Biography

 

Ma Deva Pyari was born in Rio de Janeiro and got the name Sheila Chaves Shalders. After three days at the hospital she went back with the mother to Campos de Jordão, at the mountains of the brazilian state S. Paulo, where the parents where living at the time – and where they have remained for three more years.

After an year the twin brothers Bill and Joe were born. And in 1949 the mother wanted to move back to Rio, so the whole family did it. After one more year the father bought a flat in Leme, the beginning of Copacabana beach, where Pyari has grown up – by the sea, by the sand and the waves. There she has learned to dance and to sing.

She has studied at the Bennett school, learned English and graduated at the Escola Normal as a teacher. She has worked then for four years at the poor quarters of the periphery of Rio, while studying at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Meanwhile she took part on the movement against the dictatorship in Brazil and finally resigned the post as a public teacher, disgusted with the low salary! And the persecution she was suffering for her political ideas.

She worked for another four years as a stewardess for Varig and Braniff Airways, thus visiting several capitals around Brazil and the world. And in N. York she has started to learn Astrology.

At the Philosophy College she came in contact with the artists and intellectuals who have been responsible for the cultural revolution of the sixties in Brazil: for the Tropicália and the Bossa Nova in Music, for the “Cinema Novo” on the screens, and for the “Teatro de Arena”, which has abolished the distance between public and actors or actresses.

In 1967 she graduated as bachelor in Communication Sciences, got married to the plastic artist Sérgio da Silveira - one of the four painters of the “Grupo Diálogo” - and they moved together to S. Teresa, a neighbourhood in Rio where most artists and intellectuals lived at the time.

Pyari had also learned macrobiotic in N. York and now she was taking only organic vegetarian meals, besides working already with macrobiotic healing, based on the teachings of the Japanese George Oshawa and of a german healer who lived in the city of Belo Horizonte. And Pyari has reached fantastic results with healing through macrobiotic.

After Branniff Airways she worked for the “Diário de Notícias”, where she wrote the daily column which Paulo Mendes Campos was signing. News were only coming from the North-american agency UPI, still they passed through another big censorship from the newspaper! Therefore, after six months of such an unfulfilling work, she complained to Paulo about the situation: writing on his name and only about lies! He asked her which subject she would be pleased to write about, she, excited with the studies on astrology said esoterism, he offered her a weekly column on the Sunday magazine, suggested the name “Sheila Shalders desvenda as galáxias” (Sheila Shalders disclose the galaxies), and so things have started!

Through this column, in a country submerged in terror, oppression and poverty, ancient sciences have had voice. Letters from several people related to occultism didn’t cease to come and she met different people from these circles. De Rose, also a pioneer, who was introducing Yoga in Brazil, was one of them, and she learned then this ancient science with him. And alsoTantra. With her lover at the time, Telmo de Jesus, she started to practice yoga and tantra at De Rose’s blue academy in Copacabana - where the two of them were soon teaching astrology, making charts and giving individual sessions on the subject.

After 6 months of not being paid at the “Diário de Notícias”, Pyari complained once more to Paulo, who offered her then to publish anything she wanted, in exchange for the work which had not been paid.

And she wrote with Telmo “The novo horóscopo brasileiro” for 1972, which has been published as tabloid – and which they have sold themselves, at the nigh Scene of Rio de Janeiro.

The “newspaper” not only used a new language, fit for the “new times”, but spoke too about free love, incarnation and life in communes.

Ênio da Silveira, editor of one of the best Publishing Houses in Brasil at the time, bought then at the Teatro Ipanema a complete collection of the tabloids, got enchanted with it and called Sheila and Telmo to write the horoscope for the next year, as 12 pocket books. The distribution was given to the Abril Publishing House, which boycotted it, as Abril was distributing its own books on astrology - which were nevertheless not written by “real” astrologers. But even though, everybody read the “Novo Horóscopo Brasileiro” from 1973, even in the cells of the prisons of the dictatorship!

It followed invitations to write for many newspapers and magazines – and Sheila Shalders became the first brazilian astrologer to “really” write about astrology, to give courses and to propagate a science which had been up to then considered charlatanism – and which it really was!

She wrote then for “O Pasquim”, for “Flor do Mal”, “Rolling Stones”, for Abril magazines and many others.

Ênio da Silveira died suddenly – nobody knows exactly how, perhaps murdered by the dictatorship – and for 1974 Sheila and Telmo prepared 12 new books which they wanted to publish themselves. They've got together with the Horizonte publishing house of Brasília, to where they had moved when they have got to know that Pyari was pregnant. Horizonte would take care of the distribution, but nothing has worked out…

They got robbed - and cheated by the Publishing House. And have not seen a penny from the new collection, entitled then “Psicologia Cósmica” (Cosmic psychology).

Atman was born in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, in a natural birth, in a farm where Sheila and Telmo were teaching, participating in a project for criminal kids taken out of prison. They went back to Rio after 4 months and later on to Brasília. She was now working intensively with astrology and giving tantra rituals.

In 1975 they took part on the “Silva Mind Control” training and in 1976 they travelled to Porto Velho, a city in the Amazon forest, in order to experience ayuasca. And there they spent 6 intense months.

