Devopama – a different kind of life

Sannyasins can get very poetic and lyrical when they start talking about Osho. Devopama is one of the best! Talking about guarding outside Buddha Hall during Hindi discourses he managed in just a few words to evoke so much of what the Poona 1 experience was about. He described sitting silently under the trees around Buddha Hall, savouring that particular freshness of an Indian early morning (still unpolluted then!) and listening to the birds singing their songs in tune with Osho. He mentioned how the Hindi discourses were almost better than the English ones because, as the words had no meaning for the western disciples, they created simply a tune, a rhythm, a harmony into which we all blissfully fell.

A portrait of Devopama and Devopama in his ‘racing car’ – he drives the chair like Lewis Hamilton! (click on pictures to zoom in)

Listening to Devopama I was transported back...!

His journey began when he went to see Shyam Singha for an acupuncture session. Shyam sent him to the Nirvana Meditation Centre in Bell Street where he submitted himself to the rigours of Dynamic meditation – and met me! At the time he was doing the straight kind of thing – teaching History of Art at the Camberwell School of Art in London.

Of course things were to change! He met a beautiful woman, later called Pankaja, who suddenly disappeared off to India. While she was away another woman, a sannyasin, gave Devopama two Osho books which had such an impact that he wrote to Pankaja and asked her to bring him a mala and a new name when she returned.

A few months later he went to Poona himself and found himself in the evening darshan sitting in front of Osho. With Osho’s full attention directed at him he felt himself drawn into the depth of his eyes and was aware of a great vastness and a sense that nothing else existed at that moment.

The first visit was a short one as he had various commitments in the UK but life was changed forever as he immersed himself in the ‘Orange’ scene that was vitally alive in London at that time. As sannyasins were all wearing bright orange, they very much stood out from the crowd. The Kalptaru Centre in Camden Town was by then the centre of the vibrant sannyas scene.

During this time a parallel journey began for him when he enrolled at the Worsley School of Acupuncture and qualified as an acupuncturist. With the important bit of paper safely in his hands he could now go back to Poona where he worked in the commune medical centre as an acupuncturist with Abhiyana who had done the course in London with him and had independently heard of Osho and journeyed to Poona!

When the commune moved to the USA in 1981 Devopama first stayed in Brussels, Amsterdam and Zurich where he arranged acupuncture trainings. Later he went to live in Rajneeshpuram and enjoyed the huge variety of jobs he found himself doing – like working in construction, then with the survey crew and finally in legal services. When the Ranch ended he went with some other friends to Sante Fe where he again worked as an acupuncturist but returned to Poona in 1989 and was there when Osho died in January 1990.

He returned to Sante Fe to both work in and teach acupuncture.

Like many of us Devopama has led a varied, creative and much travelled life but, unlike many of us, his life has taken one further turn, a huge and radical one. He discovered that he had Multiple Sclerosis, a progressively debilitating disease for which there is no cure. Knowing that he would eventually need a lot of medical care he decided to return to the UK. He moved into a house near the sannyas kids’ school called Kho Hsuan in Devon with Tanmayo and Rajen. Through Tanmayo he met his present partner, Lyn.

Devopama in the lovely little summer house in the grounds of the Home – a wintery view of the Home and garden (click on pictures to zoom in)

As his condition progressed he was faced with the realisation that he needed more care and so he reluctantly had to make the decision to move into a ‘Home’ where he could get the specialised care his body needed. Now, not only did he have to come to terms with his disease, he had also to adjust to a totally foreign environment and interact with people with whom he has absolutely nothing in common. As it is a Royal British Legions’ home all the people in care there have a military background (Devopama did a couple of year’s military service which qualified him to be accepted into this Home). Most people are also many years older than him and have had none of the rich life and mind-broadening travel experiences that he has had. It goes without saying that spiritually no communication is possible.

This is all a huge sadhana for anybody to undergo and Devopama says he has had to draw on many internal resources as his situation has forced him to face his aloneness. He says that living in sannyas communes was a richly unique experience which he treasures and which he feels has given him many inner resources and an understanding that many people don’t have.

He also wants to point out – and I know many of us will agree with this – that diseases of this severity can lead many people, not just sannyasins, to a deep understanding and acceptance of themselves and of existence. This understanding and acceptance is not a uniquely Osho-related experience and Devopama expresses his great respect for these people.

He has had to work through a lot but says that he feels now that he has come to a deep acceptance of his situation. Having visited him regularly over the past 5 years and seen him go through some pretty rough patches it feels to me, as an outsider, that in the last year he has brightened and relaxed. I see a shine in his eyes and light in his face that wasn’t there a few years ago.

In fact he astonished me a few weeks ago! As soon as I arrived on a visit he said, ‘Come on! We are going out!’ I was like ’Huh? OK, then!’ and off we went, he in his electrified wheel chair, to visit a local farmer’s market where he could buy some nice salads and other goodies and I could get some local veggies and fruit! The home is set in beautiful grounds and when the weather is good we often go for a ride (him) and a stroll (me) around the grounds. His regular visitors include his partner, Lyn, and Rashid, Nisheeta, Smita and people from Croydon Hall.

text and photos by Veena – November 2007