Bhagwan: The God That Failed

I read the book cover to cover. I never wanted to because I used to be a doe-eyed follower of Bhagwan. Not in the literal sense, I own perhaps 70 books. I thought the book was going to be an unmitigated attack on Bhagwan. Instead, Milne provides a rather insightful look. The fact that he was Bhagwan's bodyguard gave him access to every priveledge known to man. Milne allows the reader to put themselves in his shoes. Eventually, the women leaders of Oregon Ashram sought power and ostracized Milne. And Milne was neverthess, loyal to the core. He felt that what he was doing still mattered, driving a backhoe in 30 degree weather 12 hours a day with little sleep or sustanance. And a Phd. to boot. Milne's account is a simple honest testimony to what happened. And he doesn't point fingers or lay blame at Bhagwan. He realizes the decisions that he made were made by himself. And he benefitted from many of these decisions, but also fell victim to the Ashram which took on a life of its own. And he became Bhagwan's alleged infamous Judas. In the book you would think that he would be somewhere bitter and resentful. There is none. That is the beauty in the book. And perhaps, that is part of the beauty that Milne experience prior to Bhagwan's downfall. A must read for anyone interested in the existentiatlist's existentialist. I no longer consider Bhagwan to be the Alpha and Omega of life's issues. Milne helped me break free from my loyalty. I still greatly respect Bhagwan for his literature. But possibly, it ends there. Bhagwan, according to Milne, became just a shell of what he used to be. And that is where he failed. Thanks to modern day Valium and Nitrous Oxide, one of the greatest minds became incapacitated.

The Kama Sutra says, about the `public woman': After acceptance she should please him; when he is infatuated with her she should suck him dry of his wealth and at last abandon him. This is the duty of a public woman". This, in essence, was the strategy Rajneesh, a balding potbellied holy man, used with the people who flocked to his flat in Bombay, his sprawling `ashram' in Poone and later to the commune in Oregon. Seduction, followed by indoctrination and total mind control. This book is an instructive story that should be a required reading for naïve devotees flocking to India to sit at feet of more than imperfect `holy men' who have no compunction about mind control and (sex)ploitation. Here is how Milne describes his first meeting with Rajneesh: "One hand still holds mine as the questions continue, as if he is practicing the gentlest ever form of mind detection. There is no invasion of privacy, no alarm, but it is as if his soul is slowly slipping inside mine, and in a split second transferring vital information. Letting go of my hand, he moves his left arm behind me. I sense a presence hovering over the crown of my head. He rests his hand there and stares off into the middle distance, sensing, checking, listening, all his being attuning itself to mine. Then the soft hand moves to my forehead, waits, listens, wafts to my throat and presses so gently on the cartilage there. Every chakra is discretely touched. The chakras recognize the arrival of a friend." Dangerous man. After his grandfather died at the age of seven, Rajneesh resolved to never become attached to another human being. As a youngster, he was an admirer of Gurdjieff, experimented with the occult, breath control, magic and hypnosis, making himself an outcast in his own family. Milne, attracted at first by `tantra' practices (a Rajneeshi synonym for "free sex for all"), eventually became a personal bodyguard and, as a member of the inner circle, a close witness to the rise and fall of one of the greatest spiritual scam artists of the XXth century. When Rajneesh proclaimed that `sex was divine and natural' he became attractive to Europeans and Americans who were fleeing the straight-jackets of puritan morality. These people paid their price: they were made to renounce their wealth and work, sleep-deprived, 12-14 hour days/7 days a week. The earnest work by the Occidentals must have gotten a chuckle or two from the Indians, for whom any physical effort is a degradation to be avoided at all cost. The (mostly Western) devotees were controlled by a tight-knit group of Indians led by a truly scary `Ma Anand' Sheela character. Milne describes the woman as aggressive, greedy, amoral without any empathy or remorse. Sheela was responsible for creating a concentration camp in Oregon and committed what may be the first bioterrorist attack in the US. Milne, who today is a well known teacher of alternative medicine in California, does not appear in a good light in his own book. He had a

A review can say so much more about the reviewer than the book in question. The Library Journal review wonders how people could "throw away" years of their lives, etc., to follow such a guru--and criticizes Milne for failing to explain. In fact, he does explain the attraction: it was experiential; living in the presence of Rajneesh and in the company of other followers proved more powerful and enlightening--felt better--than life on the outside. Therapists and body workers found their practices enhanced by Rajneesh, not merely his "teachings" but by their own transformation, mind-body-spirit, catalyzed by Rajneesh. Milne also points out that it is not unusual for people in mass movements or utopian communities based on "love" to experience the high bliss of community.Readers seem to expect books by former Rajneeshees all to be sociological studies in cultism as well as expose's of crime & intrigue replete with interviews and testimonials. Sometimes the best source of information is one's own experience; that can be enough for one book to digest. Rajneesh drew people to his writings as well as to his meditations...and ultimately, in many cases, to his ashrams. People were 'hit' on many levels. The question posed by the Library Journal review--why so many normal people would throw away so much to follow Rajneesh--implies that a flaw in their collective character caused the phenomenon, when the cause is far more normal and common: people seeking 'truth' who make the mistake of diminishing their selves while elevating someone else to the status of hero-god. That phenonenon didn't stop with Bhagwan. And memoirs about that experience will probably continue to be ambivalent because of the very powerful, in many cases transformative, experiences people have vis a vis the brainwash and surrender of identity. The experience did not cost Milne, a young man at the time, his career as an osteopath. For all the lessons learned, it seemed to have enhanced it.

This is not a great work as writing goes but it is a really unique insight into a phenomenon that touched so many lives around the world. I really appreciated the undertaking of Hugh Milne in writing about his teacher, his world and identity for so many years and his ultimate separation from a heady movement gone berserk and ultimately destructive.Never drawn to this movement I knew of others (American and Brits) who were. I was drawn to another'spiritual growth' movement when much younger and had some agonizingly lonely separation traumas myself once I questioned where it was leading - so I found the account by Milne a genuinely valuable read.