On Sunday, 30th April, from 3.30pm till 5.30pm, there will be a celebratory and soulful send-off kirtan for Swami Vinod Bharti, thanks to musician Swami Prem Anadi and friends in Pune. Venue: Pingale Garden, opposite Canara Bank, Lane number 5, Koregaon Park.

Vinod Bharti (aka Vinod Khanna) was born in Peshawar in 1946 (then British India, now Pakistan) before his family moved to Bombay when India was partitioned. While at boarding school he fell in love with motion pictures after watching the famous epic Mughal-e-Azam. After graduating from Sydenham College with a commerce degree, he embarked on his movie career.

He debuted in Sunil Dutt’s 1968 film Man Ka Meet, playing a villain; he got rave reviews and within a week, he had signed up for 15 films. Then came main and supporting character roles in films like 1970’s Purab Aur Paschim and 1971’s Mera Gaon Mera Desh. In the same year, he was cast as the lead actor in Hum Tum Aur Woh and then in the Gulzar-directed Mere Apne.

During his life, Vinod acted in more than 146 films including Imtihan (1974) opposite Tanuja, a movie remembered for its hit songs, then Amar Akbar Anthony in 1977 (full film list on Wikipedia).

He was considered to be one of the best-looking actors in Bollywood and because of his charming personality, he became popular with the audience and was featured in innumerable lead roles. He is one of the few Bollywood actors who could successfully transition from negative roles to positive lead roles, and was adept at handling both romantic and action films with ease, getting under the skin of his characters.

With his career at a peak, he became Osho’s sannyasin on the last day of the year 1975 in Pune.

Bhagawati writes:

“I remember Vinod very well from the seventies at the ashram and hung out sometimes at his house to watch videos together with a few other friends, a rare opportunity back then; he was always amiable and joyful and never displayed big movie star eccentricity as far as I experienced.”

While in Pune and in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon he worked mainly as a gardener (“I was Osho’s mali”).

Now Vinod Khanna is here; he is a famous Indian actor. He has lived luxuriously, and he is immensely happy to get a small room. It must be exactly of the same size as he is – six by four! But he is immensely happy. It is the same room where Vimalkirti had lived, and one should be aware: Francis House has given two enlightened persons – watch out for Vinod! And from today he is going to start work in Lao Tzu garden — a man who has been earning lakhs of rupees per month, living the most luxurious life possible in India. Now he will be under Mukta’s charge – and Mukta is a hard master!

Osho, The Wild Geese and the Water, Ch 1, Q 2 (excerpt)

Vinod also had the distinction of being one of the 21 ‘enlightened’ disciples who were announced by Osho in Rajneeshpuram. Feeling very disturbed, Vinod wrote privately to Osho, confessing that he had sincere doubts about his enlightenment status, whereupon Osho assured him not to worry, because it was just a joke! Vinod was relieved to hear it! (see discourse question It was just a joke. You are not enlightened, relax!)

In Kulu Manali, answering a question by Punjab Keshari, a Hindi newspaper, about Vinod returning to the film industry , Osho says:

…there is no bondage on anybody. If he feels like going back to films he will be now a better actor than he ever was. And I would not deprive the film industry of a genius. He can go with all my blessings.

In fact, upon returning to India and Bollywood – after a five-year gap – his comeback movie Insaaf (opposite Dimple Kapadia) in 1987 was a big hit, and he starred as a hero in several movies until 1994, e.g. his memorable role as an aging gangster in Dayavaan, in 1988.

Subhuti writes:

I knew Vinod personally as a warm-hearted and sincere sannyasin. He was a regular visitor to the Shree Rajneesh Ashram, was present at many darshans with Osho, and gave several interviews for the ashram Press Office, where I was working.

The last time I saw him was in the mid-90s when he invited me to his apartment in Mumbai, on Malabar Hill, to give my opinion about a script which he’d been given as a possible film project.

When he took me out to dinner at one of Mumbai’s five-star hotels, word quickly spread and by the time we left there was a long line of Vinod fans stretching all the way from the dining room to the car.

He seemed to take fame very easily and also helped his sons get into the entertainment business.

Moving into politics because he had a feeling to serve the nation, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1997 and was elected from Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab in the next year’s Lok Sabha poll. In July 2002 he became Union Minister for Culture and Tourism and was India’s Minister of State for External Affairs (junior foreign minister), holding office from 2003-2004.

He continued to star in movies and won numerous awards, including the Filmfare award for best supporting actor for Haath ki Safaai and in 1999 he received a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the film industry for over three decades. He also received the Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.

Vinod had a role in both Salman Khan’s Dabangg movies and his last screen appearance was opposite Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in 2015’s Dilwale.

Vinod openly showed that he was Osho’s sannyasin and remained connected with sannyasins, participated at events in Oshodham and Osho Galleria in New Delhi, visited Osho Nisarga in Dharamsala and also visited Osho Tapoban in Nepal.

He was recently in the news because of a planned film franchise that will trace the life of Osho; highlighting two important phases in Osho’s life — the period in 1981 when health issues contributed to him leaving for the USA and eventually settling in Oregon where a new commune was set up. The second phase will follow his exit from the US in November 1985. Vinod was going to mentor and co-produce the movie with Akhil Kapur, Vinod Khanna’s nephew and cousin of Akshaye, Rahul and Sakshi Khanna as actors (Vinod Khanna to Spin Off a Franchise on Osho).

At the end of March, Vinod was hospitalised for severe dehydration and remained admitted at the HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in Girgaon, Mumbai. According to a statement from the hospital he died from advanced bladder carcinoma.

Vinod Khanna was married twice. He had two sons with first wife Geetanjali, Rahul and Akshaye, both actors in Bollywood, and a son and daughter, Sakshi and Shraddha, with second wife Kavita.

Based on a bio written by Bhagawati

Obits in news18.com – movies.ndtv.com – jantakareporter.com – bbc.com/news – indiatribune.com – and more…

Osho mentions Vinod Bharti in It was just a joke. You are not enlightened, relax!
and replies to his question in Impotence of the mind – Action out of delight

For further watching:
Bombay Talkies with Vinod Khanna (Aired: December 15, 2006)

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote using our contact form (please add ‘Vinod’ in the subject field)…

Swami Vinod Khanna was a real hero in many ways. I met him during Pune 1 days in the 70’s. He personified to me someone who had fame and fortune and still the great intelligence to dive deep into sannyas. He took a lot of hits from Indian press and colleagues, on account of his love and trust in Osho. I guess because of my good reputation as a Rebalancer and being good at adjusting the spine (and his spinal/back issues), Vinod sought me out, and we remained friends through all these years.

I could tell a bunch of stories, but my favorite one is this: Anasha ans I were in Delhi sharing Arun Conscious Touch – it must have been 10 years ago. We were having such a blast there (the one and only time we worked outside of the Commune in India). I always was very comfortable with and accepted by Osho’s Indian sannyasins – it’s been such a gift for me to get real close to many of them. So we were working in Neelam’s nephew Ashwin’s new Art Center and whenever we had free time, we would hang out with friends like Satya Paul, Puneet, Richa, Sangama, and others. Then, I got a call from Vinod. He was having some back pain and wondered if I had time to see him. I said, “Of course Vinod-ji. Do you want to come here to the Center?” He replied, “I can’t. My term as the Minister is just now finished and we need to move out of the government housing. How about I send my driver over and you come here?” I said, “Sure”. Later, a massive limo pulls up and a big Sikh asks for Swami Anubuddha. So I sit waaayyy back in the limo with a drink, and we drive into the plush area of New Delhi where all the rich politicians are housed. When I arrive, the place is full of boxes and packing materials, with quite a beautiful garden and great marble floors and furnishings.

So Vinod and I have a wonderful Conscious Touch Meditation together, and then we hang out and Vinod tells stories of his political lessons. He was cracking up about how one day he is a hero and the next day he is a villain… or one day someone is your friend, the next day they set you up for a big hit, just like in the movies, except this was now his “real life”! He seemed bruised by the experiences, but also very deep in his meditative vision of power, money, etc. I mean, Vinod lived many roles in one life; that’s what I admired in him. I always enjoyed his company, as he brought such a high energy to everything he touched. I am confident that he went on to the next phase in awareness. I feel a lot of love and thankfulness for our time together.

Driving back in the government limo with another drink in my hand, after our last hang-out, I also reflected on everything Vinod and I just talked about, especially the difference between inner and outer riches, the significance of “this too will pass” and what a great gift it is to meet Osho and his people in this lifetime.

Anubuddha

Fly high, beloved Vinod…
So many special memories of time spent with you at The Ranch…
You will always be in my heart…
Haritama

Osho Nisarga will miss you, our beloved charming Vinod Ji! You are a strong part of us here. And you will always be. Over the years at Nisarga, since its inception, there has been a great bonding with you. It happened so naturally while sharing the same cottage, having late night conversations about our life at the ranch with the master, talking about politics, enjoying Nisarga parties, learning from you
the art of watching, witnessing – your path in meditation – hearing your delightful stories with Osho, savoring your non-veg jokes, laughing and giggling, enjoying your provocative teasers and sometimes shocking utterances. And above all, being touched by your compassionate heart.

I know for sure that even at the time of your departure to the further shore, you stayed a witness. The physical pain was certainly unbearable during the last month in the hospital. In fact, the last six months have been really difficult. I have heard Osho say that when the pain is extremely unbearable, patients slip into a coma as they cannot bear the suffering. But you remained aware till the last breath of your life. Even in your passing away, you were as present as you were in your life.

We will continue feeling your presence here at Nisarga, resonating with laughter and celebration and your generous contribution to this Osho’s Himalayan abode.

Bon Voyage…. Fly High Vinod ji…

You have a special place in my heart. To have known you so close has been a great gift. A learning, a longing for my own journey…

Priya

Celebrate with Swami Vinod Bharti some hilarious moments of laughter…
Keerti

Watch on YouTube

The enlightened Osho has seen the light while his two disciples, Swami Vinod Bharti and Swami Anand Kul Bhushan, are following his gaze to see it at Manali after Osho returned to India from USA. Time stood still for this memorable moment:

Vinod, Kul Bhushan and Osho in Manali, 1985

I also had nice moments with Vinod in Dadu, Paul Reps and the Truck Farm. He was very kind and gracious. He was a significantly famous person in Bollywood and in politics, who handled it innocently well. That last photo of him before he died, with one of his sons and daughters, I could sense he was already transitioning. It’s so mysterious. I don’t know how I know. But I do experience it, and after Vipassana’s transition, “it” seems clearer. I took one look at that picture and just know that Vinod has left the Wheel of Samsara, gate gate par gate bodhi swahah! Love, liberation and laughter,
Arjuna
PS So many friends popping off! Will you promise to remain here a minute ago?

Svadesha came to Osho in Pune I. He was a professional photographer and cook. In the late eighties he founded one of the first Tofu factories in Munich and when he became a member of the Parimal theater team he turned to acting, clowning, songwriting and singing. He then produced a CD with his songs which are regularly played for the Osho Evening Meditations and the Morning Singing Groups at Parimal. In the performance of ‘Mojud – the man with the inexplicable life’ he played the role of the Sufi mystic – maybe the role closest to his ever-changing lifestyle. He also trained in Sufi whirling with Zahira.

