Word: sheela
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Last week some seemed to be going, and the guru was not exactly blissful about it. The Indian expatriate discovered that his personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, had taken off, along with Rajneeshpuram's mayor, a city-council member and a gaggle of other top Rajneesh functionaries. The bhagwan (revered one) called a succession of news conferences to denounce the nine or so who flew his coop as "fascists" and "criminals." He accused some of the defectors of an exotic miscellany of offenses. Offering nothing that authorities considered proof, Rajneesh asserted that there had been attempted poisonings of seven people...
...Sheela, a raven-haired 35-year-old who joined the sect in 1973, was the leader of the first band of Rajneeshees that settled in 1981 in what was then Antelope, Ore., a hamlet of 40. As their numbers increased, the sannyasins (followers) bought out older residents, registered to vote and took over the city council, changing the name Antelope to Rajneesh in 1984. Sheela was responsible for the scheme to recruit about 3,500 homeless people for the commune last fall, in what observers believe was an attempt to load the voting rolls against longer-term residents of Wasco...
...explain their motives in this recruitment drive, their neighbors have come to the not unreasonable conclusion that the aim is to enlarge the Bhagwan's political power. Two of the three Wasco County commissioners will be elected on Nov. 6. The Bhagwan's personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, has announced that all the new street people, perhaps some 3,500, will register to vote. She has also suggested that the sect may vote for its own write-in candidates for the two seats...