Aseema

Photo collection thanks to Vikrant

The power of her presence

by Vikrant Sentis

Ma Anand Aseema left her body, with her beloved Devakant, her niece and her son, Hiroshi, at her side, in the morning of June 6 in Rome, Italy. She was in Italy for her annual holiday – to escape the rainy winters of southern Chile. There she was admitted to a local hospital due to heart complications that developed into a stroke.

Aseema was one of those rare human beings who could transform the environment around her just by the sheer power of her presence. She was a luminous, radiant being that transpired love and meditative awareness. She was a dedicated meditator until her last breath. She was also a mentor for hundreds of people who came from all over the world to her beautiful Osho meditation center at the feet of the Villarrica Volcano in Pucon, in southern Chile.

She was passionate about sharing Osho’s work, training facilitators in Osho’s meditations, holding meditation intensives, and sharing a variety of workshops and trainings at her place. Together with Upchara, she led for many years the famous Women Liberation Group, one of the last workshops designed by Osho.

Aseema was born Patricia Rodriguez in Valparaiso, Chile, on January 31, 1944. She began her inner search already in her teenage years. In Chile she studied art before leaving for France, where she became a member of the Marcel Marceau mime company.

From 1963 to 1972, she lived in Paris and traveled to different countries in Europe and the East, acting as a Mime and practicing Modern Dance, where she was able to discover success and international public recognition. Legendary were the stories she told her friends about all the performances she did in Paris, including the ones in the well-known Moulin Rouge where, with her company, she performed a shadow theater and modern dance.

In 1971, while in London, she began her training in different Yoga techniques and a year later she left for India to deepen this training and meditation in an ashram in Pondicherry.

At the time Aseema was living in London with her husband Nikunj and their four-year-old son, Hiroshi. The couple had been traveling for more than a decade presenting a mime show called “Lights and Shadows”. They had been to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Bahamas. She was the main star. Each performance, which mixed dance, music and theater, had the moral teaching alluding to the times they were living in: “No war”, “All you need is love”, etc.

Like her show, her life was a constant contrast. On the one hand, the bohemia, the stage, the ovation and admiration for her beautiful family, on the other hand there was the exhausting moving of house and country, the demands to improve the show and the constant jealousy caused by Nikunj’s escapades.

To evade reality, chocolates became her addiction – despite the fact that she had to maintain a slim silhouette for the show. It was the feeling of guilt that corroded her bowels. One afternoon, when she couldn’t stand the anguish, she bought several boxes of chocolate, sat on her bed and blindfolded herself. As she ate, she began to imagine everything turning into chocolate: her body, the room, everything. It was there that she felt a feeling of satiety – this later became her cure.

To overcome her addiction, she took refuge in Yoga, which she practiced for three years. In the beginning it worked. Yoga is control. She wanted to control all the chakras and achieve great Enlightenment. Soon after she became a yogi; she knew all the postures; she had read all the books.

The problem was that after some time she realized that it was not what she was looking for. There and then, she decided to leave everything and go to Tibet. She was going to leave her son and husband. She was totally numbed, and was convinced that she should follow her call. Her husband did not want her to go alone and accompanied her, thinking that she would give up eventually,

In 1974, on her way to northern India, her train from Mumbai to Delhi made a stopover in Pune. While waiting to continue her journey, she remembered the name of a teacher that a friend in London had written for her on a piece of paper that she had in one of her pockets. “Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh” was the name written on the piece of paper.

At the ashram in Pune, she watched a man speak to a crowd that was listening in ecstasy. The next day, she managed to have a private audience with him. She was nervous when she saw him sit down. She prostrated at his feet and He, with a soft voice, smiled and said: “I was waiting for you, why have you taken so long?” He also told her that it was not necessary to go to Tibet, that she had done so for many lives already and that nothing had changed upto now, that she had to stay and live with him and merge her inner world with the material world.

When she had first arrived at the ashram and saw his disciples do those strange movements and exercises, she thought they were not in search of God – as she was. She was a yogi who meditated for more than four hours a day. She thought she knew better than them. But her ego collapsed when she saw Osho. When he began to speak, it was as if he were addressing her directly. He said that borrowed knowledge is useless, “We can read all we want, but if you don’t know yourself, you don’t know anything”. That same night she threw all her yoga books in the trash; she knew all the postures but knew nothing about herself.

From that day on she stayed with him. The first few months her husband accompanied her, but later he got tired of the mystical and vegetarian life style they led, said goodbye to Aseema and their son and returned to Paris.

From there on, she gave herself with totality and devotion to being part of the Master’s community. She was a dedicated meditator and also took care of cleaning the master´s garden next to his room. She worked tiding up the kitchen and in the last years of Pune One she was in charge of the people who bought the vegetables.

In 1978 she was chosen by Osho as one of his mediums, channeling healing energy through her. Later on, when Osho went into silence, she was also chosen by Teertha as one his mediums.

There were always moments when Osho would call her. He once told the group that she was one of his best disciples and meditators. He also mentioned that she was a witch, but not in the concept that people have of witches, but that she was a wise, magical woman.

