Sampatti

Ma Yoga Sampatti (Jackie Hider ) took sannyas in 1974 or ’75, probably in London. On her overland journey to Pune, in 1975, she met her husband, Omkar. Together they ran a book exchange on a flat cart outside the ashram.

Sampatti became the production manager for the Rajneesh Shakespeare Company, which toured Northern India and was hosted on the lawn of Lok Kalyan Marg, India’s White House, by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

While living in Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, she worked in Security and as a Twinkie, hosting visitors on the Ranch. She left the Ranch early and settled in San Diego, where she was the advance guard of sannyasins adapting to the ‘outside world’. When the Ranch ended, she helped other sannyasins find work and build a new life.

Sampatti became a passionate reading specialist and established a literacy program at Cuyamaca Community College in San Diego. She loved hiking and the outdoors – and encouraged friends to adventure bravely, too.

She was a member of the San Diego Zen Center community and studied Non-Violent Communication, and travelled to Vietnam with Veterans for Peace.

After retiring from teaching, she became a Buddhist Chaplin with the Zen Peacemakers under the guidance of Roshi Joan Halifax. She then spent more than a decade volunteering with the homeless and street dwellers in the Tenderloin in San Francisco, “living a life of presence” with the Faithful Fools.

In her 70s, Jackie was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. She lived every moment of her last few years fully, still building community around her. She remained at home, skillfully orchestrating her support system till she moved into an assisted living community. She was hardly able to eat or speak but her mind and spirit were still remarkably strong. 12 days after her move she was found unresponsive one morning, and was moved to the ER. Her sister and friends were with her as she died. She was 80.

Sampatti /Jackie is remembered for her consciousness skills, her vast compassion, her keen insight, her inspiring courage, her impish sense of fun and her profound wisdom.

Thanks to Ma Prem Vidhi

Photos by Prabhat (Nimi Getter), thanks to Bhagawati

Tributes

I love Sampatti so much, but we haven’t been in contact for years. I would sometimes wonder where she was.

Her photo is exactly the same face as I remember her.

We worked in the bakery together. I asked her to do the accounting, which she didn’t like to do at all. Eventually someone else must have taken over that job. But we had a lot of fun together and it was through her that I met Subhan.

Sampatti came to visit us once – but neither Subhan nor I remember if she visited us while we lived in Japan or on the East Coast.

I can’t believe, there she is in a wheelchair and yet her face and energy is exactly as it was when we worked together in the bakery.

It was interesting to read about her life since we lost touch – I feel she is just expanding into the universe.

Ma Yoga Shanti

Sampatti was passionate about building community and even more so after her ALS diagnosis in 2020.

She had so many wonderful friends & helpers in San Diego and all over the country!

Punit

 

Beloved Sampatti,

you have disappeared from sight but not from memory.

You were such a friend in early Poona’s buzzy days and an ally in the troubled times of Rajneeshpuram.

Thank you for the beauty and the love you’ve left behind,

rashid

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