Karan Johar took to his Instagram today to post a picture with Ma Anand Sheela and to announce that he interviewed her. The Bollywood director was all praises for the controversial figure in his post.

Karan posted a selfie with Sheela, who featured in the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country on Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh aka Osho.

Karan posted the picture with the caption, "Interviewing #maanandsheela was an experience! She is fun forthright and fabulous! Dodging every answer in her inimitable fashion! She is controversial without revealing a thing! Now thats an art! She is witty and never at a wits end! Thanks for the help."

For the selfie, the star was dressed in a quirky, nerdy look. He donned a navy blue blazer over a black shirt, nerdy glasses and a quirky chain. As for Sheela, she wore a lemon yellow ensemble.

After Karan posted the picture on his gram, celebs like Shibani Dandekar, Ananya Panday and even Vishal Dadlani took his timeline to show there excitement.

Shibani wrote, "Damn cant wait to see this," and Vishal wrote, "'Seela is a beach!' said the most venerable Osho. She must've done something right!" As for Ananya, she was super excited and so are we.

For the uninitiated, Sheela is an Indian-born American-Swiss, former spokeswoman of the Rajneesh movement aka the Osho movement and was also convicted for multiple attempted murders.

As the personal secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Sheela managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon, United States.

In 1985 she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bio-terror attack. She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and paroled after 39 months.

In fact, Priyanka Chopra is also working on a biopic which is based on Ma Anand Sheelas life. Priyanka had announced the news on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she also revealed that the film will be directed by Barry Levinson.

ALSO SEE | Karan Johar shares old video of Yash Chopra on his birth anniversary: Honoured to be fathered by him

ALSO WATCH | Karan Johar on Bollywood, love and Section 377 at Conclave Mumbai 2019

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Karan Johar interviews Ma Anand Sheela: She is controversial without revealing a thing - India Today

Its difficult not be in awe of Sheela Biernstiel, or Ma Anand Sheela.

Her soft words and warm smile make you forget that she was once the foul-mouthed, no-nonsense administrative head of Rajneeshpuram, a commune established in the 1980s Oregon by the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (or Osho), a Rolls-Royce-loving godman who advocated free sex and unique meditation methods. The fine lines on her forehead, which get accentuated when she talks about the 39 months she spent in a California prison in the late 1980s after pleading guilty to attempted murder, arson, wire-tapping, and assault for poisoning hundreds of peopleoften referred to as the largest bioterror attack in American historyremind you of all the things she did to live the life the way she wanted to. Her defiance and competence make you root for her, even if you are not supposed to.

The world had almost forgotten about Sheela till Wild Wild Country, a 2018 Netflix documentary that follows the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram, brought the Vadodara-born anti-hero back into the limelight. Today, Sheela, now 70, is running Matrusaden (mothers home) and Bapusaden (fathers home), homes for the mentally ill, disabled and the elderly. She has established similar homes in Vietnam and Mauritius. What about India? If someone shows interest (in funding), Im happy to do it," she says.

In an exclusive interview with Mint, Switzerland-based Sheela, who was recently in India to be part of Sipping Thoughts, a platform for women established in association with the NGO Humans for Humanity, shares her life experiences, her relationship with parents and Bhagwan Rajneesh, and why she did what she did. Edited excerpts:

You are returning home after 34 years. What took you so long?

I had people they said they would like me to come (to India) but I wasnt ready yet to come so I didnt encourage anyone. I was sure that when the right time comes, I will be there, and now is the right time.

What makes now the right time?

Feeling. Feeling inside. Often our intuition relates to our feeling, and it felt right. So when I got this invitation, there was a yes" in me. There wasnt ummm..no..I have to thinkno. I feel it is my responsibility to share my reality and my feeling to people.

Has your perspective towards life changed since the time you first left India?

Im the same individual I was when I was young. It is the same person, who became young, and then a bit older. It is the same person who met Bhagwan and fell in love with him.

Most people talk about you only in reference to Bhagwan Rajneesh. Did that ever bother you?

They talk in reference to him because that (being with him) was the biggest event of my life. And it is normal, the love I felt for Bhagwan. It was out of this world and it should be talked about. Such love, such commitment you dont see it every day. It was rare and even today I feel the commitment to him.

What I have come to learn from this man is remarkable. It should not be ignored, because this learning is itself an achievement. This is the real achievement: To live with somebody and learn from this genius, that is remarkable. In love and trust, you learn the most.

Have you used this learning in building Matrusudan?

Matrusudan is my expression of love for my parents. Ma and Pa have given me the basic correct values of life. In their honour, I do the work that I do now. When I was with Bhagwan, I was in love with him and I did what I could offer him in terms of my learning and in my being there. And now, Im being there for my handicapped people.

What are you doing for yourself?

People make me happy. People around me make me happy. The way I have lived till now makes me happy. The thought of my parents makes me happy. Thought of Bhagwan makes me happy. I work seven days a week. And I dont take vacation; Im not stressed in my work. I enjoy it.

How did Matrusaden and Bapusaden start?

I had come out of prison (December 1988), and I wanted to be on my feet. There was still much emotional chaos in me. At that time, I couldnt speak German. I started working as a housekeeper with an old couple in Basel. I was almost coming to the end of the journey with them (the old couple). I missed my parents very much. I could go back to them but I was not ready to take the risk of the US government. I was safe in Switzerland but I still missed them. Then I started seeing my parents in the people I saw on the streets. I felt my parents were here with every person, and then one day I came across an advertisement about a new law that people can take handicap person into their house and take care of them and the government will pay them to take care of them. So thats what I exactly did. With my little savings, I rented a house and I took in my first three patients and then three more. They were happy, I was happy. And just then the immigration law in Switzerland changed and I was able to call my parents. I was in heaven. And in 1996, my parents came. Existence took care of me. It realized that she doesnt have to suffer anymore heartaches".

How was prison life?

I only learnt. In such hard situations, you can only learn. If you dont learn, then you shouldnt be called human. What makes us different as humans, as individuals, is our ability to learn. And I took it as, Did I have any choice?" No. Since childhood, our parents taught us, Be ready for every situation and learn from it. Dont play to complain." Thats all I did.

So, what did you learn?

One of the most important things I learnt was time. Nobody has time. People are in traffic jam in the street or in the traffic jam of the life they create. Everybody is stressed because they dont have time, either for their loved ones or for themselves. In prison, everything you talk is in terms of time. How many years are you doing? How many years you have been here? How much more time do you have? Thats the vocabulary there. Then you have to sit back and understand what is this phenomenon. I learnt the value of time and what it meant to me.

The other important lesson was patience. Because to complete 39 months in prison requires a lot of patience. Women in nine months of pregnancy are finished, they want the child out. Thirty-nine months of pregnancy is bigger than an elephant.

Today, I do justice to my two learnings with my work. Im there for people, and I take the time for them. People need one another. Why has the problem of psychologically ill people, or handicap people, or the old people, become such a big problem? Because they are isolated. I have 10 more years to my life; I want to be there for people.

Bhagwan Rajneesh accused you of several crimes. How did you deal with them?

It is very simple today when I speak about it. Much water has gone by. I was brutally hurt in my heart but that was my problem, and I was very clear about that what Bhagwan says was his problem. I had to suffer for my heart, for myself. I fully accepted it. If I landed in prison, I had to learn something from there. Everyone can meditate, everyone can read books when life is good. But can you, in hard circumstances, look within? I dont talk about spirituality; I have nothing to do with it. But can you look within in all honesty?