Svadesha died in his home in Blickershausen, Southern Germany, near the Parimal Community. He was in his late seventies. When the cancer recently reappeared he decided to let go of his body. He had been challenged already once with cancer and he was now so accepting of the fact of dying that even his doctor commented upon it. Friends lovingly took care of him and when he overheard that they were making long-term plans regarding his future, he remarked: “Next weekend I will not be here any longer!” And so it was. He left his body in great peace surrounded by friends, his two sons Gyandev and Deva, a younger brother and Ma Veena, his partner. During his last hours Osho’s words on the Bardo (e.g. in Path of the Mystic, #7) were repeatedly played to him. Because of his love for whirling his coffin was put on a round cloth decorated with bright flames in rainbow colours – his unique Sufi whirling robe!

Tributes

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Dear Swadesha, recently you joined twice our Zazen-Group in Witzenhausen. We listened to words from Rumi in the beginning. I was deeply touched by your silent heart. We hugged each other so tenderly when you left for home. It was the last time that I saw you. Now you have left for your real home. Have a good journey, beloved fellow-traveller.
Nijesh

An article in The New York Times on May 12, 2017 alerted us that Deva Pravasi (aka Nicholas Sand) died of a heart attack at his home in Lagunitas, California, where he lived with his long-time companion, Usha.

Pravasi’s has been a colourful life that included his involvement with psychedelic drugs since he was a young man. The New York Times in their long exhaustive article about him, wrote:

“One day in 1964, Nicholas Sand, a Brooklyn-born son of a spy for the Soviet Union, took his first acid trip. He had been fascinated by psychedelic drugs since reading about them as a student at Brooklyn College and had experimented with mescaline and peyote. Now, at a retreat run by friends in Putnam County, N.Y., he took his first dose of LSD, still legal at the time. Sitting naked in the lotus position, before a crackling fire, he surrendered to the experience. A sensation of peace and joy washed over him. Then he felt himself transported to the far reaches of the cosmos.

“I was floating in this immense black space,” he recalled in the documentary “The Sunshine Makers”, released in 2015. “I said, ‘What am I doing here?’ And suddenly a voice came through my body, and it said, ‘Your job on this planet is to make psychedelics and turn on the world.’”

He became well-known in the sixties producing vast quantities of the purest LSD on the market. His most celebrated product, known as Orange Sunshine for the colour of the tablets it came in, became a signature drug – at the time legal. (LSD was banned in the USA in 1967.) He was planning to produce 750 million Orange Sunshine tablets. It also was available to American soldiers fighting in Vietnam, whose minds Pravasi hoped to bend in the direction of nonviolence and brotherly love.

“Orange Sunshine was Mr. Sand’s ticket to a life on the run. For years he raced to stay a step ahead of federal agents, and after being convicted on drug and tax-evasion charges, he hid in Canada for two decades under an assumed name. Eventually, after being arrested and unmasked, he was returned to the United States, where he served six years in prison.”

From Canada Pravasi must have made it to Pune. We remember him happily working in the hydroponic greenhouse he helped set up, located in what is now called Lane Number 3 in Koregaon Park, close to the No. 70 property the ashram had rented.

Later he lived in Rajneeshpuram and end of 1985 relocated to Canada to avoid criminal pursuit by federal agents and where he eventually created a large lab to make LSD and other psychedelic drugs on a grand scale. The lab was raided in 1996 and he pleaded guilty to manufacturing drugs in Canada. As he was a fugitive from justice, his prison term was to run parallel with his US sentence and he was returned to San Francisco. In 2001 he was released to a halfway house and completed his parole in 2005. (More details available in The New York Times article by William Grimes.)

“In an interview in 2009 for a National Geographic documentary on LSD, he estimated that he had manufactured about 30 pounds of it over the course of his career, enough for nearly 140 million doses. […]

“I have a vision,” he wrote in The Entheogen Review in 2001, outlining a future in which the police would be replaced by “guides, friends, helpers and lovers” and the human race would ascend to “a new level of consciousness” through psychedelic drugs.

“That is what I have seen in my visions, and that is what I have been working for all of my life,” he added. “That is what I will continue to do until my last breath.”

Related
LSD and Meditation: The Turning Point – Subhuti talks about his experience with LSD, and its limitations, and reminisces about Pravasi who died a few days ago
Man is a stranger on the earth – Pravasi’s sannyas darshan on December 5, 1978
Dreamworld and reality – a selection of quotes where Osho talks about LSD, drugs in general, alcohol and meditation

External link to collection of material about Nicholas Sand: belhistory.weebly.com

Watch on YouTube

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote using our contact form (please add ‘Pravasi’ in the subject field)

Pravasi had a house with lots of land near here in Vilcabamba the last 6-7 years together with Usha. They came and went, and sometimes we met up at gatherings. What a trip (literally) he was – lol! His work in Pune 1 with the hydroponic organic farming was really important at the time, as we were so compromised and polluted by all the DDT that was commonly used on the veggies in India at the time (amazing we all managed to stay relatively healthy, when you think of it – but I know we all took on a lot of heavy metal poisoning that we had to cleanse). Anyway, Pravasi – you’re tripping fantastic right now, and lots of love is flowing your way…
Anubuddha

Dharmen (Brian Hemmings) lived most of his life in North London, except for the years he spent in Pune. He travelled to India overland and became a sannyasin in 1978. Some might remember him as the baker of some delicious banana bread and maker of peanut butter, which he sold outside the ashram at the end of morning discourse.

In the early ’80’ he was a member of the Medina Commune in the UK. Parmartha, who was also there writes, “Dharmen had an unusual sort of relationship with the ‘leaders’ of the commune, and one had the impression they made things difficult for him, but always drew back from ejecting him, perhaps in the hope he would himself leave! Once he was directed to work in the Kid’s house where I was the regular worker, but he refused point blank, as he saw it as his idea of hell! To his surprise the leaders relented and he was given other work.”

In 1985, together with Prakrati and Parmartha he produced the magazine Sannyas News (paper version) which then became Here and Now. The digital version of Sannyas News, which is still running strong, was founded in 2000 by Dharmen, Paritosh and Parmartha.

In 1988 he won an English sannyas raffle ticket draw for a ticket to Pune (something he could not have afforded). In Pune he was then part of the Rajneesh Times, where his skills to use Mac computers, which he had taught himself for Sannyas News, must have been appreciated.

Parmartha continues, “After Osho’s death he looked around other teachers and was for a while with Andrew Cohen, but always seemed to retain a thread to sannyas, and went straight to a sannyas house when he left the Cohenites. In his spiritual maturity he felt at home with advaita, and was a stalwart member of a seeded advaita group from the Satyam Nadeen teachings.”

Dharmen had been suffering from rectal cancer and had been recently admitted to the Marie Curie hospice in Hampstead, North London, where he died. He was the partner of Archan for 18 years.

Info thanks to Parmartha’s obit on Sannyas News (sannyasnews.org), Archan, Sharmi Agnidipta and Prabuddho

A leaving darshan with Osho:

[A sannyasin, who is leaving for London, says: Here or in London I really have to go inside.]

You have to go inside – that’s true. Wherever you are, you have to go inside. That’s perfectly true. So make all effort to break the walls. Be almost like an army attacking a castle. It is really a castle, because the mind defends – it throws you out, it does not allow you in. It creates a thousand and one excuses to bring you out again. So one has to be very watchful; otherwise the mind brings distractions, allurements. The moment you start going in, the mind creates many allurements, and at the slightest hint you are distracted. You forget all about the inner journey and you have moved out, and as far away as possible. Each thought takes you away from yourself.

Whenever there is a thought you are away from yourself; when there is no thought you are in. That is the meaning of being in: a state of no-thought. Then you are in. There will not even be the thought, “I am in.” If it is there, you are not in yet. If you are thinking, “Look, Dharmen, how beautiful – I am in,” you are not, because this is a thought. When you are really in there is no Dharmen, no in, no out, no thought, no experience, nothing. Not even a spiritual experience is there. All has dissolved. Nothing is. One is in a state of no-where-ness. Then one is in.

But that’s what has to be done, so whether here or in London, it makes no difference. All the difference that is possible is: here I go on hammering on you again and again to remind you; but that can be done there too.

Help my people there!

God’s Got A Thing About You, Ch 3 – 3rd September 1978

Tributes

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Satya Priya took sannyas in the early seventies and spent many years travelling between Pune and New York. She founded and ran the Osho Padma Meditation Centre in New York (oshopadmameditation.us) for almost 40 years. Apart from the regular meditations offered at the centre, every year she organised meditation retreats (Festivals of Meditation) on the outskirts of New York, with live music by Milarepa’s OneSky Band.

Her friends will remember her husky voice, her humour and exuberance, her laughter, her direct ways (no prisoners taken!), her skills at Tarot reading, and many many anecdotes involving her…

Milarepa writes:

Priya ran the Osho Padma Center in New York City for more than forty years out of her small apartment in the West Village. I can’t imagine opening my own home on such a daily basis to all manner of crazy seekers, but this is what she did. And she did it well — with a lot of heart, humor, and totality. Osho Padma is the oldest, most consistent Osho center in America. Countless people found their way to Pune, to Osho, and to meditation through it. I remember one of the first times I attended one of Priya’s Sunday events. Ever mischieveous and wise, she said to me in a break between meditations: “Milarepa, next we are all going to run down the street, shouting and screaming like mad people, all the way to the river.” She studied my face for a moment and then smiled, “Scares you, doesn’t it?” Ahh, Priya. You will be missed.

I never really knew Priya very well until I started living closer to New York. As I hung out with her more, I would sometimes coax her to talk about her past. She was always such a mystery to me. Living in the moment as she did, I know the past was really not her thing. But I did discover she had been a journalist for a teen magazine in the 60’s and that one of her assignments was being embedded with The Beatles on one of their tours. I know John was her favorite. On another occasion, she told me that she was born in a lower Manhattan apartment complex near the Brooklyn Bridge, and that as a child she remembered taking trips to see her grandparents in Queens when Queens was still all farms. Imagine? Priya was quintessential New York.

Images credit to Satya Subodh, Milarepa, Thomas Raniszewski, Prem Geetesh and friends

Her body was cremated today and a high energy meditation and celebration is planned for this Sunday 28th May in Manhattan from 3pm to 6 pm. Place and details follow soon.

Tributes

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Beloved Priya,
So many Priyas to love – you will always be Cappuccino Priya to me. I cherish our gossips over chai and…you know what. In Pune. Your take on everything happening was always fresh, unique and wholly yours. Your devotion to the Master always shines through. May it take you to the other shore. SVAHA!
Abhiyana

Priya was an ongoing Piece of Work. May She be Free of Suffering. May She be at Peace. May she know her True Nature….
Anado Mclauchlin

Bodhihanna (aka Bodhi Hanna Kistner) was five years old when Hitler came into power. Her grandfather, who was half-Jewish, was one of the richest bankers in Germany. She grew up in a highly educated family, with artists and philosophers, but no one could express their true thoughts, not even in their homes, unless they risked being deported and put into labour camps. Her father, a medical doctor, only went to work for the military in order not to be part of the Nazi party.

