Dont Kill Him! - The story of my life with Bhagwan Rajneesh  (English, Paperback, Sheela Ma Anand)

Flipkart Official Review

It isn’t easy to write a book about a public figure. It isn’t easy to also write a book about your life spent with the public figure and having loved him and done everything as per his wish and command. “Don’t Kill Him! The Story of my Life with Bhagwan Rajneesh” by Ma Anand Sheela is a short chronicle of Ma Sheela’s life with Bhagwan (self-proclaimed) Rajneesh from the time she met him, worked with him in setting up the commune at Poona and Oregon to the time she resigned from the post of his secretary, was behind bars for thirty-nine months, to what she did after.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part speaks of the accusations on Ma Sheela and how she dealt with them. It also takes a turn to the years spent in prison by her and her so-called courage and persistence that kept her going. The second part is about how she joined the Rajneesh and her ways of working around the ashram and the setting of the Oregon commune.

That in short, is the plot of the book. I think that for memoirs to make an impact, it needs to be honest and more so strongly backed by facts (if they are imperative to the book like in this one). There are a lot of inconsistencies in the book. On one hand Ma Sheela talks about how Rajneesh was different and how she still loves him and on the other she talks of how he falsely accused her and she had lost all respect for the man (implies it in the book). The so-called Bhagwan moved about in close to 100 Rolls Royce and owned watches by the dozens, while his disciples did not have money to pay for his meditation courses. This is the biggest indication of a lie of a man who claimed to combine capitalism with spirituality. “Don’t Kill Him” reads like a thriller and disappoints as a memoir.

Don’t Kill Him: The Story Of My Life With Bhagwan Rajneesh is an autobiography of the time the author spent as personal assistant to celebrated mystic and spiritual guru Rajneesh, aka Osho.

Summary Of The Book

Don’t Kill Him: The Story Of My Life With Bhagwan Rajneesh is a detailed account of how Ma Anand Sheela came to meet self-proclaimed godman Rajneesh, known to his followers as Osho, and about her relationship with him during her years as Rajneesh’s personal assistant.
There are a number of instances that Ma Anand Sheela recounts, regarding her meeting with Rajneesh and how he made her feel. Throughout the book, she proclaims her undying love and admiration for Rajneesh and how much the guru’s precepts and philosophies helped her in her life.

There is also an explanation for the controversial bio-terror charges that were levelled against Ma Anand Sheela, and there is an account of her conviction and subsequent incarceration, and finally her exile in Europe. Ma Anand Sheela claims in Don’t Kill Him: The Story Of My Life With Bhagwan Rajneesh that despite the fact that Rajneesh was responsible for her stint in jail, she never wavered in her love for him.

The book explains the pains taken by her to set up the commune in Oregon known as Rajneeshpuram. Again, there are a number of accusations which Sheela defends in the book. Don’t Kill Him: The Story Of My Life With Bhagwan Rajneesh is essentially Sheela’s version of events, a firsthand account of what happened through the eyes of the main accused.

About Ma Anand Sheela

Ma Anand Sheela was second-in-command to Rajneesh, and was his aide and personal assistant. She shared a very intimate relationship with Rajneesh, and was consulted on all matters involving the running of Rajneesh’s meditation centres and other aspects.

Sheela helped set up the Rajneeshpuram commune and worked for Rajneesh from 1981 to 1985. In 1985, faced with a number of criminal charges, she fled to Europe along with a number of followers. She was arrested in West Germany and extradited to USA, where she pleaded guilty to a few of the charges and spent 29 months in jail.