The Nation - News from Dec. 2, 1988

A 64,000-acre Oregon cattle ranch that was once a mecca for followers of free-love guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh will be sold at a sheriff’s auction to pay off mortgage and tax liens. Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. brought a foreclosure action to collect $4 million in mortgage payments plus interest owed by the Rajneesh Investment Corp. Wasco and Jefferson counties also have tax liens totaling approximately $1 million. The sale on the steps of the Wasco County Courthouse in The Dalles will sever one of the last ties between Oregon and Rajneesh, an advocate of sexual freedom and the self-proclaimed “guru of the rich” who maintained a fleet of 90 Rolls-Royces when he lived on what he called Rancho Rajneesh 110 miles southeast of Portland. Rajneesh stayed in Oregon for 4 1/2 stormy years, during which he and his followers fought constantly with their neighbors and state and local government officials over establishment of a commune on the ranch.