In an interview she gave to Terry Hodgkinson in Meeting Sensei Bodhihanna and on video to Pankaja in Zen Archery with Bodhihanna she tells the harrowing experiences when her family lived under American and English bomb attacks, aware that every moment could be their last. When the war was over, there was not only deprivation, but she suffered, like many others, under the stigma of being German, which only passed when Osho talked about Hitler and the war.

She was married, had children (a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Christiane) and, while looking after her family, worked for a book distribution company for 40 years. When the children had grown up, she quit her job, and her life “truly began.”

In the Osho Commune in Pune she learned archery from Asanga, a Japanese sannyasin who had studied archery for 5 year previously. She says in the interviews that she was a lousy student and that she was even sacked from a workshop Asanga had held in Japan. Back in Pune, despite this setback, she joined the archery practice group again – and when Asanga returned they eventually got together again, after both working out the projections they had on each other. She had learned from him a lot about the spirit of Japan and the spirit of Zen archery, and she understood why Osho wanted archery to be taught in his ashram.

During a talk last summer with Tatyana Hrylova, published under the title of Only After Sixty My True Life Began, the emphasis is on age and fitness. Bodhihanna had come to Pune at age 60 and had started practising archery, and at 70 she became a Kyudo teacher. She says,

Archery doesn’t exhaust me; on the contrary, it brings me energy. When I’m tired, I take my bow, straighten my back, open up, pull the bowstring, and feel how the energy returns to me. Right now I don’t even think of quitting it. The eldest practicing Kyudo master is a woman who lives in Japan, she’s 98.

For many years Bodhihanna spent the winter months (November-March) at the Osho Meditation Resort in Pune, the month of April in Pasadena, CA and summer (May-September) in Maui, Hawaii, her adopted home – of course, always teaching archery.

She was diagnosed with cancer just the week before she died.

Photo credits: Cursty Kistner, Stephen Fickes, Aviram, Denise Reynolds, Terry Hodgkinson

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My mother was the most wonderful and loving person, one could imagine. I was only 12 years old when my parents separated but I always had a very special connection to her. When I was right down in life, in England, she had a nightmare and phoned my father to get the money for the flight to England to get me out of there. She introduced me to sannyas and I spent 14 months at the Humaniversity in Holland with Veeresh. We fought and quarrelled and shouted at each other all our lives. I must be the only person in the world who knew her on such energetic terms, but maybe we where too much alike and therefore clashed a lot, but we always had that special connection where we didn’t need a phone or mail to know what was going on with the other. In a way, she wasn’t like a mother but more like a teacher, a lot of times it was me who had the mother role, especially at organizing practical things, but the feeling that she was always there for me, even when living on Maui or Pune, helped me through the days. I don’t know how to manage life now that this special protection is gone but I will have to be there for her grandchildren and be strong. I’m so proud that she has so many friends and people that loved her and I’m looking forward to seeing them all on Maui on Sunday. Shine on, Bodhi Hanna,
Christiane Kistner

Ma Anand Praveeta (previously Anand Maria) of Austin, Texas, US, left her body May 30, 2017, peacefully and aware, surrounded by love and grace as witnessed by her long-term partner, Anand Navaneet, and their son, Prem Amiten.

Praveeta was born March 14, 1953, in Mexico DF, Mexico, and was given the name Maria Elena. Her parents moved the family to Tijuana, Mexico, when Praveeta was two months old. She grew up in that border city, the third of six children. She received a Master’s Degree in Psychology in Guadalajara, then lived and worked in Monterey and Xalapa until she went to Pune, where she met Osho and took sannyas in June 1979.

Those who knew her as a child, will remember that she loved to lie on the grass in the front yard of the family home and look at all the stars, and as a teen, she will be remembered as a graceful dancer (ballet, folklorico, jazz and, of course, rock). A younger brother remembers her for her irreverence, her willingness to risk disapproval and to do things her own way. She was a rebel at an early age. Her younger sister fondly remembers when Praveeta explained to her that they were chopatitas, a made-up word for buddy sisters. Another brother credits Praveeta with her awareness and understanding of what people around her were dealing with personally, and her knack for offering help was a forerunner of her ability as a healthcare professional to help her clients gain new insight into their life circumstances.

At Rajneeshpuram, Praveeta worked initially in housekeeping, then she had various assignments including security, restaurant cook, and ambulance driver.

After living in Oregon at the Rajneesh Commune for four years, Praveeta, Navaneet and Amiten returned to Austin in the mid-1980’s. They had been among the last one hundred or so residents of the ranch community.

In Austin, Praveeta established a food production business and catering service – this from one whose mom had once told her that she would never need to work with her hands, and certainly that she would never need to cook. Among several food products that she had in her cookbook, including the popular Basil Bliss salad dressing, her signature seller was vegetarian sushi. Praveeta introduced sushi to Whole Foods Market when no other stores in Austin sold fresh sushi. Like the kid who looked at the stars, she went to Whole Foods one day looking for sushi, found none, so she spoke to the manager and the sushi star was born. Later her sushi would be featured in the Austin Statesman and the New York Times.

Her success with sushi was recognized further when she was invited to be one of the staff of founding cooks at Casa de Luz, where she prepared tasty meals at the popular macrobiotic community center. The irreverent part showed up as her skill with Mexican and Indian spicing created a bit of controversy for the patrons who wanted their macro meals to be purely macrobiotic.

As passionate and successful as she was with high-quality foods, Praveeta jumped into a new career in healthcare. At the very period in time that she made a decision to study acupuncture, the director of a well-known school in Santa Fe, NM, moved his operations to Austin. With her eyes still on the stars, Praveeta graduated at the top of the initial class at Austin Oriental Medicine Academy (AOMA). She continued to cook and cater during the three years of studies at AOMA.

Immediately, her next career step was to get certification as a Diplomate of Esogetic Medicine, Colorpuncture, a new protocol using light and color. She trained with Ma Manohar in Boulder, CO, and at several programs where she met directly with Peter Mandel, the creator of Esogetics. She expanded her practice and became the first colorpuncture practitioner in Austin, one of the first in the US.

The significant influence of food on Praveeta blossomed as she made a point of teaching her colorpuncture clients about nutrition. She was continually researching nutrition so she could help her clients learn to support the healing process after the symptoms of illness were gone. For over three decades, Praveeta helped a broad range of people improve their health and then maintain their health.

Next in the progression of her work as a healer, Praveeta was invited to become a trainer of Esogetic Medicine and taught colorpuncture classes in various cities. Then, when she opened a new clinic in Austin, she had enough space to offer classes right in her clinic. While she had some initial reluctance about taking on the role and responsibility of teaching, it turned out that she had found another star. Her students loved her as a teacher as they embraced the new methodology.

Praveeta died from complications related to ovarian cancer twelve months after the diagnosis. For one who had been so widely known as a healer and who herself had never really experienced serious illness, ironically she spent a month toward the end of her life in a hospital while the oncologic team labored unsuccessfully to stop the cancer rampage.

Beloved Praveeta – love abides.

Text by Navaneet

Sannyas darshan: One has to be a rebel

A celebration of the life of Praveeta Rose will be held at Casa de Luz Community Center in Austin on Sunday, July 16, 2017.

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Praveeta represented for me the Presence of Osho for when I had been many years on the ranch and arrived in Austin Texas in the early 80s. Both she and Navaneet were so welcoming and opened their home to many of us for meditations and dinners, parties which made the transition back into the world very easy. In gratitude,
Prem Maharaj

Professional photography by Scott Snyder

Chintan remembers Ma Anand Rupa (aka Rupa Cousins):

Rupa had asked me to write something about her for the Osho publications, but I don’t know where to start. The end was on the 4th of July, early in the morning. I’m not sure of the exact time of her birth, sometime on the 7th of January, 1942. She was born into privilege, a Jewish American Princess in New York City. She followed the trajectory of wealth and beauty into dance classes, became a model and then an actress. The life of an off-broadway, or was it on-broadway actress suited her until one day in a dressing room, preparing to go on stage in a fluffy musical, she inquired as to the whereabouts of a male colleague and was informed that he had been killed while delivering aid to a war-torn land. The big bad world entered Bonnie’s world of privilege.

“What the fuck is this life all about?” The trajectory changed dramatically, and with eyes beginning to open she began the agonizing process of looking deeply into things. There followed years of inquiry and involvement in the various social causes of the late 1960s. Not completely content with outer revolutions, she also turned inside and entered the world of yoga and meditation. It wasn’t long before Osho came into her life and she fell deeply and hopelessly in love. That was sometime in the early 70s, probably 1974.

Her life as a sannyasin initially included a trip to India and immersion in the meditations and therapies of Poona One. Returning to New York she became deeply involved in the Ananda Rajneesh Meditation Center, and when it folded, she continued to offer Osho’s meditations. At this time, she was also studying the Alexander Technique and began her own practice. With the demands for a new Osho Center, she sent away for permission to begin a new center. The result was the Satgit Meditation Center and she became the new director (1977-1980).

The reason it is difficult to write about this special being is that there never seemed to be a logic that carried her through her life. She just opened her heart, said yes, and it all sort of flowed. While directing the Satgit Center, she was also involved with the Association of Humanistic Psychology and the International Primal Association. She also studied with Illana Rubenfeld and became a practitioner of a body/mind therapy called Rubenfeld Synergy.

So, who was she during that time? Like a sponge she was absorbing all the workshops and therapies that abounded in New York: EST, the Hawaian Huna Work, Sufi Whirling, workshops on Shamanism, the Kabala, etc., etc. In the course of this development, she was carving out a very special place for herself in this world. There seemed to be no discipline or group that she derided (maybe the neo-nazis). Her great heart always seemed to be expanding to include whoever came into her field of vision. She was comfortable everywhere. She was welcomed everywhere.

Wherever she went, whatever group she was a part of, it was always Osho that she was sharing. She taught his meditations, steered people to his therapists.

In her later life, she left the “madness” of New York City and settled in southern Vermont. She was now a recognized practitioner of the Alexander Technique and Rubenfeld Synergy. She added the teaching of the Sufi way and a spiritual dance called Paneurhythmy to her arsenal of healing modalities. All this was done in her non-linear way, always coming from the heart. She was also, during this time, immersed in various peace processes around the world, travelling to Turkey and Israel among other countries. She worked with groups of Israeli/Palestinians to promote peace and understanding. In her hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont, she hosted a group of teenagers from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and their counterparts of Teens-at-Risk in Vermont.

How do you sum up a life? I can’t do it. When I think of her now, only one day past the time of her death the thing that comes to me is how she died.

She died at home, facing death head-on, unafraid, cheerful right up to the end. Her son was with her, assisting her in the last months of her life. All around her were the hundreds of friends she had made during her time in Vermont. Two days before her death she led a group of women in the Paneurhythmy dance on a sunny hillside. She could not dance herself because she had been confined to a wheelchair for a couple of days. Three weeks before her death she was leading another dance event, this time with the aid of a cane.

I can’t write this. This is the best I can do. Here is the last post that came from her son Sean, the day before she died. I think it sums up her life much better than I could do:

I’m trying to respond personally to each message and I want to apologize if I haven’t gotten to one of yours yet. The outpouring has been truly overwhelming—emotionally and logistically—and because I have to put her well-being (and my sanity ) first, I’m forced to move slowly. But I will get there and do know that she is hearing what you write.