Bhagwan and I had a wonderful love affair. We understand that when an average couple separates there is a lot of bloodshed. Now this was an international love affair, with thousands of people involved. He has to hold on to his people. Nobody had ever imagined that Bhagwan and Sheela will be separate. So he has to say something that is believable for people. But I can tell you, recently a sanyasin wrote to me, Do you know every day Bhagwan asked, How was Sheela, till the day he died." For me, it was clear, Bhagwan cannot think of anything other than my love for him. He did what was right for him. He did take a lot of drugs, and it is normal for people who take drugs to talk nonsense at times. He had to do that; I assumed he had a more intelligent way to do that, there too I agree he wasnt creative under drugs.

But I was like a phoenix rising from the ashes. The whole world was against me. Think about that. People who called me friends no longer existed all gone with the wind. And then I had to depend on my own back. My old values that my parents had given me came to my rescue.

What were your parents like?

Im made of my parents. My mother was very intelligent and my father spent his time with Gandhi, Kakasaheb (Dattatreya Balkrushna Kalelkar).... He was well trusted and respected. And that is the value of loyalty he taught us. Im no Christian in that sense that I suffer from guilt but I have learnt to look at myself and move on. Life is vast.

What was your parents reaction when you told them about your decision to join Osho?

I tell you a small incident. When my father was young, he used to take my mother on his bicycle and go through Baroda. His friends always told him not to do so because it didnt look nice" but my father also said, My wife is beautiful, I want the whole world to see her". My father gave me an advice when I was 16 and going to America for study. He said: Im sending you to America to study, to learn. I want you to remember that you are at that age where you will be interested in men and men will be interested in you. Experiment. Dont meet the first man and marry him. Have sex. Marriage is a long-term event, and if you enter into it without knowing your desires it would be wrong. Date few men, then make your choice."

Did you have any apprehensions about the Netflix documentary, Wild Wild Country?

My four sisters were against it; they didnt want me to go through any more public scrutiny, but my brother convinced them. The two brothers (Maclain and Brocker Way, the directors of the documentary) said they have this 200-300 hours of raw footage from our time in Oregon. It was a goldmine. I was just putting out my heart. I had no idea what they were planning to do. They filmed me for five days. I was just there, with my reality, with life, with myself.

Do you ever wish to go back in time and change things?

I have no regrets. I have come out, out of the whole deal, in spite of 39 months in prison, as a winner. I feel like a winner; I am a winner. Thats what makes me, me. The training of my parents, the love of my brothers and sisters, the trust of Bhagwan in me, that I could do it, that makes for a good foundation.

If Bhagwan Rajneesh was here, what would you say to him?

(Blows a kiss).

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I have come out as a winner: Ma Sheela Anand - Livemint

Ahead of London Fashion Week if you had to pick out one show that would bring the party it would have been Ashish, known for his high-tempo catwalk collections, however, when the invite arrived, a packet of wildflower seeds, it suggested that the British designer was about to take us all in a different direction.

Set in the large sports hall of the Seymour Leisure Centre, Ashish greeted his guests with a meditative beats from musicians, Candida Valentino and Michael Ormiston, who played with gongs, wind chimes, and a singing bowl, adding a calm to the storm of fashion week, as the sun set through the skylights.

For spring/summer 2020, Ashish was inspired by the Netflix documentary series, Wild, Wild Country, which tells the story of the Rajneeshpuram ashram cult in Oregon, the designer told FashionUnited backstage following his show: I became kind of obsessed with Ma Anand Sheelas character, I was thinking shes kind of amazing, she is such an anti-hero and you dont want to mess with her - she is such a strong character.

Then I was kind of inspired by the situation, about being in an ashram, away from everything, it is like a magical space where it is like free love and everybodys like really chill and just away from all the horribleness that is happening.

It is kind of like escapism, just beauty, magic and escapism.

This was a spiritual awakening of sorts, there were still sparkles, sequins, bright colours and clashing patterns, everything we expect from Ashish, yet it seemed a little more subdued, if not reflective and mesmerising.

Gone were the overtly obvious tongue-in-cheek slogans, well except for one black sweatshirt that featured 19 sexual expletives on the back, all of which began with fuck, this collection was more reflection, quite literally, as traditional shisha mirror embroidery covered full tracksuits, denim, shirting, slip dresses and full-skirted dresses.

As well as spring/summer ready-to-wear, the catwalk showcase also featured resort-style pieces from swim shorts and polos for men, and bikinis for women, which were mixed in alongside sportswear, which Ashish stated added contrast to the collection.

As with most London Fashion Week designers, sustainability was on Ashishs mind, following on from previous collections dedication to slow fashion, the designer added: A lot of the fabric was actually vintage that I literally found sack loads of, Ive then joined them all together to make my own fabric.

Also, all the denim is sustainable, as it is all old jeans that have been cut up and joined back together.

The looks were also all styled with handmade jewellery, featuring discarded wood blocks that Ashish said he had found about the place, which really added to the hippy-vibe of the colourful collection.

The show notes concluded with a quote from controversial Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho from the documentary Wild Wild Country, saying: A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid errors, that will do.

If this was Ashish starting his own cult, a cult filled with a kaleidoscope of sequins, sparkles and mirrors, where do we sign up.

Images: courtesy of Ashish

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LFW SS20: Ashish - beauty, magic and escapism - FashionUnited UK

I was a college freshman when Herbert Benson published Relaxation Response, a mass-market book that swept across the country, initiating millions to the basic principles of transcendental meditation. A lonely, stressed-out young man, 2000 miles away from home, I took refuge in the space that Bensons book opened up in me. I would go deep within for an hour every day, sometimes two, to escape from the challenges of a high-stakes, high-pressure academic life.

After college I desperately wanted to complete my escape from reality and live in a newly established ashram in Pune, India, led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later Osho), whose spiritual teachings and open attitudes to human sexuality spoke to my heart. Bhagwan was all the rage in the seventies, no doubt in part for his willingness to go toe-to-toe with religious and political authorities. He spoke to the rebellious young man in me. As it turned out later, his organization became a cult. Im grateful that I dodged that bullet.

The desire to be on a path of purpose and meaning continued to burn deep inside me, however. As I continued my meditation practice, strange disassociations occurred. I heard voices, whispers of the universe. I watched the world from an elevated place. I flew in my dreams. I thought I was losing my mind.

I prayed for these experiences to stop, but they did not. Instead, they intensified. Finally, no longer able to function like a normal person in the real world, I asked for forgiveness for not being able to take the next step into whatever awakening was occurring.

I became an advertising exec in New York, then eventually a husband and father, and confined the deepening of my spiritual practice to the Episcopal traditions that I had known since childhood.

Thirty years later, because I would not go to India, India came to me in a series of bizarre events. First, I got my fat, toxic, road-warrior ass into yoga and other forms of exercise. Down twenty, I got naked, resumed my meditation practice, and really opened up. It was then that the universe really got to work.

To help me on my journey, a series of spiritual advisors showed up. A pre-cognitive psychotherapist, who used to train TM trainers in Switzerland. A demanding, but loving female guide (who is also a world-class tri-athlete). A former Ogilvy exec expert in the research on the mind-body-heart connection. An inter-spiritual mystic traveling the world, and close friend of Ram Dass, dropped into my life. A beloved Episcopal monk welcomed me into silence and solitude. WTF?

The pinnacle of the succession of these spiritual peaks occurred in the Carmel Highlands where I found myself on retreat with an Indian mystic from Arunachala who had relocated to the US and was convening a group of gurus and some laypeople. I felt like Forrest Gump in the presence of the fifteen others. At his feet, the infinite blank flat screen of the eternal present opened up and forever changed my life, blowing apart my mind, body, and soul. After the smoke cleared, it became apparent that a cycle of great duration had been completed.

Having wandered through a great many spiritual practices over the decades, heres what I learned that might be useful.

There is a Great Awakening going on now in our country. People of all ages are throwing themselves into a smorgasbord of spiritual disciplines, creating an exotic, intoxicating fusion of practice in search of meaning. An inter-spiritual approach is fine, but its hard to execute, and in my opinion, it must be grounded in a single practice that requires a serious ongoing commitment, at least in the beginning, with an advisor or a community to help guide you.

Otherwise, I can tell you that you will wake up someday to discover that you have spent an enormous amount of time engaged in spiritual self-deception, blissing out. It feels good, but there is no real connection or union with the divine.

Secondly, I personally believe that the world needs us to engage not retreat from it, and thats what this Great Awakening is all about. While regular detachment from the world by going on retreat is essential in order to maintain a space where consciousness can unfold, the world needs us to remain present and engaged in it, using our hearts, minds, and bodies to lift up others.

Third, the real challenge begins when you come back from a retreat. Opening a space for daily renewal and spiritual growth is a tall order in our busy, distracted, over-committed lives. I believe that it is especially problematic for men. We are not hard-wired to remain open so that Spirit can descend and take root. We are much better at taking action, making shit happen. In addition, millennia of traditions regarding what it means to be a spiritual male are no longer serving us well. They need to be reimagined, incorporating the sacred feminine.

However, heres the opportunity that is being offered to us as men. When we finally get naked, surrender, become vulnerable, opening up an interior space where the universe comes shining through, we come fully into our gifts. Our lives begin to have meaning.

We become brave, strong, bold, and creative in ways that we would have never imagined. We finally reveal who we truly are, and engage with the world to the great benefit of others.

In short, we become Everyday Mystics, the embodiment of the sacred feminine and divine masculine, at one with the universe and those around us.

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Everyday Mystics - The Good Men Project

15th Sep 19 | Beauty

Prudence Wade reviews the sequin-obsessed designer Ashish Guptas spring/summer 2020 collection.

Ashish catwalk shows tend to be one of the biggest parties of London Fashion Week, full of disco vibes and lots of sparkles.

Sequins, clashing patterns and bright colours still made up much of creative director Ashish Guptas latest show, but it definitely felt more subdued than previous seasons.

Gone were the tongue-in-cheek slogan clothes from previous collections, replaced with a more reflective collection quite literally, as many of the outfits were covered in tiny circular mirrors.

It seems the designer showcased something of a spiritual awakening, too.

According to singer Ella Eyres Instagram Stories, model Neelam Gill walked the runway holding a branch of palo santo aloft a type of wood popularly used in South America for ceremonial purposes, as its believed to have healing properties.

Gill was fitted out in a long, almost religious-looking robe but as this is still Ashish were talking about, it was fuchsia and covered in sparkles.

The show notes also featured a quote attributed to the controversial Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh saying: A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid errors, that will do. You might recognise the Indian spiritual leader, otherwise known as Osho, from Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country.

The show held in the art deco Seymour Hall in London also saw a mini concert of musicians playing soft wind chimes, bells and conch shells.

The clothes themselves had a Sixties flower power vibe, with some models wearing actual flowers in their hair. But dont think this is a hippy collection theres always an edge with Ashish, and the beauty look by Isamaya Ffrench involved eyes heavily ringed with kohl. Hair by Sam McKnight opted for messy braids and the occasional pop of colour.

Billy Porter, Ella Eyre and Paloma Faith all appeared on the front row. Pose actor Porter is always one to watch on the red carpet he most famously wore a Christian Siriano tuxedo gown to this years Oscars so hopefully well see him in one of Ashishs latest designs soon.

It feels like something of a new era for Gupta; more pared back and contemplative. Luckily, the colourful, sparkly essence of the brand remains, but it certainly feels like Ashish is delving further into the spiritual than the meme-able than ever before.

Press Association 2019

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London Fashion Week: Sparkles and spiritualism were high on the agenda at Ashish - Fashion from Xpos - Virgin Media Television -...

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Wild Wild Country Cult stories are seriously intriguing, which is why they usually get a lot of media attention. But the cult led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that built a "utopian city" in the Oregon desert was largely forgotten in the grand scheme of American historyuntil 2018. That's when the Netflix docuseries, Wild Wild Country, premiered, diving deep into the conflict between the cult and Oregonians that eventually resulted in the first bioterror attack in the United States and a massive case of illegal wiretapping. Watch Now See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube Netflix@Youtube

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Captive There are few documentaries that let the victims tell their story, because it's often too painful for them to relive one of the most terrifying moments of their life. In Captive's eight episodes, however, the docuseries goes deep into multiple kidnapping cases and reconstructs some of the most complex, high-stakes hostage negotiations in history. Watch Now See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube See the original post on Youtube Netflix@Youtube

Originally posted here:
The Best True Crime Shows And Movies To Watch If You Loved Hulu's 'The Act' - Pulse Ghana

Previously, Ive proven four undeniable truths. Its time for Undeniable Truth #5: An idea is not responsible for who believes it. Thats another way of saying each of us is responsible for our own thoughts and for what we believe. A perfect example is the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. If youve never heard of the Bhagwan, look him up; youll be astonished. The Bhagwan was a Hindu spiritual guru in India back in the 1960s and 70s. He developed a large following of new age, Rajneesh spiritualists, which led to problems between the Bhagwan, his followers, and the Indian government. In 1981, the Bhagwan bought 65,000 acres in a sparsely populated county in the Oregon desert and moved his entire operations over here.

ONCE THE Bhagwan arrived in America he established a large commune. To join the commune, the new age adherents had to pledge loyalty to the Bhagwan; and they had to give him all their possessions to include their spouse (i.e. wife). The Bhagwan was very charismatic and somehow convinced over 1,000 people to join his desert paradise. The commune, specifically the Bhagwan, became very wealthy from the hundreds of people who gave him everything they owned. While his followers meditated most of the day, slept on mats in open-bay dormitory type housing, and disavowed all material possessions; the Bhagwan grew extremely wealthy, slept with a different woman each night, and bought luxury car after luxury car.

IT WASNT long before the commune came into conflict with local ranchers and county officials, mostly over land use issues. Since the county was sparsely populated, the Bhagwan sent busses around the West, rounded up hundreds of homeless people, brought them to the commune so they could vote in local county elections with the goal to oust the county officials and replace them with Rajneesh spiritualists. Eventually, the Bhagwan and the commune ran afoul of the law and warrants were issued for the Bhagwans arrest. The Bhagwan, and several of his lieutenants, fled to India before they could be arrested. When authorities raided the commune they were amazed. The Bhagwan had over 50 Rolls Royces, a luxurious mansion, and flaunted his ostentatious wealth while his Rajneesh followers lived a subsistence existence with no material possessions whatsoever.

REMEMBER, AN idea is not responsible for who believes it. With that as a truth, who were the fools, the Bhagwan or his gullible followers? In order for anyone to believe something, first, we must be presented with an idea; then, we ponder that idea; and finally accept or reject it based on common sense. Its obvious that the Bhagwan didnt believe his own rhetoric about the path to enlightenment; yet he managed to convince hundreds of people to follow his teachings that they might gain spiritual oneness but to do so, they had to forego all material possessions. The Bhagwans followers were living an impoverished existence; they could see the luxurious lifestyle the Bhagwan was living; still they continued following him. Thirty five years later, Im still astounded that so many people allowed the Bhagwan to scam them.

ANOTHER IDEA that amazes me is climate change (CC). For Earths entire history there has been climate change. Climate change is an absolute FACT, and the ice ages are the best proof. There have been at least five ice ages in Earths history. Climate scientists tell us that right now we are in an interglacial period of the Pleistocene ice age. The Pleistocene glaciation began 2.58 million years ago. Over that span, the climate has changed numerous times. The cycle is as follows: First, the climate cooled creating continental ice sheets that covered much of the northern hemisphere and Antarctica. Then, after hundreds of thousands of years, the climate warmed and, except for Antarctica and Greenland, most of the ice sheets melted. Each time the glacial ice sheets advanced the oceans receded. Then, when they melted, the oceans rose. In the past 2.58 million years, this cycle has repeated itself at least four times, possibly five.

