Sitara left her body on 13th April 2012
Sitara was a creative force of nature, perhaps best known for her work in musical theater at Osho’s commune in Pune. She was an Osho lover and devotee for more than 30 years, a high-energy, multi-talented meditator who lived life to the fullest and carried her Master’s vision to the far corners of the planet.
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Sitara took sannyas in 1982. Before that she was Dr. Linda Thistle, PhD, a Beverly Hills therapist with a large clientele of Hollywood showbiz people. She was also a children’s therapist. In the late Eighties, she and her long-time partner Satdeva were in the crystal business, importing large amethyst pieces to the U.S. from Brazil and from digs in the crystal mines of Arkansas, USA.
She was very involved with the Mystery School while it flourished at the commune in Pune, offering crystal healings and helping Kaveesha stage elaborate settings for therapy groups and processes.
Sitara was something of a “glamour girl” — she loved to dress up in fancy clothes and wear outrageous hats. Friends say she was not just the life of the party, she was the party.
Most of all, Sitara is remembered for her musical talents as a theater producer of major productions in Pune. She was a gifted pianist, composer, singer, and lyricist. She wrote most of the songs, both music and lyrics, for several musicals. She also designed the costumes and guided the staging.
The former Meera Barn at the Osho Commune was the setting for some truly mind-boggling, multi-media productions created by Sitara, often in collaboration with Subhuti. Many came together in a matter of weeks. The sets were lavish, the costumes colorful and amazing, the music was live, the plots often outrageous – and all were inspired by our Master’s vision.
“Hollywood Superstar,” admittedly autobiographical, is probably her most well-known production. She also wrote or co-wrote “The Great Planet Earth,” “From Sex to Superconsciousness,” “Dorothy Grows Up” (a Wizard of Oz takeoff) and “Women in Love,” with Aneesha, Meera and Satyam.
Sitara led a colorful and eclectic life, including a stint as a teacher and dean of women at Haile Selassie University in Ethiopia before escaping a political coup. She and Satdeva traveled the world — from New Zealand to Hong Kong to Thailand to Europe and beyond — sharing their love of crystals, and dazzling people everywhere with Osho’s energy and their enthusiasm for life.
When Sitara moved back to the USA and made her home in Sedona, she became the event planner of choice at Osho Academy, producing many parties and musical evenings there. In her later years she reinvented herself as a jewelry designer, selling her work to local shops and specializing in a beautiful crystal and gems piece called “Blessings.”
About seven years ago Sitara began her descent into Alzheimer’s. In 2009 she checked herself into an assisted living facility in Sedona called The Winds, where she lived cheerfully until a few months ago, when the downhill slide began. Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease; there is no cure, and it gradually consumes both brain and body. To watch Sitara’s once-bright light and life force gradually dim and diminish was agonizing for her close friends.
Five days before her passing, two sannyasin friends sat with Sitara during a guided Bardo meditation. They believe it is very possible that Veetman’s “Awakening from the Dream” helped release Sitara from the body and send her on her journey to the other side.
At the end, Sitara was in the hands of hospice caretakers. It was reported that she passed silently and softly. Sitara was 73 years old. She was wearing her mala when she died. The mala was also on her body when she was cremated.
A celebration of her life was held on April 19, in Sedona, with about 30 friends giving Sitara a royal sendoff.
Fly high, Hollywood Superstar!
Text by Liberty and Viramo
Tributes
Thank you so much, beloved Sitara. I am so greatful I met you and did the mystical adventures and crystal journeys with you. It was so much fun to travel, party, meditate and live together in all these beautiful places around the world. I felt you truly loved me. Miss you and love you very much…
Swami Satdeva
Beloved girlfriend, we met in Pune two and hit it off – and you invited me to assist you in producing one of your marvellous musicals. They had the quality of ‘Evergreens’; each song such a jewel. Does anyone still have the recordings of songs like “The 10000-petalled Lotus” and “King of my Heart” etc.? Too supreme to be forgotten! (Satdeva maybe? Then please connect with me.). Fly high, sister… and keep forever rocking! Namaste and a big smile from
Pratibha in Munich, Germany
My beloved sister, I know you have moved on to new stars and radiance. We shared so many of life’s experiences and adventures together and your smile was always there. In these past few years, I was not able to come to Sedona and always thought of you there. I remember the times you were here in Bali, times in LA, and Sedona. I bless you on your way and celebrate your transition. Fly high!
Ma Nirava Sohana
Sitara, beloved, thank you for the dance.
