Liedjes die Swami Ramses zong.

LUST  FOR  LIFE

In sweet memory of the Dutch swami Ramses Shaffy.

In de the night of 30 November 2009 the Dutch swami Ramses Shaffy died. The following evening on nearly all Dutch tv and radio stations there were memorials of him and he was celebrated as a national pop star. His songs were heard, his life was memorised, and in a documentary about his life the spotlights were on his life as a sannyasin. 
How could a sannyasin become a national hero?  As is well known of pop stars they mirror a deep felt  need for freedom. Freedom from conventional rules and celebration of life in all its aspects. And that is what Ramses Shaffy did.  
Already before he knew Osho he was famous for it. Not that he reacted against rules. He was only celebrating life, as he said. And when he was asked why his partying didn’t know bounds he always said that he was not aware of breaking rules because he didn’t know them. He was not interested in rules or conventional moral codes. He lived his life as he wanted it. In one of his famous songs of the ‘70s he expressed this like:’Let me do my own thing, let me go my own way, because that’s what I always liked to do.’
When he met Osho in the ‘80s Osho didn’t give him a new name. He could keep his artistic name Ramses Shaffy, but now as swami. As sannyasin he liked to go deeper and deeper in himself. That’s why at a certain moment he joined the community of the Osho Humaniversity.
There he lived for a while, untill he left again because – as Premdip told for the national tv – he is by nature a beautiful gipsy, not fitting in any structure.
Up to his last years he was famous because of his songs, his roles in theatre, his paintings. Even when he was diagnosed with the disease of Korsacov and cancer, he continued. About these diseases he said always: ‘Such a disease is new for me. It is very interesting.’ In interviews he often mentioned Osho. When he had to rest more and the journalist asked what he was doing during the day, he said: ‘I am sitting on my chair looking out of the window, doing nothing and witnessing what is going on. That is what Osho taught me.’
After his death sannyasins gathered, celebrated his death  and made a beautiful advertisement in one of the biggest Dutch Newspapers. With the text of Osho : ‘Meditation is simply to be totally in the present, and to be in rhythm with the existence that surrounds you’  And they made a website with all kind of links to his songs. If you are interested you can hear swami Ramses Shaffy singing on www.vrienden-van-osho.nl/ramses. Enjoy!

Ojas Th. De Ronde

Zie ook de Pastorale als PPS (Powerpoint)