Pankaja
Shantam Gulistan – ‘a silent rose garden’
(as opposed to a ‘toilet cleaner’!)
Gulistan is the ‘newest’ sannyasin I know. She took sannyas in April this year during the Meditation Weekend at Croydon Hall in Somerset.
Growing up in Poland her father told her she had to get a good education else she would end up cleaning toilets! So she duly got a degree in one of the top universities in Poland and then embarked on a very successful career as an actress and comedian. Five years ago she hit the headlines when, during a performance in which the actors interacted with the audience, she made fun of the ex-president of Poland, Mr Lech Walesa, who was also a Nobel Prize winner for peace. He was not amused and the media were aware of a possible political embarrassment but they loved the incident and Gulistan became an overnight star!
Gulistan
In her inner self however, she was restless and felt she needed to explore the world further so she came to London on holiday, knowing only one English word, ‘hello’, in search of possible work and any new dimensions on offer. She was surprised when she entered her friend’s house in London because there, open on a table, was a book of Osho’s. Gulistan had had two previous encounters with Osho. The first one had happened when she was in a bookstore in Cracov, her home town. She was so intrigued by the photo of Osho on the cover of a book that she bought it (a Polish translation) and took it home with her. But it was a struggle to read it and she lost interest in the book while remaining interested in this unknown man. A month or two later she had visited a friend in Warsaw, and there on a shelf was a book of Osho’s. Again Gulistan felt a strong pull to this man but her rational mind resisted strongly so she again didn’t go any further.
Now Osho had appeared for a third time and this time she felt compelled to try to discover what this was all about. So she read through the book checking every second word in the dictionary because this time it was in English! Now she was getting hooked but didn’t really know where to go next. Seeking further, she started emailing a guy on a chat show on the internet who shared her interest in spiritual things. She mentioned that she was dissatisfied with her job and this guy suggested that she go and check out a place called Croydon Hall in Somerset and offered to email for her (because her English was still very limited) to see if there was work there for her. The answer – a long time coming – was ‘no’. At this point she had no idea that Croydon Hall was connected to Osho.
So she went on working but when her boyfriend arrived from the USA to stay with her she suggested they again try to go to this place in Somerset as she was fed up working in the bar, the ambience of which was totally contrary to her inner spiritual search. He emailed Croydon Hall and this time the answer was that there was a place for her but not for him. But her boyfriend decided to go with her anyway and when they arrived at Croydon Hall they found that existence had taken care! Someone had had to leave in a hurry so there was a place for him after all.
Arriving in Croydon Hall Gulistan was astounded to find that the community was an Osho Centre and the meditations she was interested in doing were Osho meditations!! She and her boyfriend jumped totally into the work and the life in the community and did all the meditations they could everyday! She was overwhelmed with the feeling that this was the right way, this was her path.
Although her job did include cleaning toilets when she prepared rooms for the guests to stay!
It was during the second Satori group that she did with Ganga, on visits back to Poland, that she had a very deep, very significant experience and, without any decision being made, she knew she would become a sannaysin. That day in April was the end of a long hard search and the beginning of something new and right.
The PS is that, after her ego revolting against cleaning toilets, she got so into the task that a toothbrush to get them totally clean became her favourite utensil. But then came an opening in the kitchen for a cook and suddenly she found the work she absolutely loved. She describes her life now as a flowering in all dimensions – full of the fragrance of flowers and food and not toilets anymore.
Text and photo by Veena - July 2006