To people who wish to visit, as well as those who would like to offer her spiritual or body healing work, I ask that you please be patient. We have limited time and I have to pay attention to her energy levels. We also have hospice workers who are coming to help me in the physical care of her, which takes time, and they are coming almost daily. We cannot have anymore visits this weekend, between the ones scheduled yesterday and today on top of our plans for tomorrow, it’s just become too much. I ask that people please wait until during next week to request times and please understand that if I have to say no it’s not because mom or I do not want you here—we want to see everyone!—but because mom is growing weaker and weaker and doesn’t have the energy for it.

And thank you all for all you’ve given and are giving to her. I know it’s in return for what she’s given out herself, but that only proves her right. In this weird world we live in, it’s amazing to say that she’s got it bang on. As I said to her earlier, she’s won the game of life by earning so much love. It is the one thing you can take with you. That there may be the biggest lesson I’ve learned. She’s still teaching.

Sean

Rupa contributed the following article to our magazine in 2011: Rupa on Peter Deunov and Paneurhythmy

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Dear Editors,

I am writing to request this be published along with the article entitled, ‘Rupa’, which stands as an obituary for my mother, Rupa Cousins. The piece in question was written by a man whose ten-year relationship with my mother ended in the 1980s and who has only had sporadic contact with her in the decades since. While I have no doubt that the intent of the article was noble, the content is blinkered about my mother’s past and reflects more of the writer’s fantasy of who she was prior to his meeting her than her reality, and it is important that this record be set straight.

My mother was never the privileged Jewish American Princess that she was made out to be, nor was there any sort of magical conversion that made her the spiritual seeker and healer that she absolutely was and, though it is true that the loss of her friend was a catalyst that forced her to question her desire to continue her career as an actress, these aspects of her have been present throughout her life and are a reflection of her passion for truth and love not some sort of mythical rebirth.

My mother was born in 1942 to a woman who herself had quit school at the age of 14 to help support her lower middle class family, which is hardly the start to a tale of privilege. At the age of two, my grandfather left my grandmother, who then raised my mother singlehandedly while running a successful business in lingerie and, while she was successful, she was never rich or idle, and my mother had to endure many moves about New York State as my grandmother sought the best places to raise her daughter. If my mother went to some good schools and had opportunities others did not, it was not due to any privilege other than that of a strong and controlling mother who shaped her own life to give my mom access to a life she herself never had.

After my mother graduated Syracuse University, with a degree in Drama, she went to work trying to carve out a career for herself in acting, which meant taking whatever odd job she could to feed herself and leave time for auditions. During this time, she did some modeling for my grandmother’s company, sold cigarettes at a kiosk in a busy office building in downtown NYC–hardly a privileged pastime—as well as doing temporary office work (she even answered fan mail for the Beatles as a temp immediately following their US explosion). She also had some minor success acting, touring as a member of the original cast of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as an understudy for Ophelia and a member of the Players group. She soon met the man who was to be my father, an unfaithful alcoholic who made getting by harder rather than easier. My own birth was planned during the one year it looked like they would both “make it” on the New York stage, a dream that fell apart almost immediately. The two made ends meet as best they could working in Off and Off Off Broadway productions and doing summer stock outside of the city. My father also tended bar. Once again I’m forced to ask where the privilege was?

When I was two, in 1972, my mother moved to Florida, where she went both to start walking the spiritual path that she would follow for the rest of her life and to escape my father, whose infidelity and emotional abuse had become physical assaults. There, she worked as a yoga instructor at a small fashion college and did everything she could, as a single mother with no aid from my father at all, to give me a good life. It was in Florida where my mother became one of the pioneering American disciples of Rajneesh and where she met the man who would prove to be the love of her life, as well as the one who helped start her on the path of a Healer by introducing her to the Alexander Technique. This led to a return to NYC, where she entered into formal study of the practice and where she helped start the Rajneesh Center.

Throughout all of this, my mother received occasional help from my grandmother, who wanted to give even more, but mom, wishing to retain the freedom to follow her paths, usually refused. Again hardly the work of a Jewish American Princess but more that of a powerful soul seeking understanding where most of the traditional cultural norms refuse to look with the expenditure of her own, great, inner strength.

In 1982, along with the writer of the piece in question, my mother and I moved to New Hampshire, though she continued to spend four days a week in the city trying to maintain the clientele she’d successfully built up. While ultimately this move led to her finding her spiritual home in Southern Vermont, it was financially devastating to her as she was never able to build a practice to rival what she had in New York, but she stayed and she struggled, even after the dissolution of their relationship, primarily to give me a safe and consistent place to grow up. It was during this time that many of the scandals that would eventually rock the world of the sannyasins occurred—including an offer to move to Antelope, OR and take on a position of power in the hierarchy built around Rajneesh, with the caveat that she abandon me to go live there—and, while my mother would never officially walk away from the group, these reaffirmed in her the desire to follow her own path, rejecting the idea of a true leader as anything but people to study with, and taking from their lessons what she needed to further her own beliefs.

This desire was made manifest after the passing of my grandmother, who left mom just enough money to purchase the small house in East Dummerston, Vermont that she lived in for the remainder of her years, a wonderful gift as this enabled mom to focus entirely on her healing and spiritual work with far less worry. From that point on, my mother rarely made enough to go above the poverty level but she was well aware that her true richness would be found in the community of friends, family, and fellow seekers that she was surrounded with for the rest of her life.

In Vermont, my mother expanded her healing work by studying Rubenfeld Synergy, an alternative form of psychotherapy that mom, always her own person, blended with aspects of the Alexander Technique and yoga and the countless other forms of work she’d practiced over the years. This led to her helping to form APOV, a society for the alternative psychotherapists of Vermont that fought for their rights to be recognized by the State.

She also continued her spiritual quest, becoming a member of a Sufi order and a whirling dervish who was frequently asked to turn at important spiritual events, taking on the practice of Paneurhythmy, which she both studied and taught, returning to her roots with the Jewish community of Southern Vermont, and continuing to explore the work of Osho and other great minds in order to expand her own diverse philosophy.

She was also a longstanding member of the Brattleboro Area Interfaith Initiative, a group made up of clergy and laic persons of many faiths who continue to strive to bring peace and unity to people of all faiths, most recently successfully working to have Brattleboro deemed a sanctuary city in the light of the hate stemming from the Trump administration. She became active in the discussions surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestine–strongly in favor of Israeli recognition of Palestine and against the atrocities being performed in the name of Judaism–and is recognized as a passionate leader in that movement. She also became an active peace builder, traveling to war torn countries to work in peace camps, trying to help heal the rifts caused by war. Through this she made numerous friends and allies around the world, many leaders in peace building in their own nations, all who came to call my mother their sister or, even, their mother. If this is the work of a privileged person, we should all be so gifted.

My mother died on July Fourth, 2017 following a two-year battle with stomach cancer, still passionate about all of these subjects, and still actively leading in many of them. Not thirty-six hours before she passed, she attended, with help, a Paneurhythmy ceremony on the grounds of the Manitou Project, where she was to be buried, and narrated the steps of the dances for a recording to be used in a documentary on the group. As we left that morning, my mother turned to her dear friend and helper, Heather, and said that she hoped that there would be no more rituals or dances for her. She was done and had followed her twin paths of healing and spirituality as far as she could while still in this life. She died not long after on her terms, and complete.

I write all this because I feel that it is owed to the followers of Osho, people she cared deeply for and whose ranks she never completely left, can know the full extent of the loss we are experiencing with my mother’s death. She was not, and never claimed, to be a perfect being, she had many regrets, most of which were about how far her paths took her away from me, her son, and the pain that created in my life, as well as her inability to find intimate love for herself following a mostly abusive path of relationships. But she was never the privileged brat she was made out to be in this piece by Chintan and she never once stepped away from her belief that “if you give love, you will receive love back.” My mother gave love in spades, and received it back in the form of a community of friends and co-seekers so rich and dense with people that her funeral welcomed over two hundred persons despite the short notice of only a day and a half of its timing. At that funeral, prayers and chants representing Islam, Sufism, Judaism, and mystical Christianity were sung for her, and us all, once again reaffirming mom’s dedication and love for the diversity of spirituality.

I hope that you will publish this letter along with the article entitled, ‘Rupa’. The piece as it stands, even if written with the best of intentions and with some beautiful truths of its own intact, is incredibly painful for those of us, particularly family, who love my mother and understand her gestalt better than how she was represented. My mother’s past was very much a part of the making of my mother’s future and it deserves to be understood for that and not written off crassly as the “life of privilege” it most certainly was not. My mother was a wise but complex woman and your readers, and posterity, deserves to understand this.

Thank you,
Her son,
Sean Hennessey

Samai writes:

Many of us might know Rajo from Poona 2 where he gave great shiatsu sessions. He had been trained in Japan where he had lived for many years.

In the mid 90s he came to Southern France. I remember that he was a very good macrobiotic cook. In 1996 he lived in my house for a while. I have not seen him much these last years but I hear from Shakta and Dhyan Pascal that he had lived in a yurt, travelled to Brazil, lived there for a while and returned to France. He was part of a little Buddhafield in Ariège and always came to the meditation gatherings.

Rajo left his body peacefully in the hospital where he had been admitted a week prior to his departure. He had been diagnosed with leukemia, and refused to take morphine after the initial unsuccessful chemotherapy. Shakta and other friends went to visit him at the hospital. Mamta and Vimalesh meditated with him with during the evenings. Rajo said, “This is easy,” and added “there is no more life energy in this body.” He was 76 years old.

Shakta and Dhyan Pascal had organised a celebration for Rajo at the end of June.

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Das Anudas (aka David Burrows) was a professor at a university in the States before he took sannyas from Osho in Pune on 27 June 1978 (A servant of servants). He has been involved in all Osho’s Communes. On the Ranch he worked on The Rajneesh Times, and also drove buses. In Pune 2 he was often seen walking around the ashram with cameras dangling around his neck and, in the late nineties, he was part of the Welcome crew.

Zahira remembers a beautiful anecdote:

He told me a beautiful story about what a perfectionist he was. One time Osho selected a photo to use but Anudas said it was not good because it was out of focus. Osho’s response was: “Does Anudas believe the world is always in focus?” What a beautiful koan for Anudas.

Anudas died from a heart attack in Panajachel, Guatemala, where he had been living in recent years. He was 80 years old.

