Anandi

Journeys

…left her body on 12th July 2018.

Anandi
Anandi-and-Anam-Papersali-2003

On the fourth of July Anandi’s husband, Paul, along with her dear friends Pravasi and Sevanti, drove her to a bluff overlooking the Pacific where she could view the ocean from the car. They popped a bottle of champagne together to toast the occasion. This was vintage Anandi. She combined a joy for life with a deep spiritual commitment.

Later on this Independence Day, she began voluntarily stopping eating and drinking. It was no coincidence that she chose that day to declare her independence from the body and began her journey to the other shore. She had been dealing with COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, for several years. She passed away at home surrounded by her loved ones on July 12.

Anandi travelled to Pune in 1980 and a year later was living on the Ranch in Oregon. She was a familiar face working in the ranch restaurants. Leaving Oregon she and Anam, her partner at the time, spent 11 years in the Himalayan foothills before moving to Goa for a short time.

She returned to California in 2008 and met Paul in 2012. In Marin she facilitated workshops for the elderly reminding them that there was a life worth living after age 75.

While dealing with her illness she has been a beacon of lucidity and wisdom for all who came in contact with her. She embodied the beauty and delicacy of the butterflies that she adored and that adorned her apartment. Her husband, Paul, has the stability of a giant oak and this balance made for an ideal couple.

She was an inspiration to all of us in the way she faced the inevitability of her death over the last year – always with a twinkle in her eye and a sense of excitement over her next adventure.

Fly like a butterfly, my love.

Deva Jayapal

First published in Viha Connection Magazine, September/October 2018 – oshoviha.org/magazine

Tributes

You can send a message / tribute / anecdote to web (at) oshonews (dot) com (pls add ‘Anandi’ in the subject field). It will then be added to this page.

Dearest Anandi,

I remember you fondly and with reverence as you have played a key role in helping me to see a deeply ingrained piece of conditioning. We were room-mates for a while on the Ranch and one day you said one sentence to me referring to a certain piece of behaviour which hit me right into the core and shook my very system. After that event this particular issue you pointed out to me with one laser sharp sentence was eradicated once and for all. I have been ever so grateful to you for being instrumental in this particular, in Sanskrit we call it, Vasana.

My dearest, your body has dropped and your spirit is in all our hearts who knew and love you.

I was thrilled to meet you some years back here in Tiruvannamalai at the Holy Feet of Arunachala where I live.

Heart to Heart dear sister,
Gabriele (Ma Prem Gatha)

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