Samarpan – a meditator who likes to share

"At first I didn’t know what I was searching for. I was travelling in India looking for something," says Sw Amano Samarpan, a bird photographer of distinction. This is partly the reason that I am interviewing him in my home as I too am a lover of birds.

"I was looking up gurus and trying meditation in places such as Rishikesh, Kathmandu and Delhi. Then a copy of From Sex to Superconsciousness by Osho – then Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh – fell into my hands. Not his best book in my opinion but I found it truly amazing. Here was someone talking ordinary English and saying things about deep spiritual experiences that I could understand."

For many years Samarpan has photographed special subjects particularly the birds of the Indian subcontinent. He has had his photographs published in a number of publications such as books and magazines – the latest is a beautiful coffee table book devoted to his recent work, called Indian Birds in Focus. It is shortly to be released by Wisdom Tree India.

Samarpan was not always a photographer. At university he had attempted to study Comparative Religion but had found the course too dry to continue. He later travelled extensively in India and speaks some basic Hindi.

However, after receiving sannyas, he did a meditation training with Ma Prem Pradeepa and later worked facilitating and leading meditations in England. "I’m not a therapist," he says. "I’m a meditator who likes to share." Warming to the theme of how Osho’s teachings permeate his own life, Samarpan continues, "I find meditation is as essential as having a daily shower. I usually call in to the Pune Resort once a year. Sitting in the auditorium free of extraneous sounds and sights, in a perfect temperature free from whining mosquitoes, in a field of fellow meditators from all over the world – I feel at home.

Osho’s Sangha, the body of his lovers and disciples, means, for me, friends who are supporters of meditation. In turn this informs my photography and helps me find the place from which creativity flows. Being a photographer I need to keep grounded. For that the Buddha Osho, his Sangha and the Dharma all play their part. Nature too, of course. Photography only works for me when I feel part of the whole. When there is oneness with Nature there is a movement from one to none."

Samarpan is silent for a while. "The sacred does not fit into words. Being a photographer is about communication, about being in the world – a way of connecting the spirit with the material. A means not an end."

After this we fall naturally into the place of no words. The interview becomes the Master’s teaching.

text by Deva Rashid – December 2008