It was in the blistering summer of 1965 that 16-year-old Sheela Patel's destiny was first sealed. Her unconventional Gandhian father, Ambalal Patel, had taken Sheela to meet Acharya Rajneesh, a revolutionary whose new age and non-conformist ideas were creating ripples within the conservative community of Baroda. Rajneesh made it a point to speak with each person in the room. "When it was Sheela's turn to sit directly in front of him and ask questions, she just folded her palms in gratitude and stayed silent. There were no questions and no answers—tears were streaming down the sixteen-year-old's eyes," shares Manbeena Sandhu in her new book, Nothing to Lose (HarperCollins India), the authorised biography of Ma Anand Sheela. "Life was never the same again…"

The book, a result of several decades of research, explores the many shades of Sheela—from a sincere wife and Osho bhakt to a ruthless second-in-command, who eventually gave up the highest echelons of power for a life of service.