Between 1982 and 1986, she was part of the Ranch in Oregon. During that time she lived in Jesus Grove and was part of Sheela´s personal staff. I remember her telling me that she knew Sheela was not a meditator and she refused to participate in any meeting that she arranged at her residence. Sheela never pushed her to be part of her gang. Perhaps she knew that her devotion was only to Osho, and would refuse anything that did not come directly from him.

In 1987, she returned to Pune, to once again be part of the commune that was restarting in India. There she was a member of the “Mystic Ring”, an inner circle of the secret work of the Mystery School, where she delved into the work of Inner Alchemy and Energy.

In 1991, one year after Osho left his body, Aseema settled in Tuscany, Italy, with her beloved Devakant, from where for eight years she traveled through Europe leading Alchemy Workshops together with Upchara, and also leading her own groups of Dance and Meditation.

In 2001 she returned to Chile and created Sammasati Alchemy Center in Pucón, in gratitude to the Master, using the money that was given to her for that purpose by a very wealthy sannyasin.

In Pucón, in the south of Chile, she visited several places, but nothing convinced her – until she found the perfect place: two native hectares facing the lake behind the Villarrica volcano. There, Sammasati was built as a place of rest and meditation in honor of Osho. It includes Aseema’s house, the huge Osho Hall, Devakant’s house and studio, a swimming pool and cabins for tourists seeking mystical vacations.

Aseema put all her love and energy into this place and created one of the most stunning meditation centers in South America.

After searching for so long, Aseema felt she was finally living fully, sharing all she had learned in her years with Osho, and her own light, which touched countless people, including myself.

I can imagine her watching me write this with tears in my eyes for her leaving, and saying to me, “Que lindo vikrantini” (how beautiful vikrantini, as she used to call me).

I am reminded of something she said not so long ago: “I am only a medium who must create a paradise. I did not dream of this or plan it, but I have this mission from the Master and my body does not get tired when it connects in gratitude with the divine. Today the remaining bits have ended, I have already found my destiny.”

Vikrant Sentis

Aseema

a poem by Maya Vati, first published in the article Grateful Snapshots of Osho Sammasati in Chile (January 2011)

Ageless witch-woman, dancing your life for Osho.
Whirlwind of selfless devotion,
With boundless energy and enthusiasm,
Creating healing spaces for others to enjoy and grow,
Tending the many new shoots with such personal attention.
Still Osho’s medium, creating a here and now bursting with love and laughter.
The strength of your aloneness blends with feminine charm
And integrity.
Your beautiful light is a beacon, bringing people together from far and wide, to Osho.

Related article

• Grateful Snapshots of Osho Sammasati in Chile – Maya Vati sends us from Chile a portrait of Osho Sammasati, run by Aseema, in the form of photographs and poems (January 2011)

More Tributes

To have found and known Aseema in São Paulo was a turning point in my life! I had the pleasure of participating in two workshops with her in São Paulo and received a beautiful invitation, expressed in words that I will never forget… And then, existence adjusted so that I could go to the Osho Meditation Transmitter course with Aseema at Sammasati, Chile. What a life-changing experience!

What a charming woman! How much love, pleasure, joy could we feel in Aseema! Simply extraordinary! I will keep the beautiful memories of all the moments in my life that I could share with her! And I am very grateful for these moments, and to existence for allowing me to know this being of light! Gratitude Aseema!

Thank you!
Love,
Aabhar

Photos thanks to Aabhar

Though I long to say something that does justice to this amazing soul – my friend, inspiration and fellow traveler – I am not sure words can do that. But if they could, it’s done in the poem by Maya Vati. It says it all perfectly. Thank you, Maya.

Aseema, beloved one to me always, I saw your face smiling all around me when I woke up this morning, and forgot the tears I shed yesterday when I heard you had joined in the ultimate dance with the Master. You are reminding me again that there is nothing else more important than to remember – Sammasati – that door he has opened for us to dance through!

In Pune I, in travels in Italy, on the Ranch, in Pune 2 and later in Miasto where I was every year, and even on the breeze from Chile that came with people she sent to my groups, Aseema has always been an inspiration. Her intensity, passion, deep commitment to the path with Osho, wild dance and joy has supported me in my journey. We met in the knowing of the dissolving ecstasy that happens inside when you dance anything – and in the fire to transform…

Whenever I would talk to her in my ups and downs, she always always reminded me – whether with her words, her laughter or her embrace – to not waste even a minute in the complaining mind, in the effort to change things, but to use it as an opportunity to burn the false, and to go deeper into the essential within.

And she lived that; with beauty and grace, she faced her greatest challenge: the pain of jealousy in relationship. She told me that she had been suffering from jealousy since childhood when she danced in heels for her father’s attention, and she wanted to face this once and for all. She did not fight, try to change things, complain, blame or act out in any way; she took it as her Sadhana, her gift in this life to carry her to the ultimate union.

And when I last saw her, it was clear she had found the bliss of her aloneness. The joy of it radiated all around her.

Aseema, my love, thank you for sharing the depth of your being so deeply with me. Even in your leaving you are giving me another gift, reminding me…

And for you today I dance, I burn, I fall into the space beyond.

Ma Prem Maneesha

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