THE UNANSWERED question is what caused the glaciers? Why do ice sheets advance and then recede? The weather and climate is probably the most dynamic, complex system on Earth. Some of the factors that affect the climate include wind and ocean currents, volcanic activity, continental drift, the global vegetation coverage, global ice coverage, composition of the atmosphere, changes to Earths axial tilt (41,000 year cycle), precession of the planet (26,000 year cycle), variations of earth orbit, and solar activity. Each of these factors affects the climate in some manner. How much? We dont know. Climate scientists tell us that theres more we dont know about the climate than what we do know. Heres proof of how little we know; tell me what the weather will be on Oct 11th, 30 short days from now. Will it be hot? Cold? Sunny? Or rainy? If you cant tell me what the weather will be one month from today, then dont try telling me what the climate will be 50 or 100 years from now.

HOWEVER, DONT worry about why the climate changes because we have climate change gurus, such as Al Gore and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They have it all figured out. The climate gurus insist that human activities that burn fossil fuels - such as driving your car, heating and cooling your house, etc. are causing the planet to warm thus creating climate change that will melt glaciers and raise ocean levels. The climate gurus insist that the only way to save the planet is for you to forego all activities that burn fossil fuels. However, just like the Bhagwan, the climate gurus dont believe their own rhetoric. If they did, Barack Obama would not have bought a $15 million ocean-front mansion. Also, if mankinds burning of fossil fuels changes the climate, explain how the climate changed so often before mankind existed?

WEEKLY THOUGHT: An idea is not responsible for who believes it.

Excerpt from:
JUST THE WAY IT IS: Believing something doesn't make it true - Monroe County Reporter

Editor's note: In a nearly unbelievable chapter of Oregon history, a guru from India gathered 2,000 followers to live on a remote eastern Oregon ranch. The dream collapsed 25 years ago amid attempted murders, criminal charges and deportations.

But the whole story was never made public. With first-ever access to government files, and some participants willing to talk for the first time, it's clear things were far worse than we realized.

What follows is an inside look -- based on witness statements, grand jury transcripts, police reports, court records and fresh interviews -- at how Rajneesh leaders tried to skirt land-use and immigration laws only to have their schemes collapse to the point they decided killing Oregonians was the only way to save their religious utopia.

Ma Anand Puja stepped into St. Vincent Hospital on a summer night in 1985, hunting for James Comini.

The Filipino nurse was there to kill the rural Oregon politician, who was recuperating from ear surgery at the Portland hospital. She carried a syringe to inject a mixture into Comini's intravenous tube that would stop his heart.

But once inside Comini's seventh-floor isolation room, Puja discovered her target wasn't on an IV. Flustered, she hurried from the hospital to a getaway car, and her assassination team started the long drive home.

Their destination: Rancho Rajneesh, a spiritual encampment 200 miles away in eastern Oregon. It was base for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a guru from India, and 2,000 of his worshippers.

The murder scheme was just one of many increasingly desperate attempts to save the guru's empire.

The Rajneeshees had been making headlines in Oregon for four years. Thousands dressed in red, worked without pay and idolized a wispy-haired man who sat silent before them. They had taken over a worn-out cattle ranch to build a religious utopia. They formed a city, and took over another. They bought one Rolls-Royce after another for the guru -- 93 in all.

Along the way, they made plenty of enemies, often deliberately. Rajneeshee leaders were less than gracious in demanding government and community favors. Usually tolerant Oregonians pushed back, sometimes in threatening ways. Both sides stewed, often publicly, before matters escalated far beyond verbal taunts and nasty press releases.

Three months after the aborted Comini plot, the commune collapsed and the Rajneeshees' darkest secrets tumbled out.

Hand-picked teams of Rajneeshees had executed the largest biological terrorism attack in U.S. history, poisoning at least 700 people. They ran the largest illegal wiretapping operation ever uncovered. And their immigration fraud to harbor foreigners remains unrivaled in scope. The revelations brought criminal charges, defections, global manhunts and prison time.

But there was much more.

Long-secret government files obtained by The Oregonian, and fresh interviews with ex-Rajneeshees and others now willing to talk, yield chilling insight into what went on inside Rancho Rajneesh a quarter-century ago.

It's long been known they had marked Oregon's chief federal prosecutor for murder, but now it's clear the Rajneeshees also stalked the state attorney general, lining him up for death.

They contaminated salad bars at numerous restaurants, but The Oregonian's examination reveals for the first time that they just as eagerly spread dangerous bacteria at a grocery store, a public building and a political rally.

To strike at government authority, Rajneeshee leaders considered flying a bomb-laden plane into the county courthouse in The Dalles -- 16 years before al-Qaida used planes as weapons.

And power struggles within Rajneeshee leadership spawned plans to murder even some of their own. The guru's caretaker was to be killed in her bed, spared only by a simple mistake.

Strangely, most of these stunning crimes were in rebellion against that most mundane of government regulations, land-use law. The Rajneeshees turned the yawner of comprehensive plans into a page-turning thriller of brazen crimes.

A new start

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh needed a new place to build his worldwide commune.

In India, he worked as a small-town philosophy professor until he found enlightenment paid better. He built a thriving enterprise attracting Westerners to his lectures and group therapies. They sought meaning in their lives, escaping the remains of the Vietnam War and a crashing world economy. And Rajneesh mixed in plenty of sexual freedom, ensuring publicity to build his brand.

Government authorities in India, weary of the Rajneesh's growing notoriety, cracked down on his group's unseemly and illegal behavior, including smuggling and tax fraud. The guru ran, ending up half a globe away at the Big Muddy Ranch, 100 square miles of rangeland an hour's drive north of Madras.

The first contingent of Rajneeshees quietly moved to Oregon in summer 1981, but they couldn't escape notice for long. Part of the guru's brand was clothing in reddish hues. Such dress was out of place in the blue denim reaches of Oregon. Followers, known as sannyasins, also displayed their devotion to the guru by wearing malas, wood bead necklaces holding a photo of Rajneesh.

Resettling in Oregon was the work of his chief of staff, Ma Anand Sheela, then 31 years old. She was a native of India, born to a privileged family as Sheela Patel. She wasn't after enlightenment. She was quick-witted and hungry for power, the perfect instrument for the guru's ambition.

Initially soft-spoken and engaging, Sheela charmed Oregon ranchers and politicians. Early on, she hosted a dance in Madras where cowboys partied until dawn. She curried favor, buying 50 head of cattle from a Wasco County commissioner, even though the commune was vegetarian.

She assured the guru that the commune of his dreams would soon rise on the Big Muddy. She expected to put up housing compounds, warehouses and support buildings. Business enterprises, once based in India, would move to the ranch.

In short, Sheela intended to do as she wished on their remote 64,000 acres.

Anxious to move ahead, she closed the property deal without understanding Oregon law -- a pivotal mistake. She didn't know the state severely limited how many people and buildings could be jammed onto ranch land.

Already it was too late. The money was paid, the guru packed and hundreds of sannyasins were expecting to be housed and fed. Sheela and the guru were undeterred. In India, trickery and bribery got results. Why would Oregon be any different?

The Rajneeshees found that the law did allow some new homes, but only for farmworkers and their families. Sheela homed in on that exemption when she met with Wasco County planners in summer 1981.