Thank you for the songs you sang,
thank you for the chance
to love you, play with you,
singing Osho’s song.
You are home now, beloved,
and the dance goes on and on and on…
Shunyo
Sitara where will you go? You will just be here. You are the very air we breathe and so we celebrate you with every breath we take…
Puneeta
Still kind of shocked … oh you great woman … still remember you from the time being with Satdeva – I have a beautiful piece of crystal in gold from you which is very prescious to me always … Im remember your laughing and being …. loving tender greetings to the realm you are now … and Thank You … being part of the path in this life …
Rajo
Thank you, beloved Sitara, for your kindness, humour, friendliness, support, creativity, mischief, authenticity, sincerity, generosity, and vision which I drank to the full when we did “Hollywood Superstar” and “Women in Love” in Pune. You showered on me: got me writing my first song, singing my first solo, and taught me that if a girl wants a nice photoshot to get it taken in the soft light of early morning. I am sure all that love is carrying you on. Goodbye, dear soul, and bon voyage.
Satyam
Beloved Sitara, you were always your unique Self, cheerful and radiant. Even as the Alzeimer’s consumed your bodymind, the light continued in your eyes. All the years of meditation were not for naught! Our Love on Your Journey,
Abhiyana
I remember a sudden gust of wind, a powerful ray of sunshine entering the Creative Arts Department in our Pune commune – Ma Sitara (‘the bright star’ in Hindi). She would stir everybody and everything into life. Her enthusiasm was the most infectious disease I ever caught. It was not blood but Osho flowing in her veins. This time she was planning what sounded like impossible to me. Portraits of enlightened Masters on either side of the walkway between the main and Lao Tzu gates to celebrate Osho’s enlightenment day. The smattering of artists lolling around dismissed her zeal with a chuckle or a smirk. But in no time the hall was buzzing as a beehive. Every sannyasin who could hold a brush or a pencil was there charged with Sitara’s energy. Out of the ever-lethargic me she extracted six medium-sized portraits in ten days! A feat only Sitara was capable of. And her dream became a reality! Visitors to the commune had the treat of being flanked by enlightened beings as they entered the Gateless Gate. Since Sitara departed, I have sensed a lot of activity upstairs. She must have clustered angels, devils, saints, sinners together for a play. Make it a musical, beloved Sitara, with God as the lead singer. And remember, this little dot on earth called Ma Prem Fatima loves you.
Fatima
Beloved Sitara, close friend for years in Poona and in Sedona, visited me when I lived in Santa Fe, with her Blessing pieces and jewelry that I helped her sell. She made one for Oprah once, who she said was doing more for the world than anyone, and hoped one day to meet her.
I like to hold memories of her from photos of us together at the Gate to the ashram, or with Satdeva, and when she would dress up in high heels for tango nights in Sedona, or play the piano to accompany herself or someone else singing. She put on some amazing parties in Poona, hard at work making the decorations and dreaming up the themes for each night, and finding the right mix of performers. She was totally in her element as an event planner!
I began to miss that Sitara several years ago when she began to show signs of her illness on my visits to Sedona. I understood from those who saw her after I moved to the East Coast that she was happy in the assisted living place she chose to move to, even though her disease was progressing and she did not recognize some of her closest friends. I regret that I was unable to visit her before her mind was so terribly compromised.
Thanks to Liberty and Viramo for their obituary for Sitara, a sister spirit. And the slideshow is marvelous, showing Sitara’s energy for life. I miss her but she’ll always be in my heart… Dearest Sitara, rest in peace! I love you always!
Amana
In loving memory: To a beloved friend, I am so grateful to have met you many years ago because without you I would not have met Osho! Thank you, for all your love and support along the way! Eternally,
Anurakti
You will be forever embedded in my heart! In July of 1997, or maybe another year, Neelam asked me to decorate the commune on Gurupurnima Day. I had a big yes to do this… and then, without really knowing you, I immediately asked you to help. Ideas came strongly forward and you supported all of them and helped to manifest them. We had so much fun and sometimes big dramatic arguments… I know you will not read this now… but I had to write it just to share to the universe that magic time of creation. Love,
Shanti
Shocked – it was exactly seven years ago that we spoke, the last time – and I didn’t know, I didn’t know. You led me down so many paths, to Osho and beyond. The adventures, the laughter, the music and the tears. Sagittarius sisters from 1972, on the hill, and OMG the Christmas fish – a zillion memories – and I know you are still singing, still laughing. Love you always,
Nandi
All of my Love goes to Sitara.
Jason Respini
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