Ma Yoga Sohan
(aka Sohan Bafna)
Sohan was born in 1930 or so. She and her husband Sw Yoga Manik hosted Osho in Pune whenever he would come to town (many times) in the years before Shree Rajneesh Ashram was established there. She is most widely known for the 100 letters he wrote her in 100 days after a tearful parting at the end of a meditation camp in Matheran in 1964. These letters are published first in Hindi as Path Ke Pradeep (पथ के प्रदीप) and later translated into English as Life Is a Soap Bubble.
Sohan was interviewed by Ma Amrit Sadhana about her long connection with Osho. An Italian translation is available at the link below. In the interview we learn that Sohan came from Varanasi and was married at age 13 to Bafnaji (even she refers to him with that name). She first met Osho in 1963, and he directed her to start experimenting with meditation. He wasn't staying at her house at first but when a woman from Mumbai hugged him and he hugged her back, that was too much for his earlier host so he was welcomed chez Bafna.
Sohan shares that he was always very ordinary and unpretentious. It was easy to get close to him: "he always joked with people, the atmosphere around him was always very light and playful". He ate whatever simple food she prepared -- except chillies and raw salads -- and was especially fond of her sabudana khichdi, which he got her to teach his cook Mukti at the Ranch.
She reveals that she was puzzled at first by Osho's apparently low standard for giving sannyas but she came to understand that he saw merit in everyone who came to him. And though Osho was not feeling well in 1988, he still came to visit Bafnaji in Jahangir Hospital after B had a heart attack.
All this and much more in the interview.
See Letters to Sohan and Manik for images and details of Osho's letters to her.
Sohan died July 28, 2014 in Pune.
- see also
- Obit in Osho News
- Sw Yoga Manik
- Maa Yog Sohan ke saath kuch pal, a nine-minute video of Sohan in conversation (Hindi)
- Osho Times Italian interview
