Vinod Khanna once refused Osho’s offer to lead his Ashram, REVEALS wife Kavita

When Vinod Khanna was a huge star, he surprised everyone by leaving his film career to follow spiritual teacher Osho and live at his commune in Oregon. Over the years, his friends like Kabir Bedi and family members such as his son Akshaye and wife Kavita have spoken about how that time changed him.

Recently, Kavita shared more about what life was like in Oregon and how it deeply affected Vinod’s thoughts and feelings.

Vinod Khanna and life inside the Oregon commune

On her YouTube channel, Kavita recently revisited the time Osho’s followers settled in a commune in Oregon. The same period was explored in the Netflix documentary ‘Wild Wild Country’, which also focused on Ma Anand Sheela’s growing influence and her creation of an armed group. Kavita recalled that Osho himself was “very much in silence” during those years, choosing not to interact much with his disciples.

Describing Sheela’s dominance, Kavita said, “As he became more withdrawn, his secretary (Ma Anand Sheela) took complete control and charge of what was happening. They built a city, and I think they even wanted to win elections. Just crazy things were happening there.

They had their own army with, I think, AK-47s or the equivalent. No one could understand what was going on.” This period, she noted, came before she and Vinod ever met.

Vinod Khanna, poisoned water and fear in Oregon

Recounting the turbulent events at the Oregon commune, Kavita described Ma Anand Sheela as “tyrannical.” She revealed that a disturbing incident took place when the ashram’s water was poisoned, leaving Vinod unwell and the community gripped by panic. “Then there was the whole issue of the water supply being poisoned, and Vinod had fallen ill. So there was a lot of fear. And it wasn’t just fear for him. For him, a very, very critical issue was that he hadn’t seen his children.

He used to tell me that he would just cry, and he couldn’t go back to India because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to return,” she said, recalling Vinod’s emotional struggle during that time.

Vinod Khanna leaves before the commune’s collapse

Reflecting on that phase, Kavita said Vinod’s timing couldn’t have been more fortunate, he managed to leave just before the commune’s downfall. “Luckily, his cousin came and got him out before the whole thing fell apart. Then Osho was arrested, and Sheela was arrested.

Sheela, of course, stayed in jail,” she noted while recalling the chaotic end of that era.

Vinod Khanna’s trauma and refusal of Osho’s offer

Reflecting on Vinod’s return from Oregon, Kavita revealed that the experience had left him deeply unsettled. “When he left Oregon, he was very, very traumatised, not just internally, but it showed externally as well. He told me that he would go on set, deliver an amazing shot, come back into his van, and then just sit there weeping and weeping.”

She added that even though Osho had once offered him a significant role within the spiritual movement, Vinod chose not to accept it.

“When Osho came back from Oregon, he came to Delhi. Vinod drove him to Manali. They spent a month there. Then, when they returned, Osho told Vinod that he wanted him to take charge of the ashram in Pune. Vinod said that, for the first and only time, he said no to his guru. And that was it. Vinod never met Osho after that.

He went back into the film industry and was doing extremely well.”

How Vinod Khanna’s journey with Osho began

Looking back, Kavita said that Vinod Khanna’s spiritual journey with Osho began during an especially tragic phase in his life. “I think he started listening to Osho’s discourses, as they went through a terrible period in their lives, with five deaths in the family, including people who were particularly close to him, like his mother. When his mother died, he went to the ashram and took sanyas.

That’s how that journey began,” she shared in a conversation with Loveena Tandon.

Vinod Khanna balancing films and spirituality

In her conversation, Kavita recalled the phase when Vinod successfully juggled his booming film career and his devotion to Osho. “Most people don’t know that for three years, while completing the films he had already signed, which included super hits like Hera Pheri and Qurbani, where he looked his absolute best, he would come and shoot. If the shoot was on location, he’d be there, but his base was Pune. He had a room in the ashram that was just four feet by six feet.

Osho even joked about it in his discourses, saying the room was so small that he had to step over the bed and sleep diagonally because there was barely any space. He literally had to step over the bed to enter the room.”