A Med/7am»ire/Wanner MT/I/ Sir/amt flier/Tanya Keerfi
i n Me? AW
Remember, if the fear of death
disappears, then all other fears
disappear automatically, because
all other fears are nothing but
by-products of the main, basic
fear ‐ the fear of death. (The
G u e s t , Chapter 1)
I m e t Swami Chaitanya
Keerti in 2007 at the Osho
Mandakini Meditation
Center in Varanasi, India, during a four-day active
meditation workshop that he facilitated. Although I
had been practicing Osho’s meditations since 2001,
I had never taken sannyas. During the course of the
workshop he and I had a wonderful dialogue around
meditation and Osho’s teachings. As a result, I made
the decision to take sannyas as a formal commitment
of my devotion to my meditation practice. I was given
the name Ma Anand Usha, "the blissful m o m e n t
before the sunrise.” When I learned that Keerti was
planning a trip to the Bay Area, Ijumped at the
opportunity to assist h i m in organizing events to
share Osho’s vision and active meditations with our
local community.
On August 24, 2013, a group of 30 curious meditators
celebrated with Keerti in the home of Ma Jasmine
and her husband, Harry, in beautiful Lafayette,
California. The daylong event was comprised of a
morning discourse on “The Fear of Death,” a three‑
stage active meditation on the Muladhara (the r o o t
chakra), a movement and music meditation facili‑
tated by Ma Aparna, a wonderful Indian home‑
cooked lunch prepared by Jasmine, and an afternoon
Prayer Meditation to end the day. Nestled in the sun‑
drenched hills of Northern California, we meditated,
danced, hugged, and prayed together as a family,
celebrating o u r community of sannyasins. The day
was restorative, balancing, and
‘- '
energizing.
l/y/m
had suffered a massive stroke near Los Angeles and
would likely n o t recover. I was absolutely devastated,
ripped open, raw. Keerti began o u r event with a
discourse that addressed the fear of death, for which
I was very grateful. Once we shifted into the medi‑
tation portion of the day, I was able to relax in my
body and feel the waves of grief move through me
for the first time in a week. The collective conscious‑
ness of the group
supported me in
staying with some
very challenging
emotions, and I
left with a sense
of well-being and
‘
g .
clarity. Although
i r if"
m y m i n d con‑
tinued to tell me
I was n o t prepared to face so much loss in so little
time, my meditation practice brought me back to the
awareness that I have many tools available to me to
face difficult times, and this is the result of having a
committed daily meditation practice.
At the end of the day, Keerti shared with me that
he feels his work is to m e e t and share insights from
Osho with others, to help others achieve a greater
understanding of themselves. He feels this work is a
gift from Osho. There is no goal in mind, only the
opportunity to help people live with greater aware‑
ness. Thank you, KeertiJU
therealsunriseruby@hotmail. com
The next day Keerti and Aparna accompanied Jasmine
and Harry to satsang at Viha, with beautiful live music by
Teerth and Australian Darpan. After lunch Keerti chatted
with the community about his activities and plans and the
latest news from northern India. ‐Ed.
I arrived with a very heavy
heart that day. A week before
the event, I had received news
that a very dear childhood
friend had taken his o w n life
after going missing from his
home in the South Bay. And
then the day before the event,
I received a phone call that
ll