Photos and info thanks to Ajita, Zahira and Vikrant

Anudas’s sannyas darshan: A servant of servants

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I appeciated Anudas for his silent, unpreposessive manner. For years we worked at neighboring desks and enjoyed our mutual company. I know virtually nothing about him but I definitely knew HIM. He was a wonderful man. I feel grateful to have known him. Love,
Nirvano

Nirvano asked me how I knew they were buddies. It’s because I remember their joke:

Der Nirvano
Das Anudas

(It helps if you know something about German grammar.) Bon voyage, Anudas!
Punya

A very gentle being left us…
Baul

A kindred spirit. Over the years we kept bumping into each other in various incarnations of publications in the world of Osho. We shared a “Virgo” thing, a self-critical and jaundiced eye on many of the little homilies of everyday life … an eye that was rather adept at covering a deeply felt sorrow at the pain of the world, knowing the only thing to do was keep on keepin’ on. And he always had a way of letting me know, just at the right time, that he had my back. And knew at the same time that I had his. If there’s a “seeing you” on the other shore, I know he will be there! Bon voyage, Das Anudas, my friend.
Sarito

Anudas was a fun member of the welcome center crew. So many enjoyable moments. Fly high, Anudas. Love,
Yatren

Sweet, sweet Anudas.
May the winds be good to you…
With love and gratefulness,
Sundari

Beloved “servant of servants”, you are (and will always be) a treasure of treasures. Such a gentle man… such a kind good heart. I was shocked to see you in the Passages corner of life… but then perhaps I’ll see you again, before too long… on the other shore. Love on love to you, Anudas.
Padma

It was your name on the darshan list: David Ben David. And how he gave you another equally well-proportioned name: Das Anu Das. From then on we were friends… The interview I did with you then, the occasional pieces we asked you to write. Then on the Ranch, only off and on bumping into each other till Pune Two, back together working with words. Dearest Anudas, I loved your quiet, gentle demeanour and your slightly ironic humour, ever so subtle… Fly well, old friend. See you at the next gathering!
Savita

Thank you, dear one, for 40 years of friendship, laughter, puns, teasing, support, and wisdom. I am blessed to have known you. You live on in those who loved you.
(Deva) Vatula / Marty Wohl

Siddartha was born and raised in Baltimore, USA, in a observant Jewish family. He was a bright and inquisitive child, with a wild streak. Nevertheless, he seemed – at least in the beginning – to fit into normal American life; he went to University, became a psychiatrist, was in the army as a doctor in the Vietnam War and raised a family.

In the ’60s, however, when America was swept by many alternative ways of life, he met who was then called The Central Park Guru, an American Jew who had come back from India and had had quite amazing experiences. Sid joined the group, and with them travelled through the States and on to Central America, until finally settling in a commune in Itaka, N.Y.

Sid then travelled to India to check out the teachers there and, after some roaming around, met Osho and, at his prompting, took sannyas. Then followed his years in Osho’s communes in India, at Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, and back again in India.

Another project that Sid followed throught his life was what he called the Osho Yahweh Mystery School. It was a mix of Osho’s teachings and those of a Black American Christian preacher. He gave the last lesson just days before he left his body.

Siddartha was based in Amsterdam and Goa where he participated in the Panda Chi Tai Chi class and was renowned for his parties on the cliff side in Arambol. He never missed a spiritual gathering or party and – travelling around the world – he listened and argued with gurus and ‘satsang givers’.

This spring, after spending a month in hospital in Boston, due to complications from his lifetime of smoking, sucking down 8 litres of oxygen a day with no recovery in sight, he told the doctors he believed in Krishna and miracles, walked out the door and flew to Goa to celebrate his 80th birthday with a party in Arambol. Continuing his travels to the Himalayas he again celebrated his birthday (there were in fact a total of 8 celebrations), climbed the hills and enjoyed parties, undisturbed that he was hooked up to an oxygen bottle with tubes sticking out his nose. In May then he finished writing his autobiography in Manali. The book should soon be available online.

Siddartha died from a heart attack in Amsterdam, at the side of his long-time partner Vitesha. He had been whisked to the local hospital and did not recover after his fall.

Sid’s life was full of adventures, of turbulent love stories, amazing insights but, above all, full of celebration. He was cantankerous and charming, irritating and sweet, opinionated and a fantastic listener; he was full of humour, wild and crazy, and a totally passionate person. He radated generosity – always giving double of what he was asked – and will be remembered for all the good times, the laughs, the parties and ceremonies!

His send-off will be on Saturday, 12th August, 4.45 till 6pm – meet at 4am at the entrance of Westgaarde Ookmeerweg 275 1087 SP Amsterdam. On Sunday there will be a celebration in the church in Ruigoord starting at 2pm.

Text thanks to Iris (above all), to Rantu, Gaby, Gardner and Anurag
Photos thanks to Loka, Ilaa, Jinny, Anita, Ashvabodhi, Dhyanraj and Gardner

Siddartha sings a song in Vashisht which he visited for his 80th birthday – video by Gaby Frischlander, sound recording by Dory Fuchs Floyd:

Watch on YouTube

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My friend, Siddartha Kaufman, left us yesterday. He celebrated his 80th in Vashisht just a few months ago (actually one of 8 celebrations for his 80th), climbing the Himalayas with an oxygen machine and a tube sticking out his nose to party with his friends.

He once told me I was the sanest person he ever met (he was famous for thinking everybody is crazy). I asked him if he could put that in writing so I can show people that I’m certified normal by a licensed psychiatrist. He said: “I’ll give you two certifications, one that you’re normal and one that you’re crazy, for whichever occasion you need.”

It’s not only the humor, it is asking a friend for something and him offering double of what I asked. That is admirable in a person.

I only met him this year and wished I’d met him much sooner.

Gaby

You always flew! Now you are taking your final flight from this plane. To meet you in Oregon, Pune, or in the USA, was always a joy. Thank you for your love, gentleness, your humor. Hope to meet up with you and all the other beloveds that have flown before. Party time! Much love.
Rakasa

I really like crazy people like you. A psychologist from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who drove a bus at the ranch with a shirt so ripped that you got reprimanded by one of the coordinators. In early Poona 2 you pulled a garbage trolley through the Ashram with a big grin on your face. In Amsterdam I talked you into coming with us at a Wayne Liquorman retreat and you really got Wayne going with your questions, with a grin on your face. Love you man, fly high, Sid.
Jivan Abhiram

Living in Amsterdam you are bound to come across Siddhartha once in a while. I remember him telling me the story how he travelled India in the seventies and came across this meditation camp in Mount Abu, Rajasthan, with some guru Acharya Rajneesh. His first reaction – ‘after all, I’m an old Jew’ – was that the price of the weekend, 100 rupees at the time, was a ‘rip-off!’
Srajan

Beautiful heart of light, when I saw you the first time in Amsterdam, in 1989, while you where there trying to find a flat and then came to see mine. You promptly proposed to ‘do massage’; I felt shocked and warmly embraced, as always..

Further connections, from time to time; warmly hugged, sitting on your lap, feeling safe and seen. We did provoking lots to socially enlightened ones who came to Amsterdam to give satsangs. Once in a Ruigoord Festival you didn’t have a tent to stay. So you came to comfort yourself in my tent. In Ruigoord, people used to dress up fancy so did I, in a too small catsuit, dancing. Later in my tent still in this catsuit you helped me out of the costume, hilarious but true.

Years later you came to my birthday together with Vitesha, to my flat, seeing details and being so warmhearted. I felt your love, your good listening, your interest. You accepted me as myself, no matter how and in what space, in a catsuit or even without.

Always a Yes, a laughter of joy. You were very sensitive and chose the right words, to speak or being quiet. I felt so received. Yes, Sidd, you were a great giver and always on the go.

Every year back in town, I took you for granted. Now I see how you comforted me – and all of us – as Esther shared all your treasure. OK last year at night we watched the moon in your garden and saw all the photos and your stories stored on your laptop. In all stories I felt there was so much love towards all the people you had adventures with. Endless.

My anecdote ends here, even though I have plenty more in mind now. The one in my catsuit is so hilarious and also so heartwarming; how Sidd helped me out of the suit and then got a space to sleep. On 21st Juli, at his 80,5-year-party, I felt vulnerable. Siddartha was open but rough in his words as if he has lost his power – even after his stay at the Boston hospital and his travel. He was very tired.

He didn’t show up at the Ruigord Festival this year. Vitesha was in the Salon alone. I felt Sidd was sleeping deep at home. Two days afterwards the angels were listening, God listening… music that, right after the moon eclipse, gave me breathless sensations. In the morning a Facebook message said Sidd left his body. So everything fell into place, as 21st Juli, the longest summer day, had shown already… He was ready to fly high. RIP, Siddartha, I will miss your good listening, your heart-warmed high hugs, your very observing eyes, your critical mind, your love and Yes to life. Beyond stories or anecdotes… miss you. Thxx so much ♡!
Urja

Samarpan (aka Mario Santilli) was born in Baden, a small town in Switzerland renowned for its large electrical engineering companies, as the only son to immigrants from Italy who had come to work there.

After his grandfather died – he had been a hard-working miner in Italy – he used his inheritance to travel to Egypt and then to India. In Pune, where he met Osho and received his new name, he opened a restaurant called La Dolce Vita which became well known among sannyasins but also local people. It was so successful that apparently even Kabir Bedi, the actor of Sandokan, was a guest there as well as various politicians. (It might be confusing that there was another Samarpan who was also a manager of a restaurant; his was however called Sangamitra.)

In Pune he became friends with Sonia, a local girl, and had a daughter from her (he also had two more children from previous relationships). After the restaurant went bankrupt and was damaged by fire, they worked hard to open another restaurant at another site, across the river, just after the bridge.

Samarpan eventually returned to Italy, together with Sonia, working on weekly markets. When he broke up with his wife he started travelling and working here and there, and living hand to mouth. During the earthquake in Aquila, in 2008, his family had been evacuated and lost all their properties in Castelvecchio Subequo. He finally bought himself an old camper van which he parked under the trees of Viale Ungheria in Milan. Samarpan was addicted to drugs – he had also been incarcerated in Goa for some time – and had struggled quitting.

In Milan he found employment at a call centre for the Red Cross, helping place homeless people and people in difficulties in shelters during the cold season. After working on some translations, this last March he started working for a reception centre for asylum seekers, also run by the Red Cross. They say of him, “He fought against all adversity in life and, despite everything, tried to always stand up again.”

Samarpan died, aged 49, from a heart attack. He was found in his camper van, under the summer heat, by his best friend Daniela, whom he had met at Sert, a centre for drug addicts. His body will be taken care of by his cousin sister, who still lives near Aquila, and his cousin brother.

Text compiled from articles in Corriere Milano (milano.corriere.it – milano.corriere.it) and info cum photos from Taruna Gatto, Mega and Sonia

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Our beloved friend, Ma Prem Sambodhi, died after battling with cancer for many years. In the last weeks, her body got weaker and weaker until she departed softly and peacefully. Her beloved partner Markus was with her.

Sambodhi took sannyas in the very early eighties and went to the Ranch in 1985. In 1988 she visited Pune and was part of the Mystery School and later the School of Mysticism. She gave Reiki sessions and initiations and led groups. One of her favourite tasks was working in Osho’s Samadhi.

In the late nineties she moved to Sedona and became part of the Osho Academy to then return to Germany, in 2008, for health reasons. Although she had to undergo operations and chemotherapy, she did not give up hope nor courage; and loved and enjoyed life even with cancer. Whenever she could, she travelled, spent time with friends, gave sessions and heart meditations at the Osho Uta Institute in Cologne.

A short time after she had moved back to Germany she met her beloved, Markus. Their connection has been a great gift for both of them.

Fashion and choosing beautiful clothes for herself and her friends was a great enjoyment for her. She also expressed herself creatively through painting – another aspect of her sensitivity for colour and beauty.

Sambodhi was a heart full of love. Her capacity to love and enjoy many types of people was her greatest gift. She showered on all of us. Her ability to listen with empathy was remarkable.