She was joined by her husband, a former New York banker named John Shelfer who was known on the ranch as Swami Jay, and David Knapp, a California therapist known as Swami Krishna Deva. For the meeting, they shed any sign of affiliation with the sect. They wore plain clothes, stowed their malas and introduced themselves by their given, not sannyasin, names.

They told the assembled officials they planned to operate a farm commune. Workers would be brought in to restore abused rangeland. They needed dwellings to house the workers.

Attending the meeting was Dan Durow, a young planner who had been with Wasco County less than a month. He had a trusting nature from his Midwestern upbringing and was intrigued by the idea of a farm commune. They discussed how the ranch could legally house perhaps 150 workers.

But the three visitors were vague about whom they represented.

"Are you a religious organization?" Durow finally asked.

"No," came Sheela's quick answer. "We celebrate life and laughter. We are simple farmers."

In the ensuing months, Durow repeatedly traveled to the ranch to monitor developments. He discovered that four-bedroom modular houses were in fact dorms with no kitchen, no living room. The Rajneeshees, on alert for his visits, routinely hid extra mattresses to disguise the true population at the ranch.

Making enemies

To legally stretch the limits, the Rajneeshees moved to form their own city.

Their private Portland lawyers advised they needed to befriend 1000 Friends of Oregon. The environmental group was a watchdog over land use, especially guarding farmland from development.

In late 1981, Sheela, Krishna Deva -- better known as KD -- and others from the commune met with two lawyers from 1000 Friends. They explained they needed to erect a city to tend to the thousands who would be moving there. They explained that remaking the ranch into a working farm was a bigger task than expected.

The environmental lawyers applauded the desire to restore the land, but they saw no need for a city. Plopping an urban area into the middle of an agricultural operation didn't make sense. As their resistance became apparent, Sheela asked whether their opposition would dissolve if the Rajneeshees joined 1000 Friends with a substantial contribution.

The bribe was brushed off. Sheela turned snide. Observing the modest furnishings in the Portland office, Sheela said she wasn't surprised by "shabby" work being done by people working in "shabby" surroundings. The crack was needless, but it was trademark Sheela.

From then on, 1000 Friends and the Rajneeshees battled. The organization launched an aggressive, but not always successful, legal campaign to blunt creation of the city. Its fundraising literature soon bore the picture of Sheela, and donations and membership soared.

In turn, the Rajneeshees portrayed 1000 Friends as a pawn of powerful political interests. They considered the environmental group an enemy, more interested in crushing a religion than protecting land. They named their sewage lagoon after the group's executive director.

Their fight would rage on for years.

Much of it played out in Oregon courtrooms and in the media. Coached by the Bhagwan, Sheela became adept at using the press to her advantage. She could be counted on for outrageous news conferences, where her sharp tongue cut into the enemy of the day. She seemed to spit insults with every breath.

But her conduct troubled other Rajneesh leaders.

KD complained in a letter to the guru that the insults were impairing efforts to build the commune. The guru's response was blunt: You're a coward. KD swallowed the insult and kept his place at the inner circle of the ranch. Later, he used his insider knowledge to get a lenient plea deal for himself -- and to help send Sheela to prison.

Another insider, Ma Yoga Vidya, a mathematician then also known as Ann McCarthy, tried her hand at reeling in Sheela. In a private meeting with the guru, she described Sheela's conduct as "outrageous" and harmful to the commune. The guru nodded as he listened, but otherwise made no reply.

Her end run enraged Sheela. The next day, Sheela dragged herself out of a sick bed and, with an intravenous drip line in tow, took Vidya back to see the guru. This time he had plenty to say. He unloaded on Vidya, who was the commune president. He said Sheela was his agent, and when she spoke, she was talking for him. He told Vidya to never challenge Sheela and to share that instruction with other commune members.

Most Rajneeshees would have been surprised to learn the guru provided such intimate oversight. They believed the guru was a spiritual master, a rare enlightened man untouched by daily events at the ranch. To this day, some former sannyasins hold the view that he knew next to nothing about what was happening at his commune.

Sannyasins well understood, though, that Sheela acted with the guru's authority. She wasn't to be questioned on any decision or directive. She wielded the authority without restraint, sharing it with an elite team of other women leaders, called "moms" by their underlings, who kept the Rajneeshees in line both with favors and punishment.

Cliques and cracks

Not everyone could be so readily controlled, such as the guru's personal doctor, dentist and caretaker.

They and a handful of other sannyasins served Rajneesh in his fenced compound called Lao Tzu. Their independence irritated commune leaders, but especially peeved Sheela.

A group of wealthy California donors also proved challenging to control once they moved to the Oregon ranch in 1984. The most notable were Francoise Ruddy, whose former husband produced "The Godfather," and John Wally, a physician who made a fortune in emergency room medicine. She became Ma Prem Hasya; he was Swami Dhyan John.

They had no zeal for the lifestyle of seven-day workweeks, shared meals or rudimentary sleeping quarters. Instead, the Californians set up a home for themselves apart from the usual housing. They brought in expensive furnishings, artwork and even their own car, a Jaguar. Almost daily, they drove to Madras for groceries to avoid the ranch's staid meals.

That was bad enough, but they also attracted the guru's attention. They obliged him with diamond-studded watches and Rolls-Royces. Before long, Hasya married the guru's doctor.

The Hollywood group and the guru's personal staff soon made Sheela's list of people on and off the ranch considered a threat to the commune and the guru. She split up the Hollywood group, scattering them to separate homes around the ranch. She tried to replace the guru's doctor.

To keep tabs on what was going on inside the guru's compound, she had the place laced with hidden microphones and recording equipment. One bug was placed on a table leg next to the guru's favorite chair. He was told it was a panic button. Trusted sannyasins monitored the eavesdropping equipment, reporting information to the commune's top four leaders.

Eventually the chasm between the commune's leaders and the guru's chosen insiders became too much even for him. On a spring evening in 1984, he summoned both sides to his house and, in front of them all, lectured Sheela. He told her his house, not hers, was the center of the commune.

"Anyone who is close to me inevitably becomes a target of Sheela," the guru said.

He proved prophetic.

Two of those sitting at the guru's feet that day were later marked for death.

-- Les Zaitz: email him at specialreport@oregonian.com; visit the Rajneesh Report page on Facebook

Continued here:
25 years after Rajneeshee commune collapsed, truth spills ...

At a time when national politics seems to have reached its nadir, and the country is adrift on an uncharted course, one man is hammering out an unusual ideology of his own. Amidst the chaos of unstable governments and power breakdowns, warring politicians and embattled industrialists, one Indian is establishing a curious empire that seems to grow and grow.

Everything works in his little hotbed of activity, and he is busy piecing together fragments of a somewhat bizarre jigsaw that will one day, he claims, change the destiny of mankind. Flung far out in a town on the Malabar coast, he is slowly achieving a unique star status, capable of hogging headlines, arousing public opinion, provoking reaction.

Eighty miles inland from Bombay, the tranquil resort of Pune, once the home of aging British colonels, retired civil servants and a stylish assortment of sybarites from Bombay in search of a salubrious climate, has struck fame anew from an odd quarter. Some of the peace and quiet-has been shattered, with the permissive new peep-show the city is now said to promise. Not since an Indian guru with piercing hypnotic eyes moved in with his foreign gang has the town been the same again.

Flooded with saffron-swathed sannyasins cuddling in shady by-lanes that once knew no trespassers, Pune now rolls off the tongue with the spurious tang of sin. Is he a charlatan, hypnotist or a sex maniac? Travellers wonder as they step aboard the Deccan Queen at Bombay's Victoria Terminus each evening, their eyes taking in the spectacle of blonde - and usually bra-less - beauties on their way to prostrate themselves at the feet of this mesmeric godman.

