Zorba The Buddha: Capitalism, Charisma and the Cult of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
✍ Scribed by Hugh B. Urban
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 263 KB
- Volume
- 26
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0048-721X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This essay suggests a new way of understanding the notorious Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, by examining the intimate relationship between his religious teachings and his business practices. Rajneesh's ideal was in fact that of 'Zorba the Buddha', the perfect synthesis of the spiritual and material, the religious and capitalist impulses. After analysing and criticizing the classical Weberian concept of 'charisma', this paper argues that charismatic authority is by no means incompatible with bureaucratic organization or rational business practices. On the contrary, not only can charismatic authority be combined with a complex bureaucratic organization, but it can also be transformed into a kind of 'commodity' which is bought and sold on the consumer market. Rather than a 'routinization of charisma' what we find in the Rajneesh movement is a kind of 'commodification' and 'commercialization' of charisma. Bhagwan offered (and sold) his followers the promise of the same charismatic authority and divine freedom which he himself enjoyed (though, in practice, this authority could never actually be attained by any of his followers). Moreover, charismatic authority became the basis for a new kind of bureaucratic organization in Rajneesh's world-wide network of commercial enterprises-an organization characterized by a high degree of fluidity and flexibility, able to adapt itself rapidly to meet the changing demands of its consumer market. 1996 Academic Press Limited Moses invests, Jesus Saves, Bhagwan Spends! A Sticker, sold at the World Festival, Rajneeshpuram, 1981 1 I teach a sensuous religion. I want Gautama the Buddha and the Zorba the Greek to come closer and closer; my disciple has to be Zorba-the-Buddha. Man is body-soul together. Both have to be satisfied. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 2