…left his body on 28th January 2016.
Aryaman (aka Stefan Wellershaus) was born in Hamburg in 1932. He studied Biology and worked as a marine biologist in Bremerhaven, first at the Institute for Marine Research and then at the Alfred Wegener Institute. He took sannyas in the late 70’s at the Hamburg Commune and also visited Pune.
In his later years he lived at the Olgashof in Wismar, a commune founded by Uwe Kurzbein. At 20 he had contracted polio and was tied to a wheelchair for his last ten years.
He was a skilled sketch artist and an avid blogger.
Aryaman presumably died of a heart attack while in Wismar hospital where he had been taken to treat an infection of his leg.
His body was brought to Olgashof where it lay in his room for 3 days so that family members and friends could pay their respects. His coffin, that was colourfully painted by friends and family, was taken to the cremation while all present sang for him.
The burial of his ashes is planned for the 13th February, 14:00 at the Friedwald Wiligrad.
Info thanks to his daughter Anne, photos credit to Veetman and the web
Tributes
More than 20 years ago we travelled together to India, to visit the temples of Khajuraho and Konarak. Aryaman combined a German scholar’s thoroughness and an Osho sannyasin’s passionate approach to tantra. There was a beautiful silence about him. I can still see him sitting in lotus posture in the filthy corridor of an Indian Railways train. We had purchased first class tickets for an 8-hour journey, but the train was overbooked, as usual. No way we could get a comfortable seat, but in spite of his age and physical handicap he never complained.
He was invited to speak at a World Conference in Cuttack with speakers from different religious backgrounds. One of the speakers, a Hindu pundit, went on and on spouting and shouting until Aryaman stumbled up to the microphone to make a plea for less aggressive speech. Brave in his vulnerability, he simply said it hurt his feelings and he concluded his intervention with: shanti, shanti, shanti. Peace, peace, peace. The pundit’s subject? Ahimsa, on-violence…
Have a good trip, beloved, hamsafar, fellow traveller,
Srajan
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