Ma Anandmayee

(Madan Kunwar Parakh, b Nov 5 1919)
(Note that there has been some inconsistency** in the rendering of her last name, various sources making it Parekh and sometimes Parikh)

In 1960 Osho and Madan Kunwar Parakh meet for the first time at a Jain festival in Wardha, in the northeast corner of Maharashtra in central India. He has been invited there to give a talk and she to read some of her poetry, along with other local poets. Osho recognizes her as his mother in a past life. Madan recognizes that Osho is enlightened, and that her intense, persistent longing to reconnect with her past-life son has been fulfilled.

She and her husband Rekhchand Parakh are a wealthy couple running an orphanage in Chanda (now known as Chandrapur), about 100 km from Wardha. They become important early benefactors of Osho, supplying him with many gifts for the furtherance of his work, including the land used for the mid-70s communal farm experiment known as Kailash. For that, Anandmayee is sent about thirty Western sannyasins after Osho's last meditation camp in Mt Abu and is thrown into what is essentially a therapy group with them. See the lengthy account excerpted from Veena's book, Glimpses of My Master, in Osho News.

Osho writes hundreds of letters to her, of which 120 are published under the title Krantibeej (क्रांतिबीज), translated as Seeds of Revolutionary Thought. Another 100 or so are published in Bhavna Ke Bhojpatron Par Osho (भावना के भोजपत्रों पर ओशो).

In 1963, Osho "officiates" at the wedding of Sushila, Anandmayee's youngest daughter, and her husband-to-be, Shri Kataria. Osho gives her a sitar. See gallery images below, includes pics of Anandmayee's other daughters.

See Letters to Anandmayee for images and details of Osho's letters to her. And see Osho News' deeply researched article on her life and connection with Osho. And see Sannyas (magazine) (Nov-Dec 1973) for an English interview with her on the occasion of her taking sannyas in Mt Abu, and Anandini (आनन्दिनी, Indian magazine) (Dec 1973 - Jan 1974) for a Hindi interview conducted by Keerti.

Anandmayee left her body in March 2018 aged 98.

from

Chanda (now known as Chandrapur, near Nagpur)

Maharashtra

India

Family Gallery

Madan Kunwar Parakh (Anandmayee) and Osho

Madan Kunwar Parakh (Anandmayee), Osho and ? in Wardha

Osho at Sushila's wedding

Sushila and Kataria, center, Vikal Gautam above Kataria, Anandmayee above Osho's mike

Madan

Rekhchand

Shanta

Sharda

Sushila