According to Osho, questions about Sheela are an 'old story' not worth revisiting; he refuses to spend time on her or her 'gang' and declares the matter finished. For him, Sheela holds no living spiritual significance; dwelling on her distracts from real inquiry. He urges seekers to move on from past controversies and attend to fresh, essential understanding here-now.
He says talking about Sheela is old news and a waste of time—let’s drop it and focus on what matters now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WOULD YOU TALK ABOUT SHEELA AND HER GANG? My God! Such an old story. And you must be real lazy and late to ask such a question. I can talk about Adam and Eve -- that is far more fresh. But I do not want to waste my time and your time about Sheela and her gang. It is finished. Okay?
If you don't miss sheela, at least do you ever think about her?
Who is Sheela? I have one million sannyasins; you can't expect me to remember the names of all my people. I recognize them by their faces, I recognize them by their eyes, I recognize them by their laughter. I don't know about whom you are asking. You should bring a picture and then ask the question.
A: Anybody would have behaved like that. Just ordinary unconscious mind finding an opportunity -- millions of dollars, thousands of people ready to do anything, so much power, so much money -- and she was just a hotel waitress when she came to me. She had never dreamt of having two hundred fifty million dollars, having one hundred twenty-six square miles land, having one million sannyasins around the earth ready to follow her. It is not Sheela. Anybody would have fallen in the trap. But the problem was that I could not give the position that Sheela had to a meditator. A meditator is basically introvert. Sheela knows nothing of meditation. She has never meditated. Neither she has any possibility in this life. This was her qualification: she is extrovert.
That was the time when I started feeling to go into silence for a group of years, just to give a gap, so that the life that I had lived before silence becomes completely separated from me. It is now completely separated from me. Now whatsoever I say, I say on my own authority. I say only that which I know. I don't believe in anything. I don't quote anybody unless he coincides with me. Q: WHEN DID YOU MEET SHEELA? A: Sheela's father was not even married when I started living with him. He got married after three months. Sheela came long afterwards. But Sheela's father has been trying to bring all his children to me, he wanted them not to miss me. His two sons are sannyasins, all his daughters are sannyasins. Sheela was studying in America for about ten years before.
Beloved master, you said before that meditative people cannot be corrupted by power, but how come sheela and her gang were corrupted by power? Please say something about the organization of the meditative people.
Meditative people cannot be corrupted -- ever. If somebody is corrupted, that only means he was not meditative. And about Sheela, I can tell you certainly: she had no interest in meditation, in my way of life, my philosophy. Her interests were totally different. She had come first to me because her husband was suffering from cancer, and the doctors in America had said that he cannot live more than two years. She was desperately in search of someone who could help. Her husband, Chinmaya, was a beautiful man. He remained with me, and it almost always happens, when you are facing death meditation is easy. You cannot postpone it, because tomorrow you may not be here to meditate. So Chinmaya tried hard to meditate, and that helped him to live. All the medical experts were agreed. They could not believe what had happened to him, because two years was…