Vardan (updated)

Carried away on the wings of sound

by Nirbija

Swami Prem Vardan (Hanns Fuchs) was also known in art under the alias Hans Spielmann. He was a social worker specialized in youth care, an actor and later became a well-known singer-songwriter and street musician, based in the Thübingen area in southern Germany.

In the early 1980s he came to Pune and became a disciple of Osho. When he was afterwards interviewed by the local press, he openly spoke about his Master, a detail which was included in the published article.

Vardan was the author of about 30 CDs, which he recorded together with musician friends. He composed music to texts by Rilke, Hesse, Goethe, Novalis, van Veen, Michael Ende and many other German poets. He was able to modulate his voice in such a way that he could recite one of Rilke’s night poems equally well as perform a cheeky children’s song full of rebellion. The children came in droves wherever he was on stage, and they adored him. When in the mid-80s he visited the Osho Commune again, he played and sang with the kids of the private sannyas kindergarten.

I was lucky enough, in the early 1990s, to live in the Osho Paki Centre near Stuttgart for a few months at the same time he was there. With his humour and music, Prem Vardan was something of a soul therapist in our commune full of ‘Encounters’. He once advised us in a meeting: instead of shouting out our anger, to belt it out like an aria in a tragic opera. My rage was gone in no time! When Vardan moved away, I missed him terribly!

When in November 2023 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he launched one last musical project: a double CD entitled, Meine Seele singt in mir – eine kleine Liederapotheke (My soul sings within me – a small apothecary of songs). In a newsletter he wrote: “These are songs which I found particularly beneficial and healing in my life… songs which delight the heart and soul and encourage us to go our own way.”

Vitalia, his partner, remembers well the time when the project came to an end. In the leaflet accompanying the double CD, Vardan describes the small miracle with these words: “When finally – after many weeks – the CDs came from the pressing plant and the songbooks from the printers, I received the news from my doctor that the metastases had stopped growing. Amazingly, they had receded. I am overjoyed!… My own therapy – namely carefully compiling all the songs that I have found particularly beneficial and healing in my life – has certainly contributed to it.”

“He was so happy to hear that he had successfully fought the illness. His doctor was very optimistic and assured him that he would live another 10-13 years,” writes Vitalia. “But then he got a nasty case of pneumonia and within less than two weeks it was all over.”

I had called Vardan earlier, in March 2024. He sounded almost cheerful. He was hoping to be able to again play, as usual, at Vatayana’s birthday party, which he did. But he was clear that whenever he came to the point where he had to leave this earth, then… his wish was: “When I go, I definitely want to be carried away on wings of sound.” And so it happened, in October.

Vitalia was with him in his last hour when quite spontaneously a good musician friend came for a visit: “When I briefly left the room, this friend had started singing for him and – oh, wonder of wonders – she managed to wake him up from his deepest sleep with the magic power of music. When I came back, Hanns was beaming with happiness, humming along and wanted to hug us all. ‘Everything is love, everything is connected’, he said. It was so wonderful to see him laughing and beaming and showering us with his love. His friend continued to sing and – just as he had wished – he was carried away on the wings of sound.”

Professional photography by Klaus Franke, submitted by Vitalia – Vardan’s songs can be downloaded from: liedersonne.com

Sun of songs

by Nirbija (update April 2025)

After contacting Vardan’s partner Vitaliya (Ma Deva Veeten) for this obit, she sent me a gem of a book about singing, which she had found in his belongings. In the last chapter, the author Adelheid Schlott, describes Vardan’s life and musical endeavours. She had seen him in 1990 play in the streets of Thübingen, an open-minded, picturesque university town in southern Germany.

Adelheid Schlott, a dedicated historian, was fascinated by Vardan’s music and followed his life for over 10 years. She wrote down her precise observations and conversations with him in her “street musicians diary”. This diary then developed into a research project, in which she traced the arc from the travelling singers of the German Middle Ages to two travelling songwriters and street performers of the present day: Chris Simmance and Hans Spielmann (Vardan’s stage name).

The book, published in 2001, bares as its title Vardan’s life motto: “Mein ganzer Reichtum ist mein Lied” (My whole wealth is my song). ¹ It’s also a verse from a poem by the 19th Century poet G. Herwegh.

In this personal and sensitively-written book, Vardan’s life is described, starting from his long-suffering, loveless childhood to his marriage to Ma Yatri, whom he had met in a therapy group and married in 1998. Their time together brought many new impulses. Together they performed and sang in the streets. (Once I met them, wearing costumes and busking in a city market. It was oppressively hot and not a bit romantic – hard-earned bread of street musicians!)

