Wild Wild Guru: An insider’s account of his life with Bhagwan, the world’s most controversial guru

by Subhuti Anand Waight

This is the story of a Englishman who gave up a job in journalism to spend fourteen years with the controversial Indian mystic Osho, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and frequently referred to as 'the sex guru'.

His guru was always controversial with his teachings on sex and spirituality, rumours of orgies and because he owned ninety-three Rolls Royces.

Early in 1976, Subhuti travelled to India to meet Rajneesh in his ashram in Pune, became initiated as his disciple and immediately began to have mystical experiences, which he attributed to the powerful energy field surrounding the guru. He stayed for six months, participating in the ashram's notorious Encounter Group and other therapies designed to release suppressed emotions and awaken sexual energy

Subhuti would stay to live and work on his master's ashrams for fourteen years, first as his press officer in Pune, India, then as editor of the community's weekly newspaper when Bhagwan and his followers shifted to Oregon, USA, and built a whole new town on the massive Big Muddy Ranch.

There Subhuti was a first-hand witness to the scandals and hullabaloo that accompanied the guru, including tales of broken bones in no-holds-barred therapy groups and Tantra groups that encouraged total sexual freedom, and the increasing hostility with the locals which would lead to Bhagwan's attempt to flee America, his arrest and imprisonment. .

He was on the Oregon Ranch when Rajneesh's secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, plotted against rival cliques within the ashram as well as a range of murderous crimes against state and federal officials which feature in hit Netflix series Wild Wild Country.

Yet, amidst it all, Subhuti could see the profound revolution in spirituality that Bhagwan was creating, leaving a lasting impact on our ideas about society, religion, meditation and personal transformation.

According to the author's understanding, it was the controversy itself, plus Bhagwan's refusal to tread the path of a spiritual saint, that became the stepping stone to a new vision of what it means to be a spiritual seeker.

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2019

Reviews

[Riva · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took me a while to get through. Like most people, I was pretty attracted to this book because of Wild Wild Country, which was a beautiful and captivating documentary.

Wild Wild Guru sheds light from a first person standpoint on a longer timeframe than the documentary, from the perspective of Subhuti, an ex-political journalist turned Sannyasin.

Honestly, I wanted to like this. I really did. But it read like most of my extended family’s Facebook statuses and I felt like I was reading him making excuses and gloss over key things that happened. I appreciated being given an idea on why people were captivated by Bhagwan, what he said and believed in and how it was interpreted by some of his early followers who followed him until the end as well as the positive impacts of the Ranch (organic farming, AIDS prevention, etc). But the style it was written in, the glossing over BIG issues and saying “well no one died, so it’s fine!” and the cliched metaphors made me struggle to get through.

[Tuğçe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it so much. It's well written, captivating and impressive. I found answers to the most of my questions after watching the documentary.
Only thing I didn't like is its cover. I was expecting a female writer. The writer mentioned a few books, written by other members. one of them on my list, written by a female.

[Lisa Kleinert · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I thought this would be a woman's perspective... because of the boobs on the cover.

Misleading. Haha.

The beginning and end were slow and rather dull, but I breezed through the center- the actual part of living at the ranch. I learned a bunch of new information and really enjoyed this part.

[Byron Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is based on a real history to take our own conclusions about a belief that had its results and learnings to avoid to follow people leaving our reason behind.

[Sunny Days · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the cover I thought it would be from a female perspective. I dig the guru scene but this book was great start then boring so I didn’t finish. Did t see the point .