eBook: Bhagwan, The God That Failed

Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc.
An insider's astonishing story of the rise and fall of the infamous guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his cult: a riveting odyssey of sex, greed, and the lust for power. From 1974 until 1981, Milne was Bhagwan's chief bodyguard and a key figure in a 'spiritual' movement that at its height claimed a half-million adherents--and tens of millions of dollars in its coffers. Milne casts his tale as one of an impressionable Scottish youth whose honest search for truth brings him to India and Rajneesh, to whom he capitulates totally. The author attributes Rajneesh's ability to dominate to two factors: the guru's psychic/hypnotic powers and the almost irresistible appeal of his tantric teachings, which urged a highly promiscuous sexuality. Milne's submission to Bhagwan--a slight, imperious figure with giant brown eyes--swirls him into an eerie world where he eats, sleeps, works, and makes love at Bhagwan's whim, a harrowing trial of the soul through confrontation with psychological and physical exhaustion, leavened only by Bhagwan's mesmerizing presence and scores of flings with female disciples. Then, Bhagwan's sudden decision to move to America, where the cult begins to unravel: Bhagwan falls under the influence of Sheela, a Himmler-like figure who proclaims 'meditation is for pansies' and reorganizes the cult into what amounts to a slave-labor force; Bhagwan's addiction to nitrous oxide and the loss of his psychic powers; the growing notoriety and rapid militarization of the cult, resulting in mass druggings of members, physical and political intimidation of the local Oregon populace, and, finally, a sea of warrants issued by the Justice Department, leading to Sheela's arrest for attempted murder, and Bhagwan's exile to India. A compelling, important report from the dark side of spiritual search.