Most Indians might travel to Pune in salacious silence these days, but it is doubtful if they return having rid themselves of their repression. Most westerners may get there carrying their souls on their sleeves, and come back to shout from the housetops their song of spiritual salvation.

Household Word: Provided they get beyond the ornately carved wooden-and-brass doors of the Rajneesh Ashram, both kinds of visitors have a point. For the man, who at 48, has adopted the title of Bhagwan (God) advocates sex and spirituality in equal measure. Excess in one, says Shri Bhagwan Rajneesh, may only expedite success in the other. And for hitting upon one such foolproof formula for salvation, elaborated and embroidered with a thousand meditation philosophies, he has become a unique religious export, a one-man spiritual industry, and a perpetual source of moral controversy.

He is a tough salesman, and with the aid of some neatly developed gimmicks, which he calls "devices", has created a spiritual supermarket, and he is a sell-out. Set apart from India's bewildering gaggle of gurus and godmen there has not been a religious commodity so publicised, since the Beatles and Mia Farrow abandoned the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for pastures new.

Manufacturing Industry: But Rajneesh goes several steps further in the art and industry of empire-building. Not only has he converted actors Terence Stamp and Vinod Khanna to his unique brand of sannyas, but an estimated 3.000 aspirants, the bulk of them soul-searching westerners, cross the portals of his ashram every month. Roughly a dozen a day are converted as sannyasins- that is, they convert to wearing coloured robes and wooden-bead malas with his photograph and adopt a name of his choosing.

According to the Ashram some 100,000 people world-wide have officially taken to sannyas a la Rajneesh in the last few years, since he moved to settle in Pune in late 1974. And a permanent settlement of 350 sannyasins have renounced their lives abroad - only one-sixth of his following is Indian - to come and work in the nucleus of his ashram. They produced everything from a range of unscented Body Dharma toiletries to a lavish variety of Rajneesh literature in the form of books, magazines, newsletters and tape-recordings of his lectures.

Dozens of press releases issue forth from the Rajneesh press office each week. Flaky pastries and plum tarts emanate from gleaming kitchens to beat every confectionery in town. Amateur jewellers and carpenters pore over crafting fine inlay furniture and silverware. Blonde seamstresses sit at electric sewing machines to turn out high fashion dresses in Rajneesh colours. Trained therapy leaders take a boggling variety of meditation and therapy courses with names such as Sufi Dancing and Dynamic Meditation.

Smelling Routine: Rajneesh himself is scarcely to be seen. As his business grows, he becomes more difficult to approach individually. Shutting himself up in closely-guarded rooms for most of the day he makes only two public appearances: one for his two-hour discourse in the morning and a smaller private darshan in the evening during which he ordains new disciples.

And each morning, approximately 500 visitors, dressed in shades of orange, freshly bathed with ashram soap and shampoo, move single file, to be "sniffed" before they can confront their guru. The "sniffing" process has become something of a Rajneesh trademark.

Each visitor before attending a Rajneesh discourse is vigorously smelt around the neck, behind the ears and in the hair by two women, for any strong smell of perfume that might aggravate Rajneesh's allergy. Being asthmatic, say his chief disciples, such precautions are necessary. "Otherwise he would have to be put in a glass cage." explain members of his conscientious press office, as smelly visitors are briskly sifted from clean-smelling ones and moved to the back of the hall.

Discourse: A little after eight the sound of a Mercedes driving up a gravel path signals the arrival of the master. A hush falls among the gathered audience robed in varying shades of saffron, their hands folded in greeting. Squatting silently, albeit painfully, on a hard cement floor, row upon row of tangled white legs cross and re-cross in discomfort to sit through a two-hour discourse. "Life," begins the master, "is three-dimensional.

He alone has the privilege of a chair, a smart, high-backed executive's armchair placed high on a raised marble platform. He also has the privilege of wearing white, a long, high-necked, long-sleeved polyester tunic that stands out in marked contrast to the hysterical colour schemes followed by his disciples.

Perpetually by his side, either carrying a cushion, or imprinted in photographic blow-ups plastered on every inch of the ashram's wall, is the fine-featured Frenchwoman. Ma Yoga Vivek, who is one of the two people in the ashram - both women - who has access to him all the time. Ma Vivek has been with him for seven years. She looks after "his body." But like him, she is never directly accessible.

Then peppered with the sayings of Pythagoras and Jean-Paul Sartre, Lao Tzu and P.D. Ouspensky, Buddha and Socrates, the discourse rambles on: a point here, a point there, vapid spiritual jargon, homespun homilies jumbled in a brew spiced with trendy four-letter words and jokes culled from randy, railway-station joke books.

His even monotone pipes on - the accent slipping every now and then in dreadful mispronunciations - but not all the lavatory humour and heavyweight quotes in the world alleviate the tedium of his discourses. Yet the effect is strangely hypnotic, induced by the general atmosphere rather than his long-winded loquacity. The audience is filled with elation, as the purring of a Mercedes engine signals their master's departure to his residence less than 200 yards away.

Overwhelmed: The Mercedes, painted a pale orange-gold, is worth over Rs 10 lakh. A mere trifle admits one doting disciple, wouldn't it be lovely to see him in a white Rolls-Royce? "Bullshit," says actor Vinod Khanna, now Swami Vinod Bharati, when asked if the rumour of his having paid for one of the most expensive cars in India is true, "but I wish I could have." Khanna, 33, has been a Rajneesh disciple for the past three-and-a-half years.

He was introduced to him, like many other followers, through his books. "I had always had this need for a leader. The moment I saw him I knew this was the man I was looking for," explains Khanna, now in the process of completing his film assignments before joining Rajneesh permanently. "Everything about him: his face, his voice, his thoughts changed me." Asked what his family thought about his conversion, Khanna said: "My wife still thinks I've been hypnotised."

A majority of Rajneesh's disciples explain being overwhelmed in a similar manner. Says Swami Divyananda, 32, formerly Michael Glynn, a graphic designer who worked in Canada: "My whole face seemed to explode in a twitch when I came face to face with him. I first met him in Bombay six years ago, more or less by mistake. Then I went back to the West for two years in between but it became really hard to communicate: I was standing at a subway station in Montreal one day and I happened to look into the eyes of a group of young kids standing nearby: I saw they were quite dead. I had to come back to him."

Says Ma Yoga Pratima, an attractive 26-year-old Australian who now runs the brilliant publishing programme: "Perhaps it was the bourgeois Australian mentality that sickened me. But it was a continual feeling of despair and deadness that got me in the end." She discovered "Bhagwan" a few years ago while living in a house in Finsbury Park in London which was run as a commune for growth therapy groups. When she returned to Australia for four months "it was like being in a horror movie."

"This is," she says definitely, her blue eyes flashing, "the only place I have felt at home in. I belong here. This is my family." So intense is her attachment that since she came to stay her Catholic father has taken sannyas and her Quaker mother is about to follow.

At the centre of the environment he breeds is the magnetism of Rajneesh himself. Some of his disciples who have come to stay speak of their premonition of him before ever meeting him. Others openly admit to being under his spell. Says Paris photographer Tana Kaleya, now called Ma Deva Tanmayo, whose book of photographs of naked men Les Hommes (including Rudolf Nureyev, Helmut Berger and Terence Stamp in various stages of undress) made her famous some years ago, and who is now working on a book on Rajneesh and his ashram: "I have not been much interested in men since I did my last book. But this man - though I haven't seen him in the nude - provokes love in me. It's not a question of liking - he enchants me. This man is sheer poetry."

For most others, however, Rajneesh means little other than volume upon volume of prose. Voluble spiritualist that he is, every pearl of wisdom that drops from his mouth is duly recorded. No fewer than three dozen stenographers, editors and translators laboriously make transcripts of each morning's discourse so that, Rajneesh is perhaps the only guru in the world who inadvertently dictates, a 400-page book every 10 days.

The Rajneesh Foundation, set up as a charitable trust, has made a phenomenal success of its publishing programme, with over 220 volumes published in Hindi and English since early 1975 alone. With each page virtually designed individually, then laid out with photographs and specially bound in silk, each Rajneesh text is sold at a three-fold profit, with a growing demand for more.

Ma Yoga Laxmi, the 46-year-old Gujarati woman, who as managing trustee of the Foundation, is the woman responsible for Rajneesh's rising fortunes, admits that in business terms the publishing programme has been the ashram's biggest success. She is a small, dark, sprightly woman seated on a bright yellow swivel chair, so disproportionately large that she has a special wooden platform for her feet.

She speaks in the third person singular and her long association with westerners has resulted in her conversation being punctuated with Americanisms such as "Bullshit" and "Hey you." "We don't like poverty here," she says, "and everything must be done skilfully and beautifully. We now publish about 45 titles a year and that not only helps the money circulate but brings in more and more people."

"Bhagwan is into every worldly game," says Swami Krishna Prem, a canny Canadian, who gave up his successful career in advertising and sales promotion to join Rajneesh in 1973. A bearded, unkempt-looking man, he talks with the swift glibness of a hard-selling travelling salesman. As the chief of the ashram's press office, Krishna Prem is doing for Rajneesh's renown what Ma Laxmi has done for his financial resources. "Bhagwan wants one thing, and that is that he should be known in every part of the world during his lifetime. But he's not into making money. That is only a spin-off for what is actually going on. One should go on housetops to acclaim him because there won't be another chance like it in years."

Publicity: What does, indeed, go on at the Rajneesh Ashram is a question that is latently connected with widespread visions of wild sex orgies and other exercises in mystical titillation. Many of these theories have circulated because of Rajneesh's unabashed openness on the subject of sex. To the uninitiated, the sight of sundry sannyasins locked in long, lingering embrace, eyes rapturously closed, noses nuzzling necks, hands exploring bodies, can at first appear unnerving and suggestive. But hardcore sex is harder to find. If it happens, then it is behind firmly closed doors.

Promiscuous-looking colour photographs of half-stripped sannyasins which attracted wide publicity when they first appeared in the German magazine Stern, are dismissed by an ashramite as not being authentic. "It's nobody's business what people do in private," he says defensively. A somewhat coy notice pasted on the walls of the public toilet - together with dreamy-eyed photographs of Rajneesh - reminds visitors that nudity is objectionable in a public place.

"Sure," agrees Swami Krishna Prem, "the sex thing has caused the biggest misunderstanding. Bhagwan believes that sex, like other aspects of life, is a prison, a biological prison. And the only way to get out of it is to do it and do it and do it till you see the futility of it."

Disparaging: Another disciple explains his master's idea helpfully: "Genital sex is something that peaks your energy. Orgasm is beautiful. Look at Bhagwan: he's in orgasm all the time, you can see it in his eyes, he's reeling from the effect." Since Rajneesh's basic tenet is the release of all energy in a consummation of a final spiritual energy, the act of refraining, consciously rejecting, amounts to repression, an approach that he abhors in other spiritualists, especially Indian ones.

Whatever his design for his followers his own ego peaks sharply and often. He is frequently disparaging about other godmen: Sri Aurobindo, according to him, was an erudite spiritualist but not, like him and Christ and Mahavira and the Buddha, an enlightened master. Sri Satya Sai Baba is put out as "that magic man from Bangalore." And the only other Indian he is prepared to acknowledge as a master is J. Krishnamurti. But there is a qualification. "The difference between Krishnamurti and myself is," he once explained, "that if both of us were sitting on a roof, it is I who would possess the ladder."

His egoism manifests itself amply in the "devices" he employs to disseminate his own cult. He can on occasions be uncharitable, blankly dismissing, and particularly unpenitent about personal remarks made about politicians among others. He can also express his irritation easily. The only question he answered for India Today was during his discourse when he replies queries submitted in writing a day earlier.

The question was: What is the difference between you and other godmen? Predictably he took exception to the word "godman." He began by saying: "I am not a godman. I am simply God as you are, as trees are, as birds are, as rocks are. I don't belong to any category. 'Godmen' is a category invented by journalists. I simply don't belong to any category ..." and continued the answer for nearly 45 minutes during which he attacked "life-negating and hypocritical pseudo god men" and held forth on his own philosophy of life.

Orange Onslaught: His own followers have considerable faith in his provocations. "Of course, we wear orange for shock value. It is nothing but gimmickry. He calls himself Bhagwan for the same reason. Just as his being called Bhagwan bothers most Indians, so does our wearing orange in London or New York appall most people."

Pune citizens find it hard to cope with the orange onslaught. Clashes between residents and ashramites are frequent, and they receive wide publicity due as much to the ashram's efforts as that of the media. On June 26, a 21-year-old foreign disciple called Ma Deva Homa was set upon at night by two men and raped outside the ashram. The press office at the ashram claims that "no less than 20 young foreign women have been assaulted or molested by local hooligans in the past month alone........and not less than 25 of our disciples' huts have been looted and thefts committed, with no action taken by the police."

Earlier this year, a 15-year-old American disciple of Rajneesh was asked for a Rs 1,000-bribe and allegedly assaulted by an inspector of the Foreigners Registration Branch of the Pune CID when she asked for a visa extension. A series of such incidents, including instances of Rajneesh followers being refused visas in Indian missions abroad and foreign film teams being rejected permission to film the ashram, have led to the ashram unleashing a bitter attack against Morarji Desai, "whose Government discriminates against the disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. thereby exposing them to exploitation and corruption."

Tension: Morarji Desai himself, according to the ashram, is responsible for creating these obstacles because of his personal dislike of Rajneesh. The story told in the ashram concerns a chance meeting between Rajneesh and Morarjibhai many years ago. Left together in a room, Rajneesh was under the impression that Morarjibhai had stayed on to speak to him. Morarji thought it was the other way round and took it as a deliberate slight which has continued to irk him. Lately, Rajneesh's dislike of Morarji has verged on the vitriolic.

The ashram's propaganda network being infinitely superior to the Government of India's, their version of the unholy war gets around faster. Lately, the Charity Commissioner of Pune, R.P. Ranadive, in a ludicrously-worded notification has instituted an inquiry under the Bombay Public Trusts Act. His objections? That ashram disciples do not follow traffic rules; that "public streets are used as lavatory for natural calls which gives bad smell and resulted in nuisance near the locality near about the ashram"; that "disciples purposely indulge in teasing ladies from the neighbouring localities in spite of the fact that they are aware that hugging and kissing is not approved by the Indians"; and that disciples are smuggling and dealing in opium and charas.

The "hugging and kissing" business is mainly what most Pune residents find objectionable. Says the city's mayor Ramchandra P. Wadke, who has - being an athiest, he likes to point out - never entered the ashram: "I have only passed that road a few times. I am afraid they do not behave properly. Ladies and gents sitting on the parapet and smoking is not a common sight in Pune. I am afraid, this is not gentlemanly behaviour." In addition to shaking the genteel morality of the city, citizens of Koregaon Park complain frequently about the noise "created by all the song and dance." Noisome or not, song and dance is serious business in the ashram and, more important, it is serious money.

Each morning after the discourse is over, a 37-year-old blonde, brassy Californian called Ma Prem Aneeta takes the hall over for her class in Sufi dancing. Standing with the mike in the centre she croons instructions to a swinging group: "Let go, let go," "Learn to play with each other, learn to touch." Then with the aid of a pair of bongo drums and a guitar she instructs her pupils in nursery-school-type dance steps to impromptu lyrics such as: "Wake up, wake up/Now's your chance/ To come alive/And sing and dance." To which the refrain is: "How much longer can you ignore/Bhagwan knocking on your door."

