Blog 2

Maggie Billingsley

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rajneesh-is-a-desperate-man-ma-anand-sheela/1/354660.html

Ma Anand Sheela, was the woman that ran the multi-million-dollar Rancho Rajneesh world headquarters of the 350,000-member cult established in Rajneeshparum. 

This article explains how Sheela was the starter of these headquarters, and ended it herself because she had had enough. --Sheela was the first lady of the commune and everything was going the way she wanted. Explained in an interview, Sheela was the happiest she had ever been until one day when she came across a scandal-laden development that forced her to storm out of the Rancho Rajneesh and denounced Rajneesh and his followers. The day after she had left, Rajneesh was informed that she had taken 55 million dollars of the sect’s money to Europe, where she left with "her gang."

Rajneesh was lashing out on his followers and accused them of several crimes. The crimes being attempted murder, arson, and telephone taping. To examine all the charges, FBI agents moved into the Rajneeshpuram.

The commune seemed to have done a lot of Sheela at the time in all aspects. Physically and spiritually. Sheela loved it there, but enough was just enough. In the article she states, “I was in love with him all these years but things just crystallized over that time. There were no specific instances which escalated matters but it kept building up till I reached a stage where I decided to go on my own. He is a desperate man. I took care of all his needs so that he had no worries, no complaints and could look good. And I was under incredible pressure running that huge outfit. Our monthly budget alone was two-and-a-half million dollars and I ran it in great style.” This is a big deal because she had nothing bad to say about Rajneesh, just how she truly felt and she did was best for her.


This has affected her post commune life because she is still not in the US in “in hiding” because of what she did. She is currently in Europe where she seems to be pretty successful and dealing with her new way of life. She states, “I have set up my own company (Sheela Birnstiel GMBH), a corporation that will function as hotel management consultants. We are somewhere in West Germany and there are 25 of us, including five children. I still maintain close contacts with my parents in Baroda and would like to visit India sometime soon.”

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