Himani

Ma Anand Himani (Heidrun Doris Gerber) was born in Pulheim near Cologne during WWII. She graduated with a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Hamburg and worked as a teacher for special needs and speech therapy.

At the age of 40 she came to Pune and took sannyas in 1980.

In the early 80’s she started to work with Reiki. She received the first degree in 1982, the second in 1983, and the Master’s degree in 1989 by Mary McFadyen who had been personally trained and initiated as Reiki Master by Mrs. Takata.

Himani also trained in Shiatsu, Massage, Psychic Massage, Counseling, Bach-Flower Essences, Esoteric Science, Energy Reading and Surgical Energy Work.

As a member of the Osho Mystery School, from 1989 to 1998, she gave initiations into the first, second and Master’s degree of Osho Neo-Reiki and created trainings for Metaphysical Energy work at the Osho Commune in Pune.

In 1992 she founded the Osho Institute of Neo-Reiki and Creativity, after having discovered art in the form of energy paintings.

For many years she had been travelling back and forth from Europe to India, Nepal and Taiwan to teach Meditation and Reiki, until she settled in Portugal, to then move again to her beloved Northern India in 2009, only to return to Portugal once more.

In 2011 Himani wrote to Punya (Osho News), “I do much walking these days in Lagos, south coast of Portugal, my favourite place already in the 1970’s. It is such a joy for my body – and for my spirit it is almost bliss, when I move “in the unknown”. I catch myself looking for corners, some turns, where I have not been before. I did this the whole first year in the Himalayas, moving into the unknown, being unknown myself.”

In August 2011 Himani started visiting India regularly to lead Osho Neo-Reiki programmes at Osho Nisarga in Dharamsala. Since last summer, her courses have been taken over by Swami Dhyan Akhil, who was the co-leader in her workshops and is now practically her successor. He is one of the many students and Reiki Masters that have come out from Himani’s school.

While in India for her trainings in 2019, she became ill from a viral fever that autumn. When she was hospitalized, she signed a living will, requesting not to be given life-extending treatment (like ventilators), and that her body be burnt after she leaves her body and her ashes scattered in a river in India, all wishes which have later been painstakingly observed.

While her return to Europe was blocked due to covid, Himani gave up her rented house in Portugal and decided to remain in India. From September 2019 onwards she resided in Osho Harmony Panchkula, Haryana, where she was welcomed and assisted by Swami Deva Chetan, Swami Karan Prayag and Ma Prem Maitri for about two years before going to Rishikesh.

Swami Bodhi Sattva (aka Samarth), a yoga meditation trainer and the founder of the Yoga Meditation Centre, Yoga Essence, in Rishikesh, who met Himani at Osho Nisarga where for five years he was part of their Work Meditation programme, was to become her main caretaker, particularly during her last year when she needed 24-hour care.

Last week, as her lungs were getting worse and she was suffering from dehydration and low oxygen, it was decided to move her into a hospital to alleviate her discomfort, though avoiding all life-prolonging procedures (ICU) and medication as she had explicitly expressed in her living will.

Akhil and Bodhi Sattva were fortunate to find for those last three days a deluxe private room in the hospital that had a regular wooden bed (not a metal hospital bed) where she could feel comfortable as if she was at home. Her Reiki disciples, from as far as Chandigarh, Delhi, but also from around Rishikesh, gathered there to sit in meditation, sing songs for her and listen to Osho discourses together.

Bodhi Sattva says, “Her room had become like a temple. Everybody who entered the room fell into meditation spontaneously. Only the doctor, who would sometimes look in on her, would talk in that room; all other conversation was done outside where we had a sofa. We treated her room like a sanctuary.

“At some point, I felt that the whole room should be white. I asked Maitri to bring some white bed linen and cloths as well as while paper sheets, so that we could cover all the furniture, the chair and the table, in white, and then sprinkled fragrant rose petals around the room.

“After spending three days in hospital with her 24-hours constantly, I sensed that she was going to leave any day. We started to meticulously prepare all practical details for her funeral and organized a while shawl to cover her body. When she came to know that we were ready with everything, she left her body. I was with her. Her physical body was unconscious, but she was noticing everything that was happening around her. She left her body consciously.”

Swami Chaitanya Keerti writes, “Himani was fortunate to have such reverence from so many Osho lovers from different parts of India. The final celebration from Buddha Hall Dhyan Mandir at Osho Gangadham (Osho’s Heart Sutra discourse where he mentions, gate gate gate, was played) became a very graceful celebrative departure till the last moment of burning the body on the ghat on the Ganga river.”

Thanks for text to Bodhi Sattva, Keerti and Akhil, for photos from Bodhi Sattva, Keerti and Osho Nisarga

Related articles

• Himani Paints in the Himalayas
• More by or about Himani on Osho News

Tributes

To my beloved Teacher, Ma Anand Himani

by Rashmi Divyam

I would like to honour my beloved Osho Neo-Reiki Teacher, Ma Anand Himani, who left her physical body yesterday, on 7 of March 2024, in Rishikesh.

Ma Anand Himani is the Founder of Osho Neo-Reiki. She dedicated her entire life to her beloved Master Osho, teaching Osho meditations with all her heart and soul. She has been a phenomenal teacher, a constant guiding light for me and for all who have had the privilege to learn from her and be in her magical presence. She served as an amazing healer and a medicine woman in every sense of the word.

I remember, Ma Himani often used to say while teaching the class, “I don’t have any magic to give you, I am here to guide you, and you have to find your own way.”

A true healer is someone who awakens within us our own ability to heal, and Ma Himani has not only been a teacher and a healer for most of us, she has been much more than mortal words could ever convey.

Meeting her was a turning point in my life; it felt like coming back home to myself.

When I look back today, it reminds me of Khalil Gibran’s poem on ‘fear’…

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing
forests and villages.
And in front of her
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter there seems
nothing more than to disappear,
Forever…
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk…
Of entering the ocean.
Because only then will fear disappear.
Because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
…But of becoming the ocean.”

And Ma Himani has been for me the Deepest Ocean and a True Medicine Woman.

A Medicine Woman’s Prayer
I will not rescue you…
For you are not powerless.
I will not fix you…
For you are not broken
I will not heal you…
For I see you, in your wholeness.
I will walk with you through the darkness
As you remember your light.

I feel so privileged and honored to have been in her amazing presence, and having learned from her as her student has been the most precious gift for me,

In love and gratitude forever,

Rashmi Divyam (Rishu Chaudhry)

Ah, Himani, you always had an innocent intelligence surrounding you. It was always a pleasure just to sit with you. Words were unnecessary, as they are now.

Fly high, and far to your home, Wild White Hansa!

Abhiyana

The first time I met Ma Himani was in Pokhara, Nepal, in 2010. At that time I had only just began my spiritual journey and was searching for someone to show me the way. Meeting her was the first time something clicked inside me, my mind was blown away by her powerful presence. But as I got to know her more over the years, it was her kindness and compassion that touched me the most.

I am forever grateful to her for showering me with so much love and light.

With love

Swami Anand Ekant, Nepal

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