Special needs schools also invited him to act as mentor and train teachers to encourage the children to sing. Their new programme included singing and dancing seminars for adults under the name, Cantilena. Today Yatri D. Häußer shares her enthusiasm for singing as a music teacher and has published a dance book, Willkommen im Kreis (Welcome to the Circle), which includes a CD with Vardan’s songs. ²

The historian Adelheid Schlott describes in her book also the time when Vardan met Osho in Pune, from September 1980 to June 1981, in a completely unbiased way and quoted his statement (here translated from German):

“I arrived at a place which I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams: a pulsating energy field that charged me right down to the roots of my hair. Osho, the centre and origin of this phenomenon, radiated pure trust in life for me, so simple and clear, so full of love, understanding, humour and kindness that it was almost impossible not to melt away with happiness.

“It felt like for the first time I was at home after a long journey; at home with Osho, who was for me like father, mother and friend all rolled into one; at home in a community that not only gave me a sense of security but also every conceivable help in overcoming my old fears; at home more and more within myself.”

In the book we also read about what he said about his sannyas name:

“Prem Vardan was the name Osho gave to me; it means Blessing of Love. I remember him say to me that love was my birthright, that I was allowed to be exactly as I was, with all my weaknesses and strengths, and above all, that I was allowed to love myself.”

One of Vardan’s cherished quotes from a discourse by Osho was:

“If you feel poetry arising in you, write it for yourself, for your woman, for your children, for your friends – and forget all about it! Sing it, and if nobody listens, sing it alone and enjoy it! Go to the trees and they will applaud and appreciate it. Or talk to the birds and the animals, and they will understand far more than the stupid human beings who have been poisoned for centuries and centuries with wrong concepts of life. […]

“Just that you are such a gift from God, what more can you ask for? Just to breathe in this beautiful existence is certificate enough that God loves you, that existence needs you; otherwise you would not be here.” ³

In the book this period of his life is summarized as follows:

“Even today – twenty years on and ten years after the death of his master – Hans says that Osho was a constant source of strength for him….”

Vardan always wanted to write a book about his life, but never found the time. But with this tribute in Adelheid Schlott’s book, he has become one of the rare artists whose biography has been published during his lifetime!

Vitaliya has now taken over the online shop for his music CDs after the difficult time of saying goodbye to Vardan. She also runs an Osho Information Centre in Gomaringen, Germany and offers meditations. ⁴

I would also like to share something wondrous which happened within me. Since I wrote my first part of Vardan’s Obit above, a strong connection with him has emerged, seemingly deeper than when he was alive. I also discovered that I had a bit of a snooty prejudice against ‘buskers’. Sorry, Vardan, you had called your work, Die Liedersonne (Sun of songs). And now, like sun rays, your skilfully-forged lyrics and melodies accompany me almost every day – and make me so happy.

Thank you, my dear friend!

Nirbija

Sources

1. Adelheid Schlott, Mein ganzer Reichtum ist mein Lied, 2001, self-published, available in secondhand bookshops
2. Yatri D. Häußer, Willkommen im Kreis, willkommen-im-kreis.de
3. Quoted from Osho, The Fish in the Sea Is Not Thirsty, Ch 3
4. Vitalia (Deva Veeta), Osho Information Centre Gomaringen, Germany, liedersonne@hans-spielmann.com

Obits in the media (in German)

• Obit in the Reutlinger General-Anzeiger (11 October 2024): Gomaringer Barde Hans Spielmann gestorben
• Obit in Südwest Presse (17 October 2024): Der Übriggebliebene aus der Folkszene
• Obit in Fassadenkratzer (22 October 2024): Zum Gedenken an Hans Spielmann, den schwäbischen Barden
• Bio and obit in Tü Pedia (with video): Hans Spielmann

Articles and interviews in the media (in German)

• Interview in the Reutlinger General-Anzeiger (11 July 2024): Stockacher Hans Spielmann: »Ich habe meine Heimat in mir«
• Interview in Freies Radio Wüste Welle (18 July 2024 – with audio): Interview mit dem Tübinger Liedermacher Hans Spielmann
• Article in Südwest Presse (5 May 2020): Hans Spielmann: Musik am „Liedertelefon“
• Announcement in Schwarzwälder Bote (26 September 2018): Auf Weltreise mit Hans Spielmann

More Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote, and send a photo, by writing to web@oshonews.com (pls add ‘Vardan’ in the subject field). Your contribution will be added manually, typically within 24 hours.