As a meditator, Sambodhi used her situation with cancer to deepen her inner journey, face her fear of death and, finally, overcome it.

When her friends heard that she was passing away, the wave of love, tears and support was huge. Many from all around the world came to say goodbye and sit with her. Accompanying her in her last days was a blessing for everyone; it was like a satsang. We were all so touched by her depth of relaxation and acceptance. We will miss her.

A celebration for Sambodhi will be part of the weekly Sunday morning satsang at Osho Uta in Cologne, 20th August, 9:30am.

Text credit to Parampara and friends – photos credit to Parampara, Praphulla and Sumano – connection thanks to Anandi, Parna and Aviram

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Here is a photo, separate from the others because it needs an explanation (a caption). Parampara writes: “The photo was taken one week before her passing. In that week, Sambodhi still sometimes had “Gelüste” as we say in German. She craved for a beer, so, we shared a bottle of beer on her deathbed and had fun. She celebrated until the very end; she was even laughing.”

It had been so easy to have fun with Sambodhi. I still can hear her laughter and her kind of ‘Frankfurt’ dialect! Dressing up for Carnival in the 90s in Poona, playing around in the Mystery School there too, unforgettable fun we had! It does live on in me… Thanks Beloved! You made the world a better and fun place to be!
Aviram

Hello my friend,
I have tears in my eyes as I read about your death. Any time we got together, it was as if we had never left each other’s company.
Last time I saw you was back in Sedona. I asked Leela back in May while in Miasto. She shared about your been in Germany and your healing journey. I wish I had gone to Germany then, to be in your loving presence! Much love opens in my heart! Thank you for your short visit to this plane! See you soon to celebrate and laugh!
Rakasa

Most of his friends will remember Ahado from the time they worked/played in the Kota Commune in Zurich, in Pune 2, or in Sedona.

Ahado was a very private person. He was very much loved for his liveliness and friendliness towards everybody.

Photos and info thanks to Shanti Sneha and Premyogi

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In the course of the last two years I spent many very precious moments with him; I could see how he was accepting his body becoming weaker and weaker, but still remaining light and friendly and, with authenticity, he was preparing himself for the moment of separation, whenever this would happen.
Premyogi

Beloved Friend: I last saw you in Switzerland a decade ago, and could feel already then your acceptance of the cancer. I miss your humour, and your kind smile. I still have the souvenir of the great painting job you did on my house. Fly high, Beloved. See you on the other shore.
Abhiyana

Beloved Ahado, I wish you a beautiful voyage! Such a big heart! You and I were assisting in the Heart group in Poona – lots of laughters and hugs in this incredible environment of the Mystery School. Later I saw you in Sedona and you came to visit in Geneva. If you come across Kaveesha, say “I love you” for me! You are in my heart. Fly high,
Suvasa

Swami Anand Moksha (aka Kantilal Dhakan) took sannyas in 1973 at the Nargol meditation camp in Gujarat. While living in Mumbai he ran the Osho Bhavdeep Meditation Centre. He moved to Pune in 1992.

Moksha’s father was also a sannyasin, as well as are his grandchildren – so there are four generations of sannyasin.

Text and photos thanks to Jagdish – alert thanks to Aviram and Prem

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I met beloved Moksha during one of our Mystic Roses in Poona and we soon became friends. His silence and loving presence left a deep impression on me. I still see him walking with his walking stick towards the Samadhi, or around Buddha Grove, shuffling and chuckling, a mischievous smile behind his full beard, radiating so much love, touching me deeply… I still feel it and it does live on. Bye, dear Moksha, thank you for everything.
Aviram

Kartar singing a ballad between Vimarsh and Ananddeva

Swami Anand Kartar (Pierluigi Rivolta) was an architect and inventor. He was a well-known personality in the city of Milan, Italy, mainly in the construction business. In 2005 he co-founded the Shantisaburi (Shantideva) Osho Meditation Center. As an inventor, he patented several ideas, among which a sort of flying saucer, designed in order to solve traffic problems in big cities. He was a really visionary man.

He also wrote a book (Soliloqui di un uomo, Soliloquies of a man), a philosophical essay in the form of a dialogue between the most intuitive part of himself and his sceptical mind. His final vision was a commune based on sharing resources and skills.

Kartar loved practising meditation, especially Kundalini Meditation. He was a sweet and wise man who made everybody feel good around him.

Kartar died peacefully and without pain, while watching a video of Osho. He never lost his sense of humour and the vibrations around him were always light and empathetic.

text by Ananddeva and Vimarsh

www.shantisaburi.it – www.a4a.it

If you have any photos of Kartar you can send them to oshonews (at) gmx.com

In this video Kartar is singing his song ‘La Ballata di casa Barbieri’, where he describes the village where he spent weekends with his wife and family:

Watch on YouTube

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Gatya writes:

Dhyan Susy (aka Suzy Ledri) from Verona, Italy, took sannyas in 2000. I met her when we both attended the Osho Divine Healing Arts. She was a nurse and a volunteer. Her passion were helping people and reading Tarot cards.

When she was about 20 years old she had a car crash, and I heard her talk about this “peaceful light” where everything is so blessed. After the car crash, her attitude to life changed a lot.

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Buon viaggio, beloved. I have never meet you, but thank you so much for sharing about the peaceful light! With love,
Parna

Ah, Susy, I remember you well from Osho Divine Healing so many years before. You brought enthusiasm and a sharp wit to class. I pray you can give some sessions on the other shore too. Svaha!
Abhiyana

Amitabha discovered Osho in 1980 and took sannyas in 1981 in Sydney, Australia. She lived initially in Satprakash, the Osho Sydney Commune, before traveling to America to participate in therapy groups there (before the Ranch). She visited Rajneeshpuram and later Pune 2.

She was active in the Sydney community and later in the community around Byron Bay, living for a period at Gondwana Sanctuary and practicing as a Feldenkrais Practitioner.

She died in Melbourne where she had moved to be closer to family.

Text and photos thanks to her daughter, Sangam, via Shahido

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Yoga Mukta (aka Greek Mukta, Catherine Mathilda Gregos) was born to a wealthy Greek oil shipping magnate. She married the grandson of the great statesman Elefthérios Venizélos, the maker of modern Greece. She had three daughters, Arietta, Seema and Neeta.

She met Osho in 1971 and remained close to him for many many years. She donated a massive fortune to the commune when Osho established himself in Pune in 1974. Everybody who was in Pune in those early years remember her sitting on the steps of Krishna House in the afternoons with a little note pad to take appointments for the darshans. She was then always sitting on Osho’s right informing him who was next, their names and why they came to see him.

In the commune her work was to take care of Lao Tzu garden around Osho’s house which she had to let go wild like a tropical jungle, according to his instructions. She was often seen at Lao Tzu gate during her breaks.

On the Ranch and in Pune 2 she was the Dynamic Meditation Master.

Mukta was part of the 21, the Inner Circle, for many years. After Osho had left his body she spent time in Pune but also loved travelling, in India and abroad. She then moved to Innsbruck, Austria to be with Antaro. She was diagnosed with dementia and spent a year in a home. Mukta died just a few days after her 89th birthday.

Update 20.1.17: Mukta’s ashes will be taken to the Osho International Meditation Resort.

Article updated 5.1.17: correction of age and length of stay in the home.
Article updated 6.1.17: corrected position of Antaro, deleted sentence of connection between friends and Mukta when she was in Austria.

Ageh Bharti remembers this conversation during the Mt. Abu camp in April 1971, in his book Blessed Days with Osho:

Everybody was drunk with the nectar of the camp. There was one sannyasin, Ma Yoga Mukta from Greece. Her sixteen-year old daughter took sannyas in the camp. When someone asked her, “You may be enjoying a little less in the camp due to language problem?” she replied smilingly, “I don’t follow Hindi, but I can hear him.”

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote using our contact form (please add ‘Mukta’ in the subject field)…

I got to know and enjoy Mukta when I spent a few years guarding in Osho’s–and Mukta’s–garden from 1988 through 1990. My impersonations of her at afternoon tea time used to crack her up to no end. “Vat are yoo do-ink with da’plants?! Don watur da Peek-cocks!”

There’s one story I’m not sure many people knew. The story of Mukta’s vision about 20 years before she was a sannyasin. I took her out to dinner in Poona in spring 1990 and she told me over mutter paneer and buttered nan about being visited as a young woman by the spirit of a young Indian appearing at her bedside at night when she was falling off to sleep. The beautiful Indian man with curly black hair and curly little black beard looked around 21 years old, dressed in a simple white robe. He told her they would be together in the future. She felt tremendous love from him, like he was her soul mate.

Mukta eventually came to Osho and when she saw that photo of him at age 21, taken after his enlightenment, she immediately recognized that her spectral visitor had been Osho. She added that the visions at her bedside started in 1953, around the time he was enlightened.

Farewell Mukta and hello Mukta formlessly here and EverNow!

Arjuna

Mukta, you left us. Fare well and RIP. You have been a jewel in the crown of Osho’s work. Fly high and come back to the garden with your loving care! Love and light, Prem Jayadip

I had the pleasure to work as a gardener under her guidance for 16 years in the Commune International in Poona. I took care of the area around Buddha Hall and in Lao Tzu Garden. Mukta taught me how to love all the plants and how to make the garden more beautiful, by planting and watering and supporting the growth of all those exotic creatures. I always felt her trust in my work, so I could really develop my love for nature and work on my own. I remember when she one day came to me and handed to me a long thing wrapped in paper. She smiled at me when I unwrapped it like a curious little boy at Christmas time. It was a piece of marble from Osho’s bedroom and with tears of gratitude in my eyes I hugged her, constantly whispering, “Thank you, Mukta.” This gesture was the highlight of my time with Mukta. I am so blessed to be her gardener and so I can only whisper: “Thank you, beloved Mukta.”
Bodhi Makarand

During August 2006 I used to meet Mikta walking around Buddha Groove, while, both of us, were listening to the bamboos’ sounds. One night I was having an ice cream at the Plaza and was sitting at her table. She looked at me with her deep and childlike eyes and exclaimed: “You better get rid of that ice cream soon! For a short period Osho was eating ice cream everyday. That was the only moment in his bodylife that I’ve seen him becoming chubby! Then he dropped ice cream and returned to his natural shape!” In each of her words there was always an anecdote, a memory, a suchness of great value. Proud that I had that chance to spend few moments with her! Thank you Mukta!
Sw Atmo Heera

Meeting Ma Yoga Mukta in 1976 was an experience of meeting a female Osho Sufi mystic for me – part dragon and part buddha, but my o my what a devotee to Osho and his vision!

We had many many wonderful moments together, and I could always count on her for humorous, slightly sarcastic comments on the topics of the most “current events or dramas” of those days.

I marveled how Mukta could be friends with you, but at the same time, if she didn’t like something you did or said, she would be in your face with that unmistakable Greek accent… then if you got it, she would just be as mellow and loving as can be. She was impossible for me to predict, so around her, for me anyway, spontaneity and being present was a must.

