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.