Anahato – an artistic chef, or, a cooking artist

While most sannyasins had kicked around in life a bit by the time they reached Osho, Anahato unusually went off to Poona at the tender age of 17. Two years previously, some friends of his sister had been to Poona and had come back with malas around their necks. As soon as Anahato saw the photo of Osho he knew that this was the man that he had been waiting for all his life. He was only 15. He took sannyas by mail and finally made it to Poona in 1980. He says he only slowly got into meditation; it was really secondary as he had not been looking for anything like that. What was all important was that he was totally in love with Osho.

During the Rajneeshpuram period he lived in a small commune near Paris but when Osho returned to Poona in 1986 he quickly followed and spent at least 6 months a year there until about 1995. He still goes every year but not for so long.

Given that he is such a successful painter, he had actually not done anything visually artistic during his early years. Rather, he had been the lead singer in a well-known French choir until he was about 14 and had then got into cooking which became a real passion over the next years, mostly just cooking for friends in the various communities he lived in. He says a kitchen is a paradise for him. (Lucky friends and lucky Croydon Hall!) He then did a training course and got his first job as a cook. He said he was inspired by visiting his grandmother in Ibiza where the food was fantastic!

In 1988 he went to Florida to visit his sister, Sitar, who had just married Vedanta whose business was selling art. Anahato looked at the collection of paintings and thought, ’I want to try that‘! So he picked up a brush, painted a picture which he finished on a Thursday – and sold on the Saturday for $500! Well, this seemed like a very easy way to make money! So he continued to paint, really got into it and quickly became successful in the States. Existence helped out by providing him with a green card which he won in a lottery! (I love the way things happen to sannyasins – has to be that openness to what existence has to offer and the willingness to jump into the unknown.)

For the next twelve years he kind of did a circuit between France, the States (he lived in various places in the States, usually together with other artists) and Poona with a short excursion to Japan which he loved but where it was hard to make a living so he couldn‘t stay for too long. Then in 2000 his mother died so he uncharacteristically stayed in one place for the next 5 years looking after his father who needed his support at this time. For Anahato it was a creative period as he went deeper into his art, visiting the States once a year to sell his work.

At the end of the five years he went back to Poona where he met and fell in love with Leela, a sannyasin from Moldavia. She had been living in London and last year moved to Croydon Hall to help Kanta in the office. Anahato joined her here in October to work in the kitchen and to continue Croydon Hall‘s tradition of fantastic food.

In May the couple will return to France (Leela was a French teacher so speaks the language fluently) where Anahato wants to get back to painting full time with Leela helping on the business side.

He says he is now drawn to a more Japanese style of art, using certain colours and perhaps painting Buddhas or people as opposed to nature which has hitherto been his subject matter. He feels that being with Osho has given him a confidence and a trust to go with his own inner energy – art doesn‘t work if it comes from the mind. He mentioned that he was always amazed how, in exhibitions of paintings which he considered to be far superior to his own, it was his work that people were attracted to. He thinks that this was because there was an essence of Osho, energy of meditation and celebration, to which people unknowingly responded.

As art is very much my ’thing‘ I was always especially aware when Osho talked about art (which he often did as he was himself an artist). I remember these words…

"As mind disappears and leaves behind a silence, a space of meditation, your vision about everything that you do is completely different. If you are a painter you will paint something, not with the mind, but with the clarity that your painting will give health, insight, peace, silence to anyone who will look at it."

Osho, Yahoo! The Mystic Rose

...and feel touched and once again in awe that someone like Anahato has understood Osho so deeply and is sharing his understanding so beautifully through his art.

Text by Veena - March 2007