Guru - Bhagwan, His Secretary & His Bodyguard

Many people were searching in the 70s. Looking for inner happiness, spirituality, new ideas to expand consciousness and sexual liberation. One man who, for thousands, was the embodiment of all the goals of their quest was the spiritual teacher Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

The documentary "Guru - Bhagwan, His Secretary &. His Bodyguard" draws on a wealth of footage from the 70s and 80s, as well as recent interviews with Sheela Birnstiel, once Bhagwan's personal secretary, and Hugh Milne, who stood closely by Bhagwan's side as his bodyguard, to create a fascinating picture of the construction and decay of what was thought to be an ideal form of society. The film by Sabine Gisiger and Beat Häner shows why Bhagwan was able to exert such a great attraction on so many people, how he himself increasingly changed from a spiritual teacher to a megalomaniac cult leader, and how the dream of the ideal community of life in the mountains of Oregon was shattered for more than 5000 people.

However, the documentary tries to remain pleasantly neutral. It lets the quite different protagonists and the pictures speak for themselves. It is particularly interesting to see that the fascination that Bhagwan exerted on Sheela and Hugh at the time can still be felt today in their words and gestures, even if Hugh in particular distances himself from his former guru and by no means approves of everything that happened back then.

The insights that the film gives the viewer into the life in the community around Bhagwan are absolutely fascinating, but at times also frightening and revealing. What sounds like paradise at the beginning turned into a nightmare for many over the years, and this too is conveyed in the film in an at times depressing manner.

Certainly the documentary does not want to spoil or talk anyone out of their search for spirituality, rather at the end is the realization that willy-nilly admiration of a person should always be taken with a grain of salt and that it is more than healthy to always critically question other people's views, as positive as they may sound, instead of simply adopting them uncritically. All this makes "Guru - Bhagwan, His Secretary & His Bodyguard" an exciting as well as entertaining film that lovers of interesting documentaries should definitely not miss.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp