Madhura

A remarkable, courageous woman

by Veena

Our dear friend, Prem Madhura, flew off to further shores last month – on March 2nd.

She was a remarkable, courageous woman and I am honoured to have known her. Her creativity was legendary: she was a dancer, an actress, an artist and, above all, an embroiderer, producing embroidered works of art of extraordinary beauty. She also refused point blank to live life in mere ordinariness, choosing rather to enjoy a different way of existing, filled with flair, colour, originality.

Sadly, however, she was struck down with severe rheumatoid arthritis about fifteen years ago, enforcing a dramatic lifestyle change which was now filled with pain and immobility. Still, she accepted these new ways philosophically, and her indomitable spirit and wicked sense of humour continued to enthral all those that came into contact with her.

Madhura first met Osho in the mid-seventies. As part of a theatre company touring India, she somehow ended up in Pune and never returned to the UK. She was well-known in Pune 1 for her roles in various theatre productions – most particularly Titania in Midsummer Night’s Dream. What was not so well-known was that Osho asked her to accompany Krishna Prem on his PR journeys around India, meeting the likes of Indira Ghandi, Nehru and other political dignitaries.

Despite her many talents, she was unassuming, even shy, and her question to Osho about feeling alone, and his answer to her, is one of the great examples of Osho working with a disciple. Here is one of the most beautiful of Osho quotes:

Celebrate aloneness, celebrate your pure space,
and great song will arise in your heart.
And it will be a song of awareness,
it will be a song of meditation.
It will be a song of an alone bird calling in the distance –
not calling to somebody in particular,
but just calling because the heart is full and wants to call,
because the cloud is full and wants to rain,
because the flower is full
and the petals open and the fragrance is released. . .
unaddressed.
Let your aloneness become a dance.

And Madhura is a dancer. And I am utterly happy with you, Madhura.

Excerpted from Osho, The Guest, Ch 11, Q 1

Last month, when Covid visiting restrictions were partially lifted, I was finally able to see her in the nearby Yeovil hospital, a week before she died. She was happy to see me and after we chatted for a while, she suddenly said, ’I am dying, aren’t I?’ I replied, ‘Yes, my dear, I think you are.’ I knew she was honest through and through and there was no point in fobbing her off with platitudes and untruths. We had anyway previously discussed dying and death, and after a moment’s thought she said to me, ‘Well, I will regard my death as my last great adventure.’ I concurred, saying that this was indeed the way to deal with it.

According to her beloved brother, Bruce, and his wife, Mary, her final departure was quiet and serene.

But she left us with one last huge gift – so typically Madhura! A few years before she died, she told me that she wanted to visit a local natural burial ground, where she could be buried in a meadow in a coffin made of natural fibres and a tree would be planted on top of her body. So the tree would take care of her and she would take care of the tree. Due to Covid restrictions I couldn’t go with her but her much loved, long-term carer, Ginny, took her to see the burial ground and Madhura gave her very happy approval.

Bruce honoured her wishes and so last Saturday we all gathered on a very beautiful hill with gorgeous views over the Dorset countryside to send her off in the way she had wanted. Bruce arranged a simple informal ceremony led by Madhura’s cousin, Tom, in the picturesque old barn provided for friends and family to be together one last time.

Her coffin was placed on an antique carriage – the original method of transporting coffins to burial grounds in the old days. Then the carriage would have been drawn by horses, but on this day, friends helped by pulling and pushing the carriage the short distance to the burial place where Madhura was lowered into the ground. All around us we could see the trees placed on other burial sites, happily swaying in the wind.

A perfect end to a unique, creative, courageous and extraordinary life.

On Osho News

• Be like an alone peak high in the sky – Osho answers a question by Madhura and says, “Dance your aloneness, sing your aloneness, live your aloneness!”
• Madhura: The Zen of Embroidery – Madhura’s life journey interwoven with the shimmering colours of embroidery silks – by Veena
• The Dao of Aging – Madhura speaks about her life, health, creativity and aging to Pankaja who recorded it on video
• The Rajneesh Theatre Group – After we received scans of two theatre programmes, Bhagawati collected some snippets about the fabulous performances and troupe

More Tributes

Thank you Madhura… feeling touched by your voice, sincerity, and acceptance of what is in old age… and still living life in death.
How brave making the best of it.
Your living Zen, dying Zen… letting go, not looking back.
Grateful to you, and humbled by you.
With love
Bhaven🍀🌹💖🍂🙏

Wow! Thank you Punya, Veena, and Pankaja for this incredible and deep tribute to the incomparable Ma Prem Madhura… it brings tears of joy, to my eyes.

Madhura’s passing also brings a deep inner glow to my heart that I really love to feel- it is the glow that comes from a very deep appreciation of my life and times with Osho, and his incredible Sannyasins.

What comes up now, is my awareness of “how many beautiful women from the UK came to Osho is the 1970’s”! … and what a deep imprint they had on the creativity and depth of Poona 1 especially, and on Osho’s Commune while he was in his beautiful body, in general. I could go down a long list of British Ma’s that jump into my mind – starting with Vivek (later known as Nirvano), who was Osho’s amazing intimate friend and caretaker… then Shunyo (who I met as Chetana), Veena, Madhura, Pankaja, Anurag, Anuradha, Mangala, Neera, Poonam – and many many more (apologies for leaving out so many). Most of them were a few years older than me when I arrived in Poona in 76… but I treasure them all as friends, and treasure the moments we shared.

With Madhura, and the others, there was an understated “class and elegance” that really resonated with me… and I’m sure this helped round out the edges of my somewhat limited American conditioning… and they opened me up to a spectrum of femininity that was new to me at the time.

Madhura and so many other multi-dimensional women around Osho in the early days – from Germany, Holland, South Africa, US, Japan, Italy, France, Scandinavia, Spain, India, South America – they came from everywhere… they really shaped the Buddhafield… For me, Osho’s Communes were graced with a feminine touch that can sometimes be forgotten and overlooked. I know that I was blessed by these Divine Goddesses!

What Veena wrote, and the films by Pankaja are beyond words for me… so beautiful and touching to the core.
Thank you Madhura, for your timeless grace and wit and wisdom. The way you lived your 80 years blows my mind… how you squeezed the juice out of every phase of your rich life – and especially the last 15 years with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, is inspirational and a testament to your Meditation. And I really love your toothless wrinkled face – the quintessential wise witch and sage from the Druid days!

Thank you again to Osho for allowing us all to live, love, create, dance, sing, cry, and meditate together. May we all face Death with love and awareness.

Namaste & Jai Madhura- from an old Friend who is so happy for you, and celebrating you now,

Anubuddha

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote by writing to web@oshonews.com (pls add ‘Madhura’ in the subject field).