If you have ever heard of spiritual guru âRajneeshâ of the Osho movement, chances are you have also heard of Ma Anand Sheela in equal measure. The enigmatic woman is perhaps just as popular as the cult leader himself, if not more. This popularity and the aura of unmistakable mystery that envelops the persona that is Ma Anand Sheela, comes despite her choice to give away precious slices of her life for keen takers to devour.

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Ma Anand Sheelaâs life cannot be called anything less than a fantastic piece of fiction laced with love, ***, scandal, ambition, crime and above all Osho. As she found herself getting enamoured by Osho more and more, life took her under and she resurfaced to swear her loyalty to the Osho movement. A vow that would eventually give rise to the mastermind behind brand âOshoâ and a convicted bio-terrorist with a long jail term.

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As Priyanka Chopra gets ready to portray this charismatic woman on-screen in a biopic titled Sheela, here are 10 terrific facts about Oshoâs âtrustedâ personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela that you ought to know:

1. Long before she became a cult icon Ma Anand Sheela, she was born as Sheela Ambalal Patel in 1949 to her parents Ambalal and Maniben in Baroda, Gujarat. Sheela moved to the United States at the tender age of 18, to study Arts at Montclair State College in New Jersey.

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2. It was her parents who had been committed followers of Rajneesh and introduced her to the movement. Though it was during one of the visits to her parents when she first crossed paths with Rajneesh aka Osho and felt devoted from the moment she set her eyes on him.

3. It was, however, in 1972 when she shifted base to India with her then American husband Marc Harris Silverman to undertake spiritual studies, that things took a major turn. The couple became disciples of Rajneesh and Sheela Patel Silverman became Ma Anand Sheela.

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3. Fast forward a few years, and Ma Anand Sheela became the official spokesperson and personal secretary of Rajneesh in 1981 and held the position until 1985, before she was to be charged and convicted by the court of law in the US.

4. It was all her great plan that turned Rajneesh into an international âbrandâ. So, when the Pune ashram had run its time in India and piqued enough global interest, Ma Anand Sheela laid the plan to acquire a 65,000-acre ranch land in Wasco County, Oregon where the cultâs first international base Rajneeshpuram was established in 1981.

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5. Eventually, when the population in Rajneeshpuram grew and turned into a mini-city of sorts, it was Ma Anand Sheela who orchestrated ways of creating conflict with other Wasco County residents, which would later come to be known as the â1984 Rajneeshee Bioterror Attackâ in Oregon.

6. With their growing desire to wield more power and expand the movement, Rajneeshees began taking over a nearby town named Antelope by the means of electing a Rajneeshee-majority city council and buying local property. Eventually, when the 1984 County elections drew near, Ma Anand Sheela tried to tamper with the voting process to capture two open seats.

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She tried to register thousands of homeless people from various cities outside the county as Oregon voters, but her plan failed when the state government shut voter registration ahead of the election. 

7. It was this failure that would lead Ma Anand Sheela to take desperate measures and try a different tactic to prevent people from voting. She devised the plan to carry out the United Statesâ largest bioterror attack by infecting 10 local salad bars in the city with salmonella. The âattackâ ended up poisoning 751 people.

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8. She was eventually charged with attempt to murder and assault for her role in the attack in 1986, wherein she pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in jail. She was let out on bail for good behaviour after 39 months of serving her term.

9. Later, she moved to Switzerland where she met and married her second husband and a fellow Rajneeshee Urs Birnstiel. There she bought two properties and turned them into nursing homes for disabled people. She now spends her time taking care of more than two dozen disabled people in these care homes.

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10. In September 2019, Ma Anand Sheela visited India after 34 years and was interviewed by Bollywood director Karan Johar In New Delhi. Besides that, she also attended a few private dinners and interactions while in the country.

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