Wild
Wild Country , a Netflix Documentary on Bhagwan Osho Rajneesh
Was Bhagwan Osho Rajneesh an
enlightened spiritual guru or was he a conman turned criminal? The beauty of
the Netflix documentary, Wild Wild Country directed by Mclain Way & Chapman
Way is that it doesn’t confirm either of those suspicions. Rarely does one get
to see a documentary that is so balanced and honest. It talks about Osho from
the perspective of his disciples, the residents of Oregon as well as the
government authorities.
As the film progresses, one can’t
stop wondering as to how one individual can have so many people under his
spell. The residents of Oregon describe the citizens of Rajaneeshpuram as
having a ‘look’. When one sees the visuals of sanyasins, one can’t not notice
the strange look in their eyes – of joy,
of bewilderment, of having known the unknown. All of them were under Osho’s
magical spell. Seeing them, one wonders what it would have felt like to be in
that commune as a believer. Did they truly enjoy joy and liberation?
Although the documentary leaves one
thinking about thousands of believers who became sanyasins, their lives, beliefs
and doubts, here are a few principal characters from the documentary who have a
haunting effect on you.
Ma Anand Sheela – For me, Sheela’s character is the
most captivating, may be more than Osho’s himself. Osho was a spiritual being or
he claimed to be so. Sheela was human -like you and I. Her journey from meeting
Osho for the first time as a teenager to becoming his personal secretary to
being the all-powerful Ma Anand Sheela is nothing sort of fascinating. What
stands out is her conviction and will. Her conviction of feeling absolutely
correct in whatever she did and the will to achieve her goals. The interview
clippings from her earlier days shows her as someone who is arrogant, power
hungry, wealthy and blunt. But what surprised me was that the Sheela of current
day isn’t far too different from her earlier self. Her spirit remains the same.
What is disturbing though is an absence of guilt and remorse. She seemed to think
only about herself. Not even once does she mention anyone else. One expects
Sheela to have changed over time. One expects Sheela to have had an evolved and
dispassionate thought process by now. But No. She remains unchanged. One
wonders if one should admire or despise Sheela.
Residents of Oregon &
Antelope – As
the documentary begins, one identifies a lot with the residents of the tiny town
of Antelope. No one likes a bunch of strangers taking over one’s town. The
smaller the town, the stronger this feeling. Rajneeshes, as the followers of
Osho were known also gave the people of Antelope reasons to be worried knowingly
and at times, unknowingly. Repeatedly, the residents say they feared the
unknown. Somewhere half way through the documentary, one feels a bit swayed
towards the sanyasins. One wonders if the residents of Antleope were being
unreasonable with the residents of Rajneeshpuram asking them to leave. But then
again, one can’t help but feel bad for the tiny elderly population of Antelope.
Swami Prem Niren – He is a lawyer and a bright one at
that. He talks about being disenchanted with life and turning to Osho and his
way of being to find solace. I couldn’t help but wonder if startups are today’s
Osho. There are so many youngsters who are getting disenchanted with corporate
life and turning to startups. Swami Prem is the kind of character who lends a
bit of humane-ness to Osho. One tends to believe what Prem is saying. He looks
and speaks like a sensible person. Unlike Ma Sheela, there was no arrogance in
him. Much in the documentary, he almost speaks in a matter of fact manner about
Osho making one wonder if it is the same person who defended Osho in the courts
so very vigorously. Later in to the film, one can see that the embers of
worship are still burning. He believes strongly that the world missed a chance
to lead the Osho way of life.
Ma Shanti B – Of the characters in the documentary,
it is easier to relate to this lady. She goes through the familiar cycle of
getting spell bound, committing acts that are objectionable, regretting them
and now having reconciled with her past. Although she talks about the
experiences she has had and cherishes them, she also looks at a moment when she
got out of the ‘spell’. The moment in court that she describes when she goes to
see her son is quite poignant. Her character is testimony to the fact that
ordinary people like you and I will do outrageous deeds under extra ordinary
circumstances. Surround yourself with unusual people, put yourself in an
uncommon situation and you will surprise yourself with your ability to do
commit unbelievable actions!
Osho Rajneesh – Somewhere along the documentary, I
felt that maybe I should read his books. I wondered if he was really the spiritual
being he was made out to be. The smiles and constant laughter displayed by the
sanyasins make one want to gravitate towards the promise land. Something I
found strange about him was how less he blinked. Through out the documentary,
his eyes blinked for very very few times. To me, those eyes did not seem like luminous
wells of mercy and generosity. To me, they felt a bit threatening. I lost the
wish to read up about him when he behaved like a mere human towards Sheela. If
he were indeed the benevolent being he claimed to be, he would have never talked
about Sheela the way he did – dripping with vengeance. I admire his courage to
have shown his want for material things. Unlike many other sages, he did not
denounce worldly pleasures. Instead, he embraced them.
Ma Anand Sheela – Yes, I am aware that I wrote about
Sheela in one of the paragraphs above. But don’t you feel she is one of a kind?
I have not seen a character like that in my life! Neither in stories nor in
life. What makes her unique? Is it her complete lack of care for others? Is it
her deep conviction that she is right in whatever she did? Is it her unwavering
devotion to Osho, the Bhagwan? Is it her way of leaving Osho on one fine day
without as much as a good bye? Is it the way she faced the court, the officers,
the press and people? How does she appear to you? Like a body without a soul OR
a heart made of steel?
