Osho’s controversial secretary and Wild Wild Country star Ma Anand Sheela in her most honest interview ever!

Meet the Rajneeshi who overshadowed Bhagwan Rajneesh himself: interviewed by a curious 16-year-old girl from Mumbai! An HT Brunch Exclusive!

Why would I, a 16-year-old in Mumbai, wake up one morning and phone the indomitable Ma Anand Sheela in Maisprach, Switzerland?

Sheela Birnstiel aka Ma Anand Sheela was the secretary to Bhagwan and the head of Rajneeshpuram in Oregon(Gabriel Hill)

Who is Ma Anand Sheela?

If you haven’t watched the Neflix documentary Wild Wild Country, read this!
Sheela was secretary to cult leader Rajneesh (later called Osho) in the ’80s, and helped set up the town of Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, USA. The unorthodox ways of the community rattled not just local residents of the state, but put the freedom of religion the US constitution guarantees its citizens under the scanner.
As the face of controversy, Ma Anand Sheela overshadowed Rajneesh himself in the documentary. Her controversial statements questioning the American establishment made her a television darling and she was once called “the most hated woman in the USA.”
Sheela was accused of bio- warfare, attempt to murder and convicted for her role in a giant immigration scam, and she served her sentence in an American prison.
She now lives in Switzerland and works with aged people.

Ma Anand Sheela was just a 16-year-old when she first met Rajneesh (Gabriel Hill)

In the early 1980s Sheela was embroiled in international controversy as the chief spokesperson for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Gabriel Hill )

“ I was the soprano, Bhagwan (Rajneesh) the tenor, Rajneeshpuram the setting, and the ending, like most operas, tragic”

“We tried to create a religion to obtain a US visa for Bhagwan. They had a category for head of religion, but to declare him as that, we had to create a religion first. So that was how it was a religion...”

“When people call it a sex cult, I do not take it personally. It just shows their small vocabulary and mentality!”

The Emmy-nominated docuseries, Wild Wild Country, is the story of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his fierce lieutenant Ma Anand Sheela (Gabriel Hill )