MA DEVA SNEHA (Divine Love) 
Born in 1947 in Würzburg, Germany. Sneha took sannyas in 1979 and presently lives in Munich, Germany
 <a href="#"></a>In the summer of 1978, I spent six weeks in California, near Palo Alto, to participate in trainings that would enable me to become a yoga teacher. I also spent about 10 days in Esalen, taking part in a Tai Chi course by Al Huang. All this touched me deeply and inspired me to start teaching yoga and tai chi when I was back in Germany. And so it happened: pretty soon after my return I taught my first classes in yoga and meditation.
What I noticed soon was that I didn’t really know what meditation was about. I had read so many books and knew some methods, but teaching all this to other people was quite something else. To begin with, I noticed that the students I had were under too much pressure to go into these slow movements and that they simply could not keep quiet. So I started experimenting: instead of doing a “classic yoga class,” I just played some rock music to begin with so that we all could get rid of our tensions before being able to get our senses into the “now.” This did help a lot, yet it became more and more clear to me that I needed a Master to teach me meditation. Yet: how to find such a Master? Yes, I had heard the name of Bhagwan, but at this time the whole thing struck me as being something more for ‘freaks’, based on what was reading in the press.
One day in the beginning of 1979, I was visiting a friend of mine who was a therapist in Nürnberg. We had been leading some groups together in the past, and he gave me a small booklet called Three Questions about Meditation (or something like that). This booklet contained a description of Dynamic Meditation by Bhagwan. I read this description and could hardly believe it: there was an Indian Master who knew what westerners need in order to meditate! This was exactly what I had been experiencing in my groups, and there was a living Master teaching it!!! And then, to top this, my friend had a tape with the music of this Dynamic Meditation; listening to it was like being struck by heaven: in this moment, I knew that Bhagwan was my Master!!! There was no doubt in my mind that this Master would be able to teach me meditation and that I would see him!!!
It took me another six months or so to send off my letter applying for sannyas to Poona. In the meantime, I had met several sannyasins, was doing Dynamic and Kundalini meditations regularly, and had been listening to lectures by Bhagwan on tape. And, of course, I had been wearing orange clothes. When I sent off this letter, it was a hot day in June, and the poppies were blossoming in bright orange. I was in bliss, simply in bliss!!! I had found my Master and my Master had found me!!! Soon after that, I got my new name, and in September 1979, I was in Poona, India, sitting in front of Him for the first time. It was incredible, and at that time I thought, now I have arrived where I always wanted to be. At the time, I could not imagine ever leaving Him! I was so grateful and felt so blessed.
I still feel this way about my beloved Master: grateful and blessed to have had the chance to be with a living Master. And grateful and blessed for all that He has given us: the meditation, the joy, the music, the dance and all the wonderful friends all over the world. And: the courage to accept whatever comes up, the courage to just BE!
Thank you, OSHO!
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“I am the greatest risk you can find upon the whole earth. I take away all your consolations. I take all your props away, because the moment all your props are gone and you collapse, is the great moment of your birth.” Sannyas letter from Bhagwan to Ma Deva Sneha on 23.7.1979.
“To accept the challenge of the unknown in spite of all fears, is courage. The fears are there, but if you go on accepting the challenge again and again, slowly slowly those fears disappear. The experience of the joy that the unknown brings, the great ecstasy that starts happening with the unknown, makes you strong enough, gives you a certain integrity, makes your intelligence sharp. For the first time you start feeling that life is not just a boredom but an adventure. Then slowly slowly fears disappear; then you are always seeking and searching for some adventure.
But basically courage is risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar, the comfortable for the uncomfortable arduous pilgrimage to some unknown destination. One never knows whether one will be able to make it or not. It is gambling, but only the gamblers know what life is.”
Osho, Come, Come, Yet Again, Come! Ch 4, Q 3
From the book, Past the Point of No Return by Ma Anand Bhagawati
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