New Delhi: After Sanjay Gandhi's death in a plane crash, his mother Indira Gandhi wanted her other son Rajiv to give up being a professional pilot and enter politics and sought the help of Osho's secretary Laxmi to persuade him, claims a new book.
Indira Gandhi, India's fourth prime minister, was interested in spiritual life like her father Jawaharlal Nehru, says poet-artist Rashid Maxwell in "The Only Life: Osho, Laxmi, and the World in Crisis".
"From an early age, she had been touched by the words and the being of Osho. She was, however, first and foremost an ambitious politician so she never actually came to his ashram even when she was in Poona because Osho was already a controversial figure by then," the book says.
In 1980, when Indira Gandhi was again prime minister, her son and heir Sanjay died in a plane crash.
"She wanted Laxmi's help to persuade Rajiv to give up being a professional pilot and enter politics. Laxmi went to his room and spoke with him for a long time concerning the contribution he might make to the country's progress in the 20th century," Mr Maxwell writes in the book, published by Simon & Schuster.
He became the prime minister following his mother's assassination in 1984.
Growing up in British India and apparently rendered powerless in a domineering world, Ms Laxmi went on to become Osho's first disciple and secretary.
Indira Gandhi, India's fourth prime minister, was interested in spiritual life like her father Jawaharlal Nehru, says poet-artist Rashid Maxwell in "The Only Life: Osho, Laxmi, and the World in Crisis".
"From an early age, she had been touched by the words and the being of Osho. She was, however, first and foremost an ambitious politician so she never actually came to his ashram even when she was in Poona because Osho was already a controversial figure by then," the book says.
In 1980, when Indira Gandhi was again prime minister, her son and heir Sanjay died in a plane crash.
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"She wanted Laxmi's help to persuade Rajiv to give up being a professional pilot and enter politics. Laxmi went to his room and spoke with him for a long time concerning the contribution he might make to the country's progress in the 20th century," Mr Maxwell writes in the book, published by Simon & Schuster.
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He became the prime minister following his mother's assassination in 1984.
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Growing up in British India and apparently rendered powerless in a domineering world, Ms Laxmi went on to become Osho's first disciple and secretary.
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