Sufi dancing is but one of the over 50 therapy groups in constant operation at the ashram. Not all of them are as puerile. From Gestalt to Encounter, Acupuncture to Tai Chi, Golfing to Tantra, traditional eastern meditation practices and western psychological therapies are offered in courses that last from two to 15 days. Group therapy, an offshoot of Jungian psychological analysis, first became established in the '60s in America as the work of a team of "holistic" psychologists. Now it has become both a fashionable and expensive business.

Therapy: With the conversion of several educated foreign practitioners of therapy groups to Rajneesh's sannyas, it has become immensely profitable for the ashram to offer courses to westerners in search of themselves. But Rajneesh takes sufficient precautions. Indians are not encouraged to take up therapy courses. "Eastern psychology is introvert; it is ingoing. The Indian needs to be in a state of total, utter aloneness. He needs meditation techniques like Vipassana where he can forget the whole outside world. Western psychology is extrovert and outgoing. If a westerner comes and I put him directly into Vipassana meditation he is at a loss "

With over a thousand foreigners taking courses each month, the Rajneesh Foundation has now established the Rajneesh International Meditation University, which offers degree programmes in subjects as varied as parapsychology to occultism and applied crafts.

Financial Success: Courses alone cost anything from Rs 50 to Rs 65 a day, and the money continues to pour in. Just over five years ago, says Ma Laxmi, before he moved to Pune, Rajneesh set up the ashram with Rs 7,000 in loans. In 1977-78 the Rajneesh Foundation income was Rs 58.74 lakh, with donations amounting to Rs 47.54 lakh, most of them in foreign currencies. Expenditure. on the other hand, was Rs 8.29 lakh leaving a surplus of Rs 43.10 lakh.

When she met him in the early '60s at a political meeting she was 34 years old, the daughter of a prosperous cloth merchant family in Bombay. "He walked in and I didn't know what hit me. I just sat stunned. This is the man for me, I thought. That was my first and last love affair: like Radha, like Meera I too was bewitched."

Rajneesh - then called Acharya Rajneesh - was then a man less complex, and certainly more accessible. Having quit his lecturership at Saugar University in Madhya Pradesh where he taught philosophy earlier, and decided that he was going to put his spirituality into practice (he is said to have become enlightened, Buddha-like, one night at the age of 21) he was travelling and organising small meditation groups.

Laxmi began to follow him from camp to camp. Then in 1970, during a dynamic meditation course in Nargol on the border of Gujarat, she went through a dramatic transformation. "A great laughter started within me, I was hysterical. It was a joke, everything was a joke. Who am I? I was asking but could not stop laughing."

Growth: The experience changed her life. On that day Rajneesh ordained her Ma Yoga Laxmi and decided that in future all his followers will adopt names of his choosing, and that he alone, would be entitled to give sannyas. A small society called the Jeevan Jagriti Kendra was set up by Rajneesh in a flat in Bombay. Slowly the Indians began to disappear as more and more foreigners joined his meditation camps.

"Initially, it was the freaks who came, young westerners experimenting with counterculture," says Krishna Prem. The money no doubt began to come in at the same time. One day apparently Rajneesh asked Laxmi to look for a house in Pune. Travelling there she found the perfect place: in late 1974 Jeevan Jagriti Kendra was dissolved and the Rajneesh Foundation established at Koregaon Park. Now the Foundation is negotiating for a 1,300-acre property near Saswad, 20 miles out of Pune.

"Only the other day," says Laxmi with the pride of a mother whose child has accomplished a feat, "he began to criticise Buddha. Bhagwan doesn't create controversy, he is controversy."

Weird: His small darshans in the evenings were once simple ceremonies in which he ordained new disciples. Now they get curiouser every day. Strobe lights have appeared. The ashram is plunged into darkness, as a group of musicians work up their instruments to a frenzied crescendo. Held close by 12 writhing women in saffron, the disciple seeking transfer of spiritual energy, is hypnotised by Rajneesh pressing his fingers on his forehead. Outside it's lights-out time, with a thousand-strong crowd dancing in the darkness of the main hall.

As the fever rises people strip to their underclothes. Sweating, gyrating, swinging to the rising rhythm pouring from the speakers, the release of energy is timed with the energy darshan inside. Again and again, as each disciple seeking energy transfer goes up, the 12 mediums flail their arms and thrust their bodies in supreme passion. A young disciple begins to slobber in the dark.

A woman holding her stomach in the audience cries out in ecstasy. The whole performance is designed as an esoteric ritual, a mystical purge, a special-effects pyschodrama. Depending on a disciple's state of mind, it could be hallucinatory, euphoric or even spiritually enervating. But a faked theatricality sticks around the sequence like congealed grease.

Success-oriented: And as with most gurus, it is not easy to separate Rajneesh's fakery from his reality. Like most performers, he is a bit of both. Like all cult heroes in search of a mass audience, he is both charlatan and instructor. And his ashram can be about as elevating as a cave in the mountains, as harmless as a night at a discotheque or as disturbing as a spell in an asylum. The truth probably lies in between and is perhaps more mundane.

Rajneesh might simply be an ambitious man, like any other, seeking his fortune. And his success, dependent on his normal human potential and those of his orange people, lies in merely utilising it to its optimum, just as in any other success-oriented human being. And the phenomenal success of his ashram is no different from the success of a well-managed business house that employs the rather original synthesis of shrewd Gujarati money-sense with smooth Madison Avenue public relationing.

In which case Rajneesh could with equanimity swap jobs with the head of an expanding multinational corporation. The Rajneesh Ashram could well become the IBM of religion. Or even its Coca-Cola, if it keeps on the right side of the Indian Government, and manages to retain its magic potion. That might, after all, be the real thing.

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Many cults use ways of trying to keep the truth about their organizations hidden from the rest of the world. Some rely on suing the bejezus out of dissidents; others rely on mass suicide, shootouts with the feds, creating their own uncritical media outlets, putting rattlesnakes in mailboxes, or getting into high office. However, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh decided to take the opposite approach, which led him to establish a community that was relatively peaceful right up until the moment he decided to attempt to overthrow the Governor of Oregon[citationneeded] and launch a bioterror attack. Rajneesh actually flaunted the fact that he exploited his followers. While he opened a collective in Oregon where his followers toiled in the fields, he managed to gain power of attorney over them and used nearly all their money to purchase a fleet of Rolls-Royce automobiles and drove them around the compound. His Oregon commune actually managed to legally incorporate as the town of Rajneeshpuram. His teachings, a syncretic mix of Buddhism, free love, encounter groups, and the Human Potential Movement, included prophecies of a world nuclear war sometime in the 1990s and the death of 2/3 of the world's population from AIDS. Eventually the U.S. government looked into his group after his followers were caught surreptitiously spraying bacteria on the salad bars of local restaurants in an effort to make the local population sick, and shut it down. The group used this attack to poison the local population before a local election in an attempt to seize power. This plot was, in effect, an attempted coup d'tat against the municipal government of The Dalles, Oregon.In 1985, the group attempted to assassinate Charles Turner, the Oregon District Attorney. Rajneesh was deported to India as part of a plea bargain during which he received a 10-year suspended sentence for immigration law violations. He died in 1990[1].

He got quite a few followers in Australia, particularly in Fremantle, Western Australia, where they fit right in with the other duplicitous business hippie scum and are all but mainstream.

Following the breakup of his Oregon commune and his deportation to India, he dropped the Bhagwan Sree Rajneesh name and became known as Osho. Osho's books on such subjects as Zen and meditation[note 2] have since become staples in New Age bookstores.

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