A cult disciple's rules

By My Own Rules: My Story in My Own Words

Author: Anand Sheela

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 304

Price: Rs 499

She is credited with creating a multi-million-dollar religious empire in the United States. Thanks to her untiring efforts, Rajneesh, later known as Osho, became a spiritual guru of international repute. In 1984, she pled guilty to what is considered the biggest bioterror attack in the United States. Released from prison in 1988, a penniless Ma Anand Sheela managed to establish communes for the elderly in Switzerland and Mauritius. In the course of her tumultuous life, she’s known poverty and enjoyed the finest luxuries; faced adulation and rejection, even from her beloved guru. Now 71, she has published By My Own Rules, a set of 18 rules that, she avers, have defined her life and actions. Part memoir, part self-help book, as someone who has been largely self-taught and self-directed, the author has laid out what she has learned from her experiences. Like the classic chicken and egg conundrum, it’s impossible to ascertain if the rules came first or whether she has retrospectively thought of them while looking back on her eventful life. Even so, the book is an interesting, though often confusing read, much like the personality of the author.

The first rule, not surprisingly, is about not passing judgement. This, she writes, makes one blind to all other possibilities. She is an engaging writer, and it is easy to see how in her earlier avatar, she managed to persuade thousands to join Rajneesh’s commune. Here too, readers will find themselves suspending their judgement and accepting life lessons from a person who left home, family and conventional ethics to follow a cult leader. That said, this must have been particularly tough for Ms Sheela to follow, especially during the 39 months she spent in prison under the plea-agreement with the US government and later with all the scandal and scrutiny. However, her fleeting, sanitised reference to the incident in which she was accused of using various poisons that made over 750 people in a small town in Oregon too ill to vote in the local election, seems inadequate. It seems as if by glossing over it and emphasising her work in elder care, she is painting a more sanitised image of herself. Perhaps, if her eighth rule has any weight, this might just happen. It states, “If you believe in it, your wish will come true….”

“This Too Shall Pass” is another maxim. After she was released from prison and had spent a year almost penniless, Ms Sheela began her life again, pretty much from scratch. She writes that this was made possible because of the motivation she drew from her faith that her troubles were only temporary; that everything in her life was happening at the right time at the right place. The story of how she transforms from a dog sitter to the owner of an old age home in Switzerland is fascinating. Looking back, she avers that this experience made her realise the extent of her willpower and will to survive.

Her fourth rule offers a partial explanation of how Ms Sheela has managed to influence so many people – “To build one’s life around love, patience and acceptance”. She writes, “When you love, you understand people. When you are patient, you give people the time they need to open up and trust. With acceptance, you can perceive reality and acknowledge it as it is.” Whether it is the people she convinced to join Rajneesh or it is the elderly under her care, Ms Sheela has demonstrated that in order to influence people, it is important to have an emotional connection with them (the one time she did not establish such a connect, she ended up in prison for poisoning them, so perhaps the corollary is true as well!) Other life rules she mentions in the book seem trite, like “Be adventurous”, “Love enough to let go” and “Don’t hesitate to speak the truth”.

By My Own Rules is filled with references to and gratitude towards Rajneesh. Ms Sheela says she is still in love with him. She writes that he made her aware of the huge energy inside her and continues to give her courage. Herein lies the confusion. Ms Sheela avers that she has always lived her life by her own rules. Yet, she continues to slavishly follow her guru’s teachings. Even after reading this book, readers will not quite know who the real Sheela actually is. Is she a shrewd, amoral businesswoman who helped build Osho’s million-dollar empire, multiple old age homes and a hotel, that too in diverse countries that weren’t her own? Or is she the quintessential cultist, blinded by her devotion to the man she still refers to as Bhagwan, god? Or is she now, as Swiss astrologer Saint von Lux says in the book’s foreword, “One of the most influential spiritual mentors of the twenty first century,” even though she has never called herself a spiritual teacher?

All in all, By My Own Rules is an engaging read about a remarkable life. It is up to readers to decide if they want to follow her life rules — or live by their own.