to the actor’s time at Rajneeshpuram, Khanna was grappling with emotional unrest, often expressing sorrow over missing his wife and children. But Osho had a different reading of the situation.
“He’s not missing his family,” Osho is said to have declared. “He’s missing his position.”
The spiritual leader believed that Khanna’s true inner conflict stemmed from watching Amitabh Bachchan dominate Bollywood during his absence. In a surprising move, Osho told him, “Go back to India and contest elections against Bachchan.” It was advice that left Khanna — and those around him — stunned, especially since he had never expressed political aspirations.
Khanna, who worked as a gardener at Osho’s ashram, would later return to India, reignite his film career, and eventually step into politics — serving in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet. Meanwhile, Bachchan, with his close ties to the Gandhi family, became briefly involved in politics before returning to films.
Reflecting years later, Vinod’s son Akshaye Khanna acknowledged the weight of that decision: “To take sanyaas is not just to leave your family — it’s to leave everything. And he did.”
From matinee idol to monk to Member of Parliament, Vinod Khanna’s story remains a rare blend of stardom, spirituality, and suppressed rivalry — a journey shaped by a guru who dared him to confront not just his inner self, but also his greatest professional equal.
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