Vinod Khanna left the mortal planes in 2017, but it still remembered as one of the most poignant actors of Hindi cinema. Known for his versatile acting skills and style, the actor once stunned the industry and embarked on a spiritual path. Now, his second wife, Kavita Khanna, has shared what drove the late actor to leave everything behind and join spiritual guru Osho at his commune, first in India and then in Oregon, US.
Kavita Khanna revealed that her late husband was inclined towards spirituality from childhood. He found his calling after discovering Paramahansa Yogananda's 1946 book, Autobiography of a Yogi, which he read in college.
In a video posted to her YouTube channel, Kavita said, “Vinod was very spiritual from when he was a child. When he was 17, he bought the book Autobiography of Yogi, and at that time, he said that he didn't realise then that Osho was in the same bookstore at the same time."
According to Kavita, the turning point in Vinod's life came when he suffered a series of losses in the family that deeply affected him. She quipped, “The tipping point from giving up this unbelievable material life that he had… the adoration he had, and the success… was when a number of deaths happened in the family within two years. So, when his mother passed, he just went to Osho and took sanyas," and that's how his spiritual journey began.
Kavita then clarified that while many might think choosing spirituality was an escape for Vinod, it was instead a search for meaning. Talking about his completely different life at the Oregon commune, she shared, “He was Osho‘s gardener. Osho's home was private, and very few people had access to it, but if you were the gardener, you were there. That was his seva."
Vinod used to practise meditation and take part in encounter services during his stay in the ashram, according to his wife. “Even when he was in Mumbai before he moved to Pune ashram, the meditations on Chowpatty Beach in Bombay, which is right at the centre of this throbbing city, and everyone took their clothes off, and they were meditating naked in a circle on the beach," she elaborated.
Kavita also clarified, “I know Vinod was not there looking for the physical part of it. I think his journey was a spiritual one with immense commitment and devotion."
Vinod Khanna's Spiritual Journey And Death
The late actor became a disciple of spiritual guru Osho in 1975 and moved to Rajneeshpuram, Osho's religious community in Oregon, United States, in the early 1980s. With the name "Swami Vinod Bharti", he lived a spiritual life for five years before abandoning it after he was disillusioned with the concept of spirituality.
In April 2017, he died after battling advanced stages of bladder cancer.