Ma Anand Sheela
Also known as Ambalal Patel Sheela, Sheela Silverman, later Sheela Birnstiel, is a former follower, secretary and spokeswoman for the Indian mystic and spiritual teacher Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, now commonly known as Osho.
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In order for the Moral Majority and the mobs to understand Rajneesh, they will have to leave their mob mentality and their morality and become amoral. Right now they are living in the 16th century; it is about time that they grow up and move with the science. And become sophisticated as Rajneesh are.
Rajneesh is a great leader and a good man who was never really understood in our own country. In India he was a philosophy professor whose real name was Mohan Chandra. Rajneesh was a nickname he acquired in his childhood. He began lecturing in 1957 at colleges and universities. In 1971, he changed his name to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Rajneesh had taken a vow of public silence before his arrival in America. He now spoke to his followers only through his inner circle, chiefly Ma Anand Sheela, who met with him every day.
Charismatic communications from Bhagwan or his designated surrogate, Sheela, were grandiose and served as motivation, direction, and inspiration for the group. Bhagwan's and Sheela's rhetorics posed problems for the movement in their very expansiveness and arrogance toward other groups and institutions. While the attacks on other cultures attracted followers dissatisfied with governments and institutions, they also alarmed and alienated more conventional audiences.
The court heard that Sheela had instigated The Dalles salmonella poisonings. A team of sannyasins had been sent out with orders to smear salmonella from rubber gloves onto the salad bars of eight different restaurants. The court heard how the poisonings and murder plots were looked on lightly by some of the conspirators; after all, death was just another part of the journey.
You tell your Governor, your attorney general and all the bigoted pigs outside that if one person on Rancho Rajneesh is harmed I will have 15 of their heads, and I mean it. You have given me no choice. Even though I am a nonviolent person I will do that.
All evidence suggested that Sheela and her small circle were responsible for these dangerous activities, but whether or not Rajneesh knew remains in dispute. However, for the past twenty years, Sheela has sworn that Rajneesh directed every criminal and violent move.
By the year 2000, Oregon will be collapsed and the city of Rajneesh Puram will be existing.
The Oregonian staff (December 14, 1988). "Sheela: A Chronology". The Oregonian (Oregonian Publishing Co.): p. E06.
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