In Poona 1, from 1974-81, when Osho gave Discourse every morning and shared Darshan every evening “Yoga” Mukta was there EACH time! We are talking 7 years straight! In those days, we sat straight down on the marble floor – no one was bringing in “lecture cushions”. You could improvise with your lungi or shawl, but that was it. I once asked her how she managed – she just smiled her ironical smile and said something like: “I tell the body it’s not going anywhere… and I then tune into Osho, go inside, and the body disappears.” But she would not “space out” in Darshan, as she was the one calling our names to come in front of Osho. I find that an example of “authentic yoga”.

On the Ranch in Oregon, for 3 years, Mukta and I were alternating leading the Dynamic Meditation each morning at 6am in Rajneesh Mandir. We had many intimate times sharing (with gentle back and forths) about his methods, and I know we both enjoyed our dance together. I just loved hearing the stories from her about the early Meditation Camp days, before Poona, when Osho was refining and experimenting with this and his other incomparable and priceless gifts to sannyasins and humanity.

In early Pune 3, after Osho had left his body, Anasha and I would have a special dinner with Mukta about every 2 or 3 weeks. She would often have a special flask hidden in her clothes and then pour herself a drink! We would talk, joke, speculate, and gossip about all and everything as all of us were adjusting to life in Poona without Osho in his body. She was one crazy, fun, and unique woman…

I knew she was not well in her body for many years, so Anasha and I were not surprised with this news. I know Mukta directly experienced a place beyond the body/mind, and she was always an inspiration and source of Osho Love for me. I have an intuition that she left her body while in Samadhi. My only regret is that I could not help burn her body and give her a good send-off! But we will do something for her in our way…

She was in my heart already, and she is in my heart more now. When I close my eyes and tune into her essence, I can feel her love and meditative being inside.

Yoga Mukta, you are Blessed! Thank you so much for your gardening and your wit and your totality, not to mention for funding the original Korean Park Ashram! You gave so much depth, beauty, and love to the Commune of Osho. I know he was/is grateful to you also.

Prem Anubuddha

Dear One, You have been an Alpha in his tribe for what seems to be forever! Now you are the Omega as well. We honour you, your great heart, your fierce love. May your joy be unbounded. Love upon love.
Deva Padma

I still walk the gardens you so lovingly planted. Fly high Mukta. Blessed are you indeed to have walked the path with Osho. I still remember the time when we had gone to a party and walking back you kept forgetting my name and how we laughed about it. Much love,
Shruti

Good bye in the world of beloved Master Osho.
Swami Kalpesh Bharti

I had the honor and gift in this life to work in Osho’s garden in Lao Tzu with Mukta for many years, sometime from 1986 till 2000 when I finally left the commune to live in the world. I will never forget her and the magical garden she created together with the master. She was a really unwavering Osho lover, total, single-pointed, Zen and Zorba. Her love for Osho was something from the beyond and still touches me deep in my heart. Tears of gratefulness in this moment are there. She will be forever and ever in my heart.
Atit

I loved her. She was my boss and my friend. She taught me so much of devotion and non-seriousness and spontaneity. I love her and wave her goodbye with great gratitude. PS Just on New Year’s Day this photo of her came to me.
sw deva rashid

Beloveds, during the last years I have been seeing Mukta just on photos that were provided on FB. I am glad that Mukta made it now! I met Mukta when working in Osho’s garden in springtime in 1997; she instructed me just to pick up the big leaves of the giant trees. I loved it, being there, the swans and Dolano and Mukta silently showering love. Once I went so coockoo and blissed out that I raised my hands, palms outwards, to everyone and Mukta advised me not to do that for my own sake. What a beautiful intervention. Mukta, I loved you right away. Fly high! To your family and friends my deepest sympathy.
Raji

Gecondoleerd met het verlies van Mukta,
Janny Zijlstra

It was always a great pleasure to see graceful Ma Mukta in the garden, always smiling, picking dry leaves or watering plants. May her soul rest in Peace.
Swami Subhash Saraswati

Sitting in Pune one afternoon in Osho´s garden in the 90’s, there popped up one sentence from my belly: “Europe is over for you.” In the evening on the same day Mukta, Antaro and I went out for dinner and I shared what I had heard. Mukta laughed and invited me to choose and donate a space in the pyramids to stay there from now on. The next day Mukta guided me through the pyramids, a space in Rinzai chose me and it took me one month to come back from Europe and to stay in Rinzai for the next 7 years. This incident and the simple way it unfolded is still one of the most awesome miracles in my life. There is a deep gratitude for all involved, and specially Mukta taught me, that it is possible to be simple and ordinary with and around a master. In that she is extraordinary to me. Wonderful gardener woman, goodbye.
Devarupa

RIP love,
Jivan Sahaj

Beloved Mukta, I remember your big smile when, as you sat on the steps of Krishna House that morning, I told you, in some trepidation, wondering if he would accept me, that I wanted to take sannyas. You were the ultimate devotee. I learned so much from you about love and trust working in the garden with you in Lao Tzu House, and smuggling in the occasional rum bottle that you would send us out for, not that you were a big drinker – you were so filled up with Osho. We all loved the little garden parties you created for those working with you and anyone else around. I will never forget you. Love,
Sw. Prem Christo

First time I saw Mukta I felt kind of delicately being connected to her through a thread of love, of subtle devotion to Osho – at a darshan in Pune. When we later met face to face, no words were needed: in silence and with tears of joy we hugged each other! Later we spoke in Greek, but our first contact was an experience of heart’s beauty by itself, love at first sight! Farewell, beloved Mukta!
Μa Prem Amodini

We are all connected in an intricate web, like a root system of a vast tree. Mukta was blessed to be so close to the source of infinite love and bliss – our beloved master. Probably all of us we who were fortunate enough to be present when Osho was in the body, will have some personal affinity to Ma Yoga Mukta. Whether it was in sannyas darshan sitting silently – with a huge grin – next to the master. Or in the gardens around the Ashram, or having her lead Dynamic in the Mandir in Rajneeshpuram. Mukta was the most devoted of devotees. In the last few days I was wondering how she is doing, so I looked at her facebook page and saw the latest photo of her looking so frail. I thought to write her an encouraging message but I did not know she’d already gone to meet her master in the Garden of the Beloved beyond this earthly plane. Bye bye, Mukta – now you really are in Union and Free (Yoga / Mukta).
Samudroprem

Bon voyage, Mukta! You were the very embodiment of a spontaneous female version of Zorba the Buddha. Your presence by his side and in his garden simply felt like “home.” Fly high, goddess that you are!
Ma Prem Sunshine

In the last years when she was in Pune, every time I came back from the West she greeted me with a great smile and a “Welcome”. Then few days later when she met me again she forgot and did the same – and the love was immense.
Ma Prem Rajya

When I see all these tributes I’m not surprised! You were really the only remaining living thing (apart from the trees) in the Poona commune after Osho himself left there; and it didn’t matter a bit if you were one of the 21 or other “chosen ones”.
After all we were all “chosen” by Osho to become his sannyasins (not vice versa), as he explained to us.

You welcomed me then and there (in 1999) as a new hostess into your commune. And you ALWAYS enjoyed my poetry (and men) and so our friendship unfolded, and I’m sure you would have liked this latest one:

When I think of what it means
to love you… it delights, it screams
in your face, in your body
it tampers with your patience it seems
it makes you restless, resist
it dances, whirls, it will insist
to play with your eyes, your body.

You also once told me you were there with Gautama the Buddha also, in a past life, standing next to him. And then you asked me to forget about that. You always loved and preferred talking to men… You are the great Woman. You supported and loved the Great Osho as you reminded him of his own grandmother… the same face, he said. How he must have loved you!

And I feel you will come around one more, and last, time to support another Buddha in the future who will need you. Just a feeling I have always had about you, my Beloved and Crazy (I return the compliment :)!) Mukta!

But forget about that for now, and enjoy this rest. Love,

Vedant Sajjad

Beloved Mukta, I last saw you in Byron Bay in 1995. We had a beautiful and precious time together. The years working with you in Poona 1 as a gardener are some of my most treasured memories. I have always loved you, in spite of time and distance. Thank you for the blessing of knowing you. Farewell with all my love.
Anne Sweet (Ma Prem Amrit)

Mukta beloved, the Dynamic meditation that you led with your deep powerful voice, back in 1985, while I was doing the Therapist training in Oregon, got me to really enjoy and touch ecstatic moments. Your deep voice with your Greek accent held me up during the Hoo Hoo segment. Oh! Mukta you are going back to the Source! Please save me a front seat. I will be coming soon. How blessed are we to have been invited by Osho to be with Him!
Rakasa Lucero

Beloved Mukta, I wish you a beautiful journey on your path without your body now, with a lot of love and light guiding you. I remember – as it was yesterday – when you and I met in the bookshop in Pune in 1996 – it must have been April or May. I was working in the bookshop at this time being responsible for the books department there (the other department was for Videos and MCs). The temperature was getting higher (in Pune this starts happening from the beginning of March) and in the bookshop we were lucky to have air-conditioning. So it happened that one day you appeared working with me, for some weeks for half-day, to get some cool air from the air-conditioning. Anyway, I loved to work with you. I felt so much love coming from you. You asked me what to do because I was in charge of the department, yes, but you were 38 years older than me (which means you had more the age of my mother) and you did everything I told you to do in such an easy, loving way – which left me in wonder. Thank you so much for your love in those days, Mukta. Thank you so much for caring for Osho’s garden which I could admire while doing Za Zen in his walkway. Thank you so much for your loving presence. Lots of love to you from
Ma Dhyan Rohini from Germany

Mukta, a love letter…

Doing nothing in particular is your splendid art. Your genius of aesthetic perfection is steeped in the secret of absence. This is your action, your playful skill: you resonate with what is placed in front of you.

Sometimes you show me what I want to see. My dreams and aspirations are grasping for emptiness with hands so full of longing. Most secret fantasies circle around how I want to be. Imagination in the distant future, a mirage of light.

You encourage me to face what I fear the most. Trembling, I turn to look as far away as possible. But you never let me get away with straying in delusion and remind me of the present moment. It is here and now that we find – love.

Still young, I try to mimic your behavior: I stand and walk as you do. Then, I hear you laugh about the absurdity of one trying to be, another. Okay you say, let’s dance, but invent your own choreography.

At times you kindly point me towards the other side of things. The ultimate reality plays hide and seek in a spoke frozen in the wheel of time. A tiny grain of sand becomes aware of this celestial body, a part rejoicing with the whole.

Grateful to be here we celebrate a moment of ecstasy. Catching us by surprise we ride a delightful wave of bliss from this moment into the next. A flicker of enlightenment erases the darkness that still lurks behind.

From the hidden side you acquaint me with a beautiful detail of an ancient statue. Marble cliffs polished by the gentleness of the sea for Millennia. The classical nose gives away the strength of perfect confidence, mixed with childlike innocence.

Sunlight, integrity and honesty dazzle my eyes in the morning. Still not quite awakened yet, I mumble: let me sleep – a little longer. Your compassion, so delicious, pierces the veil of yet the sweetest dream.

You introduce me to nothing special: appreciation of the simple things. As a step forward enters new territory the gravel leaves an imprint on the sole of the foot for a little while. The deep blue sky reflects itself in you without effort.

This empty moment overwhelms my soul. In spaciousness, my laughter, my tears and my silence find themselves at home so joyfully. Contagiously, you smile…you whisper, “My friend, awaken, wake up now. You still have some more loving to do, today.”

