Osho advised Vinod Khanna to return to India, fight election against Amitabh Bachchan: 'He was envious of Big B's success...'

Swami Shailendra Saraswati, the brother of philosopher and mystic Osho, threw light on actor Vinod Khanna's much-talked-about stint at the latter's ashram in the United States. Khanna had quit at the peak of his career. 

Leaving behind his wife and two children - Akshaye Khanna and Rahul Khanna - Vinod Khanna chose to take 'sanyaas' in Osho's commune. Osho's brother revealed that the actor admitted that he was missing his family tremendously and even expressed his desire to return to them. In turn, Osho gave him some advice. 

In a conversation with Hindi Rush, he was asked about the mental stress that made celebrities seek help from Osho. “These people are ‘sapno ke saudagar’. They sell dreams to the masses. They are the creators of dreams. But their lives are often not at all like what they project on screen. I can speak about Vinod Khanna, because I was very close to him. Our homes at Rajneeshpuram were right next to each other, coincidentally. I knew him well. He would often express sadness at missing his wife and children to me", he said, as quoted by The Indian Express. 

Swami Shailendra Saraswati went on to reveal that it was Osho who suggested Vinod Khanna he fight elections against Amitabh Bachchan - a piece of advise that shocked the actor himself. 

"He used to work as a gardener at Osho’s house, and Osho would observe him. He noticed that Vinod was sad. He asked around about him, and he was told that Vinod was missing his family. Osho said, ‘No, he isn’t missing his family. Tell him to return to India, and go up against Amitabh Bachchan in the elections’. I was surprised to hear this. Vinod Khanna was surprised to hear this. I never thought that he had political ambitions at all. But imagine how farsighted Osho was. He knew what Vinod was going through even though Vinod himself didn’t. He knew that during his time at the ashram, Amitabh Bachchan had taken over Bollywood. Osho said, ‘Tum Bharat jao, aur chunav lado Bachchan ke khilaaf’", he said. 

Osho's brother stated that although Vinod Khanna tried to convince Osho that he was missing his family, the former understood that there was something else going on his subconscious mind. 

"Osho was able to gaze inside Vinod Khanna’s soul and identify what was troubling him. There was a wound in his subconscious mind about Amitabh becoming the number one star in his absence, but his conscious mind was pretending that he was upset about his family,” he added. 

Notably, Vinod Khanna returned to India in the 1980s and picked up from where he left off. He also served in former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet. Amitabh Bachchan, on the other hand, was close with the Gandhi family during former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's era.