In 1976, back in Rio and living in the island of Paquetá, they were invited to Belo Horizonte to give their first course on astrology. There she met her daughter’s father, stayed in the city, created a commune, two courses followed this first one and Adhara was born in Abaeté, in 1977, also in a natural birth. Telmo helped once more at the birth, this time with his wife Aninha Cordeiro.

During pregnancy Sheila Shalders offered a daily program on astrology at the Radio Itatiaia, which was a big success, moreover for her free, courageous and compassionate advices.

Back in Paquetá Sheila tried to organize a new commune and to write a book, based on the material for her courses. As it would be a very expensive project and Ground Publishing House, at the time directed by friends of hers, was going bankrupt, she agreed with the editor, Márcio de Castro, to prepare only the part concerning astrological therapy. The book was hence written in Paquetá in 1978 and was published in 1982, with the name “Astrologia Esotérica” (esoteric astrology), by Global, which had bought the Ground and which at that time was not giving much energy to esoteric books.

Again there was a big frustration, as the table for calculating the ascendant sign had come out wrong and the Global hasn’t published the Errata, which had been promised!

In 1980 Sheila took sannyas (became a disciple) from the spiritual master Osho, got the name Ma Deva Pyari (divine beloved) and opened the first Osho meditation center in Rio de Janeiro: The Shunnyan Institute. And it was located in Leme, where she had grown up!

At the Shunnyan she did a Training in Shiatsu massage and created the ©Corpoterapia. The process is based on the theory of healing through astrology, exposed in the book “Astrologia esotérica”. It uses Shiatsu; Do-In; tantric techniques; happenings proposed by the artst Yoko Ono; theatre exercises from the workshops she did, basically the ones leaded by her brother Joe Shalders and from Amir Haddad; and meditation techniques from Osho.

In May 1982 Pyari left Brazil with Atman and Adhara, to meet Osho at the sannyas commune in Oregon. They lived in Berkeley and in August they moved to Germany, to take part in another sannyas commune, in Bavaria: the Sneha. She began then to lead the ©Corpoterapia in Osho centers of Germany and Holland. And worldwide afterwards.

In December, in the work-shop that she called “Carnival in the stars” and which has been given in three weekends in Stuttgart, she met the drummer and percussionist Sw. Anand Avinash (the immortal ecstasy), with whom she lives till now.

After some more workshops in Germany they moved to Holland with the kids, where they have lived in three different cities, working with Shiatsu and the ©Corpoterapia In Amsterdam, together with the dutch actor Sw. Srajano, who had followed Pyari during several workshops and who had been responsible for them to move to Holland, “The Love Celophane Road show” came to existence. Atman and Adhara were also taking part in the shows.

In 1983 they went again to America to participate in the festival in the Oregon commune and lived afterwards for half an year in S. Francisco, where they have worked mainly with shows. In December they moved to Brazil and in March 1985 back to Germany, to take part in the Osho Commune International. The kids stayed at the Rajneesh School in England. Pyari and Avinash were sent to Hamburg. In august they got the kids back and settle down in the “Hansestadt”, where, except for short periods in Pune, India, at the Osho resort, or in lower Bavaria, they have lived till 2003.

In 1986 they got from Osho the name Osho Mani for the arts and meditation center that Pyari and Avinash lead till today and which is since 2003 located in Rosengarten (garden of roses), 30 km south of Hamburg. The center promotes Pyari’s work-shops, art expositions, music events, and her theatre or dance performances. And certainly Osho’s work!

She writes since then to several New Age magazines, "Good Times" and "Connection", for example. And nowadays for Radio Mamaterra.

Pyari has learned to play guitar with Atman, who is a talented guitar player, perhaps inherited from both grandmothers and the father, who took sannyas as well in Mai 1981. He got the name Sw. Dhyan Punitan (the purity of meditation). And Atman plays guitar like Jimmy Hendrix!

In Summer 1987 the band “Pyari and the colorful condoms” played for the first time at Pyari’s work-shop “The Columbus’s egg”. The band’s name reminds us of taking care of Aids, the new mortal disease. And the music is a mixture of rock, blues, brazilian, new age - and nowadays, techno.

Pyari composes, sings and plays guitar, Avinash plays the drums, percussion or makes the computer programation – and Atman plays the solo guitar. The bassist is always changing and at the moment we play with Sw. Neerava Utpal (the silence of the blue lotus).

In 1998 Heyne Verlag published Pyari’s book Tantrisches Leben (tantric life), in 400 pages and with 79 photos.

2005 Pyari gave her workshops at Hamburg university and is nowadays composing healing songs, inspired on the north-american healer Louise Hay, besides preparing the CD with her dancing meditation, - The Watcher - available in three languages, including English.

The Watcher - the cosmic dancer Meditation, may already be ordered here.

In December 2012 came her new book “Sex, Tantra and Transcendence”, by Ullstein/Allegria Verlag.

And Ma Deva Pyari has started to paint. Her first paintings are in oil and the new book cover is one of them!

The two books in german may be ordered here, also as e.books, which are available in english and portuguese too.