Arjava aka Frank Arjava Petter

Beloved Mukta, only two days before your ‘take off’ we could still share LOVE to one another by phone and mail. From now on, in silence; this will not stop from within me. THANK YOU for so many years of HEART-connection! Love,
Sw. Dhyan Johan

When I was a young sannyasin in 1984, Mukta was leading many meditations; she was a great support. Once she came to me during Dynamic Meditation while I was rolling on the floor and said to me, “Cry, cry, your heart wants to cry.” This encouraged me to let go. Another time I was worried because in Nataraj Meditation I bumped a lot into other people – I got so carried away. When I asked her about it, she just said, “No problem, just be total.” Thank you, Mukta!
Kunji

I have a few direct experiences with Ma Mukta, of her kind gentle spirit, her perceptiveness and independence. This Mukta is a devotee of Osho, who demonstrated in her ordinary living the spirit of a mystic for each of us to appreciate who could see it. It is enriching to hear that many of us can.

I found her guidance gentle, caring and compassionate. If the photo included of her in these recognitions is of the older Mukta and recent, one can see at the very least an Osho mystic there. How many times does the main stream culture and it’s methods of categorizing us and labeling us miss-take a zen master for a crazy, or some other way of saying that the person is not average or normal, not part of the crowd. I have stopped using the categories that psychology and psychiatry have developed to define each of us, most especially as it might be mis-applied to someone of the quality, height and depth of the beautiful Mystical Ma Mukta.

In the moment of hearing that this Osho sannyasin was not in the body my heart opened and tears gentle poured out of love and appreciation for her — tears of love for a kindred spirit and authentic seeker of truth. Tears of connection and love.

For me, in Poona I, Mukta was the more experienced disciple that one watches and learns from, by osmosis, just by watching them walk, talk, laugh, doze, leave the body, disappear into the master, breath — and yet be simply ordinary, passing you by as you are entering and she is leaving the tailor shop on MG Road.

Her energy was a flowing liquid friendliness — it still is. I have heard Osho say that we sannyasins celebrate death because we celebrate deathlessness; that we celebrate eternal life: forms manifest and unmanifest but life is eternal.

Beloved Mukta Ma, you have been a blessing in my life. Jai Osho!

Neeraj

beloved mukta
bon voyage
with much love
bhakti

You were the one to give me sannyas in Kiev and I had no idea what I was getting into – thank you, beloved!
Jivan Leela

Mukta, you beloved sweet garden witch, it was such a exciting time with you. I will never forget you. Now you have a big garden in paradise. Enjoy.
Riten

Ich traf Mukta im Januar 1987 in ‘ihrem’ Garten in Poona. Sie empfing mich mit offenem Herzen, jede Hand wurde beim Aufbau von Poona II gebraucht. Osho war gerade 2 Tage aus Bombay zurück, zur Überraschung aller, und über jede Hand war man sehr erfreut. Ich arbeitete immer gern im Garten, so ging ich voll Freude mit Mukta. Ich lernte viel von ihr vom Umgang mit Pflanzen, von ihrer Liebe zu den grünen Freunden. Es war wunderbar mit ihr zu sein und mit ihr zu arbeiten. Die Pflanzen waren für sie lebendige Wesen, so wie für mich. Die für mich neue Erfahrung, in einer Kommune zu arbeiten, hat sie mir schmackhaft gemacht, ja versüßt. Sie zeigte mir, wie sowohl meinen Rückzug – mit mir Selbst zu sein – wie auch mein ‘Wiederkommen und dann total da-Sein’, ok war. Das war ein große neue Freiheit für mich! Danke dafür Mukta!

Ich trage ihre Liebe, ihre Freundlichkeit, ihren Respekt immer in meinem Herzen, ihre blubbernde Freude, diese Oase für Osho zu gestalten, ihre LebensLust, ihre Fähigkeit, jeden der kommt in ihr Herz zu nehmen. Zu jener Zeit gab es kein Zäune, keine Grenzen, keine ‘Gates’ in Poona… jeder war von Herzen willkommen, und fand schnell den Platz wo er wirken konnte. Ich blieb 6 Monate, konnte den Abbruch von Hütten und Gebäuden erleben, und den Aufbau des ‘neuen Poona II’. Immer mitwirken wo Hände gebraucht wurden. Für mich war die ‘Entwicklung meiner Einzigartigkeit’ die Erfahrung in Poona. Das konnte ich von Mukta lernen, angenommen selbst als ‘eher stiller Typ’… Dafür bin ich ihr immer dankbar, für die Freude ‘so zu sein wie ich bin’. Ich bin dankbar, Zeuge zu sein wie der wundervolle Dschungel um Oshos Haus und im ganzen Ashram gestaltet wurde. Zu erleben wie Samadhi, der Wasserfall und die Pflanzen drum herum gestaltet wurden. Abbruch der ‘alten Buddhahalle’ und Aufbau der neuen. Am Abend polierte ich mit Glaswolle den Ort, wo Oshos Füße morgen erstmals auftreten werden. Dafür bekamen alle ‘Worker’ einen Frontseat! Gesegnete Zeit!

In meinem Herzen warst du immer mit mir, Mukta, so willkommen in deinem Herzen, und angenommen und unterstützt in dem, was Ich Bin. Du – ein Licht, das andere Kerzen erleuchtet, das konnte ich im Westen weitergeben.

Danke dir für unsere Begegnung, immer wenn ich dich oder ein Bild von dir sah, war ein warmes Gefühl in mir, wie zu einer Schwester aus uralter Zeit. Auch, als ich in der Welt meine Arbeit für Osho lebte.

Jetzt bist du frei, und tanzt im Licht.

Ja, Liebe ist die Essenz, und die hast du verströmt, überall wo du warst: Ein Segen, ein Licht, Freude… du warst Liebe. Namaste,

Ma Bodhi Pradeepti, Germany

Dearest Mukta,

It’s been too long! When my mom first introduced us I was 16, I so wanted to work in the garden. You made it so. You gave me responsibility, saying “You’re a young man now. Be sure to be quiet by His window, sometimes He’s sitting there watching.”
On your birthday we broke many plates at Pravasi’s with all your malis dancing around. Your smile was so big it lit the room around us.

When I cried, you’d hold me close and when I laughed you’d laugh too, never asking what’s so funny! Whenever you hugged me that big watch would knock my head, in a good way. When you’d finally come back from wherever He took you after morning we’d sit with our tea and hold our breath; would we be in His garden today trimming branches He told you not to? We’d climb aboard the red/orange Chevy with Gyansheel at its loose wheel, steering us safely through a crazy maze of chaos, searching out more soil and bigger and bigger rocks. Building taller and wider montains with crushed marble pebbles for water and ferns galore. “Place them here and there,” you’d say arguing with Sanatano and Anahat, with Kensho, Jalal and Doug looking on…

You be sure to smell the flowers today you’d remind me after a rain. Here’s to you, beloved Mukta, till we meet again, a toast to all your magic ways…

Sw Anand Arun

A guardian angel in my early days in Poona – 1975
From the first moments talking to her at Lao Tzu gate
Attempting to comprehend the vastness of Bhagwan
Kindness in allowing the discovery of this essential being
In my own way and ‘timing
Offering me a healing working role in the gardens when I was too unwell for full-time duties in the kitchens
And then the awesome relief to be able to just be in the gardens
Sometimes left alone – to release pain and joy and longings –
Often delighting in meeting our fellow gardeners for afternoon tea ceremoniously
in our creatively designed tea house
Surprisingly, Zen sticks served in natural, easy conversation and bakery delights
Some other magic moments with Mukta were visiting nurseries and buying up abundantly and instantly planting up worlds of wonder.
And recording them in a book we co-created of the beauty of the natural world – photographs she selected of the garden and words of the master I recall
“like dew drops on the morning leaf… Simply look. Simply listen…”

Returning in 1986, Mukta gave my 3-year-old son a job feeding Bhagwan’s ducks and, when I was housekeeper, allowed him to come into Lao Tzu whenever he wished. I loved showing Bodhi the garden. Here we made our first pond in the Jesus House rose garden. Here is the hibiscus bush, started from a cutting given by Mukta almost a decade ago, “Just plant! Trust!” Now over 10 feet high! Here is where I made a garden rooftop home above Bhagwan’s father’s house and where I helped him work/play with the plants…” but not too strenuously – yet do not dampen his joy and enthusiasm.” Spoke the wise caring son / master who in his compassion had recognised his father’s increasing weakness and impending, tenuous physical hold on the earthly body.

What a beautiful world Mukta had invited me into.
Where my spirit sprouted in the timeless wonderland 7 days a week!
But it was a personal situation when a darshan blackout opportunity led to an unexpected pregnancy that Mukta’s being a channel for divine guidance really showed up.
Nothing was spoken.
I wished to be with the circumstances without others’ opinions clouding the decision-making.
One day she spontaneously shifted my work to Number 70 where my role was, apart from some garden maintenance, the construction of the children’s house!
Although I enjoyed the work and the company of some Australians who would subsequently play a role in my post-commune family situation, I was only able to go to discourse every second day and the energy was less intense than in the intimacy of the inner Buddhafield playground.
One morning, as I was walking out the back gate to my work after a particularly blessing transmission, I stopped on the bridge in silent communication with our beloved master, “Although I feel the grace of your benevolent mastery whatever I do,
your physical presence – and what that awakes in my soul – means more to me than anything else right now.” And I made a medical appointment for an abortion.
Within an hour Mukta, who had been sitting absorbed in Bhagwan bliss, sent a message that there was some urgent work to be done in Lao Tzu and she could not find anyone who had gate clearance. Could I return immediately?
What a delight to be in the sacred garden once again! There did not seem anything particularly urgent so I just enjoyed being a mali, caretaking and somehow the guard forgot to alert me when the session time was up. Which meant I had to duck down in the bushes when Bhagwan appeared on his dining porch for a long lunch, so close was I that I could hear particular phrases of his resonantly poetic conversation.
What bliss! When I was able to move and dance out of the garden I was in satori.
Very psychedelic!
All of this occurred without any verbal exchange.
Mukta just being the channel for his Love.
And that is how you are always in my memory
And in my heart’s wisdom
The deeper and vaster
For having known you.
Gratitude beyond words,
Beloved Friend

Ma Prem Sagara

While living in Mumbai, Swami Om Bharti (aka Omprakash Narsimha Rao) came into contact with Osho through Osho Sagardeep Meditation Center in the posh area of Walkeshwar and, in 1978, took sannyas from Osho.

In 1979 he went to work in Kuwait at the Mercedes Benz car company and remained there for a few years. When Osho came back to India, Om followed him to Pune and worked for a while in the commune bakery and later in the pottery at No. 4 which he enjoyed till it closed.

He was a very loving and caring person. Lately he wanted more and more time to be with himself for meditation and listening to Osho.

His funeral took place on 22nd September at Banganga, Malabar Hills in Mumbai. It was his wish, shared by him earlier, that when he passed away he should be bid farewell at Malabar Hills where he used to reside in the past.

Text and photos thanks to Anil Vora, Mouna Anand, Suraj Solanki, Mega

Tributes

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Beloved Om, with your deep voice and Enfield smile, remaining in our hearts, nice memories we shared… Thank you and good bye…
Aviram