Champak
Champak – sannyasin kid grown up
Sannyas isn’t always all joy and light! A lot of hard work on the self is also part of the course – which can be a tad difficult at times. Sannyasin kids had amazing lives but they had their own fair share of situations to face. It wasn’t easy being presented with a life style dramatically different to one they had hitherto known and which often had the strong disapproval of relatives and previous friends. But the kids that took on all these challenges – not the least of which was dealing with freedom – have blossomed into incredible human beings. It has been the joy of many of the older sannyasins to watch these young beings flower.
Although I remember Champak as one of the kids, I don’t know him, and while I was interviewing him I had some ‘judgemental’ thoughts floating through my mind: intelligent, articulate, at ease with himself and me, a stranger, calm, centred, humorous, creative, accepting, responsible, mature, joyful, loving, meditative… When I looked at these words I thought: "Hey, isn’t this a blueprint for Osho’s New Man?" He and the many other sannyasin kids I do know, have, in my opinion, done a pretty good job with what life has thrown at them.
Champak lives with his wife, Chetana, another sannyasin kid, and their own sannyasin kid, Pyaar, in London. Contrary to all the dire predictions of the general public and the media that our kids, with their seemingly chaotic upbringing and education, would not make it in the regular world, they mostly have. Champak has done so brilliantly and now successfully works as a senior photographer (at the tender age of 32!) at Debenhams in London.
Sannyasin kids with sannyasin kid: Champak and Chetana with Pyaar
He has packed many experiences into his 32 years. When he was 5 years old, in 1979, his mother (later Prabhat) took him and his brother (later Gulab) to Poona where they all took sannyas. Champak describes how he wanted to take sannyas by mail instead of sitting in front of Osho because he was scared that when Osho put his finger on his (Champak’s) 3rd eye it might slip and poke his eye out!
Their father, initially very against the whole sannyas thing, stayed at home but when they returned four months later, he had completely changed and was now set on going to Poona with them. They landed in Goa because Prabhat thought it would be easier for her husband to cope with the shock of India but they didn’t stay as long as planned because all he wanted to do was to see Osho and take sannyas. After 4 days in Poona he took sannyas, becoming Anand Kund Kund, but after another 4 days tragedy struck when he drowned in one of the public swimming pools in Poona. Not only was this a huge shock to the family, it was a shock to the whole commune as well. Because we were all so connected we felt the death deeply. There was a big celebration in Buddha Hall and then Kund Kund’s body was burnt at the same burning ghats that Osho’s body was burnt at many years later.
The young family were given rooms in the commune as it was obvious that they needed support at such a time. Champak says that as he was so young, and as he was soon caught up in what he describes as the blissful commune life, his father’s death was not such a huge issue for him as it might have been.
Osho giving Champak sannyas in 1979: "His name means Blissful Flower of the East."
When Osho moved to the USA, Prabhat and her sons moved back to England and lived in the Prem Pantha commune in Devon where the kids all went to the local village school into which they fitted without any problems. When Medina was established they became full time residents there.
But it was the time spent in Oregon on the Ranch that Champak loved most because, he says, of the freedom. The kids could roam wild and free without fear and got up to all kinds of mischief. But they also had responsibilities. Champak says he had the time of his life being a member of the Raidas crew which was involved in the housekeeping chores necessary for looking after 5,000 to 10,000 people. He says he felt like a real working man. He even had a Motorola. He was 9 years old!
When Medina closed the family moved to London with some other sannyasins and for a time Champak went to a regular school. This wasn’t too bad, there were no problems, but his young life was quite shaken by the work the school was doing on racism and equal opportunity. Champak was baffled because never in his sannyasin life had the concept of treating someone differently because of the colour of his skin entered his head.
Within a few months, Ko Hsuan, a school for sannyasin children, was founded in Devon and Champak lived there from 1986 to 1991 when he left having amassed 5 GCSE’s and an A level. He totally loved being there because it was ‘our’ place – a place for the kids alone – in a way that Medina hadn’t been.
He was accepted at the Plymouth College of Art and Design but left after 10 days realising that it would only stifle him and anyway he already knew just about everything that they were proposing to teach him! So he took his grant money and returned to Poona where he worked in the darkroom and, most importantly, met Chetana whom he married a few years later.
In 1997 they moved to London and Champak started working first as a freelance assistant and then as an independent freelance photographer. When Pyaar was born in 2004 he took on the job of Senior Photographer at Debenhams – the studio being responsible for producing 80% of the visual content of the company’s website, some 135 shots per day
He and his little family still go to India – Baroda, Bombay and Poona – as often as possible because part of Chetna’s family are there. And then they go in the opposite direction – to Ashland in Oregon where her parents now live. They are both TV stars! Kumud has a TV cooking program and Krishna has his own show on meditation in daily life in which he gives a short Osho quote and then discusses it with a guest. This in a state which rejected Osho so strongly only 20 years ago!
And the future? Well, our sannyas kids are having another sannyas kid in January. Life dances on!
In conclusion Champak says: "Sannyas has really given me the freedom to express who I am and to go for what I want in life without conforming to what society expects of me. This is so liberating and I didn’t really realize it until I went out in the world and came across people who were so held back by their own fears and family or society’s expectations."
To contact Champak: email: champak at mattbrasier.com (use @ instead of "at" when emailing)
Text by Veena - October 2006
