Indian religious figure, she was the first disciple and secretary of Osho, initiated into his first group of disciples or neo-sannyasins on 26 September 1970. As his secretary throughout the decade of the 1970s she liaised with world leaders and organised his affairs with his many disciples. She has been described as “the moon to Osho’s sun.”
She took the name Ma Yoga Laxmi. Laxmi was the daughter of one of Osho’s early followers, a wealthy Jain, who had been a key supporter of the Indian National Congress during the struggle for Indian independence, with close ties to Gandhi, Nehru, and Morarji Desai. She raised the money that enabled Rajneesh to stop his travels and settle down. In December 1970, he moved to the Woodlands Apartments in Mumbai, where he gave lectures and received visitors, among them his first Western visitors. He now travelled rarely, no longer speaking at open public meetings. In 1971, Osho adopted the title “Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh”. In 1974 Laxmi organised his move to the Pune ashram.
Around 1981, Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman) replaced Ma Yoga Laxmi as Rajneesh’s secretary, before Osho’s move to the USA. Osho died on 19 January 1990. Laxmi, who had cancer, left her body on 6 January 1995 in Mumbai at age 61.
Rashid Maxwell’s book The Only Life: Osho, Laxmi and a Journey of the Heart was published by Simon and Schuster on 9 December 2017.
Link to Wikipedia biography