Celebrating the Glorious Life of Sally Monroe Peden
Sally M. Peden, May 26, 1947 – October 1, 2016
This photo of Sali was taken in the summer of 1992, about a year before we would meet. She arrived to register us for a large advanced meditation course in Washington, DC. When Sali came up to me to ask my name and check it on her list, two thoughts immediately entered my mind: Too bad I just got married (again); Too bad she’s on Mother Divine (a course for single women). Our lives would drastically change—my second marriage would end and I would eventually return to Canada, later leave to join Purusha (a course for single men) and travel the world; she would leave her way of life and end up at MUM in Fairfield, Iowa working for John Hagelin’s ISTPP and the NLP. We would meet there 10 years later in the fall of 2003, as if for the first time. A beautiful friendship would grow and transform our lives, a story worth writing one day.
Sally M. Peden, passed peacefully and gracefully on Saturday, October 1, 2016, 11:17pm, during the evening of the first day of the Nine Days of Mother Divine, the start of a new moon. Her Memorial Service and Vedic Cremation Ceremony were held on Wednesday, October 5, 2016, at the Behner Funeral Home in Fairfield, Iowa, USA.
Sali had devoted her life in personal service to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi since 1971. She traveled the world with him as a personal assistant and lived for many years at the International Capital for the Transcendental Meditation movement in Seelisberg, Switzerland working on many important projects. Sali was very humble, the sign of a great soul. She accomplished untold tasks for Maharishi, which pleased him, but never felt the need to draw attention to herself, just pure dynamic devoted service.
Many emails from around the world poured in praising Sali. I’ll reference a few here.
Sheila Chalmers had worked closely with Sali at International on several projects. In her tribute to Sali, which was read aloud, Sheila described Sali’s brilliant mind, amazingly focussed work ethic, and how much she learned from her.
Emily Levin, a close friend of Sali’s, sent this wonderful tribute to Sali, which was also read aloud. Maharishi had paired them up early on, and Emily shines a glorious light on Sali and their fun-filled friendship.
Some other people who used to work with Sali spoke at her Memorial Service. Alarik Arenander, a neuroscientist from the early days of Maharishi Eureopean Research University in Seelisberg, described an incident when they were recording an EEG of a meditating subject. Maharishi happened to enter the lab with an important guest. The scientists showed Maharishi the EEG brainwaves being printed out from the moving ink pens. Maharishi asked, “What is that?” Researchers again explained the brainwaves. After asking several times, since the researchers were not ‘getting it,’ Maharishi pulled apart the long ream of neatly folded EEG paper emphatically pointing to the long non-fluctuating line at the bottom below the EEG. The researchers had an ‘aha’ moment when they examined the breath rate signal, which indicated extended periods of no breathing. They had been looking to find a marker for transcending in meditation and there it was, right in front of them, unnoticed, until Maharishi pointed it out. Sali was meditating in the next room, and it was her clear orderly mind and refined nervous system that brought out the understanding of breath suspension during Transcendental Meditation as an indicator of transcendence! That, along with the orderliness of coherent brain functioning producing relaxed alpha waves. The rest is history!
Gerry Geer, an MUM faculty member and ISTPP director of publications, described her extraordinary personality and some of the amazing things she had accomplished early on in her career. Gerry first met Sali around 1970 when he dropped into the Cambridge TM Center to find out what it was all about. She inspired him to learn TM and to become a teacher. Decades later they would work together at the ISTPP. Read Gerry Geer’s tribute to Sali. In it he mentions a very special incident he witnessed between her and Maharishi. It speaks volumes!
Valerie Gangas, a friend and author, posted a personal reaction to that very special day celebrating Sali, and our relationship, on her blog: Life in Love with You. It was a powerful revelation for her! I am so thankful she wrote it. Also definitely worth reading!
October 1, 2017: I am updating this section a year later on the anniversary of Sali’s passing. I had asked a few of Sali’s other friends who had spoken at her Memorial service to send me what they had said or remembered about Sali.
David Orme-Johnson, TM researcher, artist, and retired MUM Professor Emeritus, wrote: “What I said about Sali was that when I arrived at Seelisberg for the first time in 1973, Sally was the number one organizer around Maharishi. Her mind was crystal clear and she radiated bliss and being.”
David’s wife Rhoda, also a founding faculty member at MIU/MUM, recalled her trip with Sali and Rindi to Jyotir Math. They were in a taxi driving up the ever-winding road. To keep from becoming ill from the constant turns, they sang Broadway tunes. Rhoda was amazed that they knew the words and music to all the songs. David recalled that Rindi was on a path to becoming a musician and singer before she found Maharishi and the TM movement. She worked closely with Sali around Maharishi, and later became one of the leaders of the Mother Divine Program.
Kate Ross sent me a description of what she had said about Sali last year. She was Kate Isen when they knew each other, starting in 1968. They shared a close friendship during those days in Cambridge, Mass, and Sali had rented a room in her house. Kate sent me a beautiful description about Sali’s accomplishments and humanity. When Sali returned from her TM Teacher Training Course (TTC) the change was even more dramatic. Kate didn’t think Sali could look even more beautiful, inside and out, but she did. It inspired her to go off to TTC. Later, when Kate joined International Staff in Seelisberg, Switzerland, there was Sali, “working as a dedicated close assistant to Maharishi. She was tremendously efficient and had powerful organizing skills, but in spite of being enormously busy with the greatest of responsibilities, she never lost the human touch to watch over people and do what was right. She was the brightest light, and an inspiration to all who knew her, and personally speaking, I feel so blessed to have been connected to her. We were and always will be spiritual sisters.” Read the rest of Kate’s inspiring speech about Sali.
A few days later, Rannie Boes sent me what she had said at Sali’s Memorial service. She recalled how they first met in Denmark, Rannie’s homeland, in 1973. “She came to Copenhagen with Maharishi’s group when we had organized a big symposium on TM.” Decades later, they worked at MUM in the same departments. Rannie recounts a sweet story of what Sali had said about their relationship during one of her visits to see her at Parkview Care Center. Read At Sali’s Memorial by Rannie Boes.
Dying, Dharma and Devotion
In the weeks leading up to Sali’s transition, I was reading two books to her. The first was an enlightened description of the nearing death experience, clearly delineated by Kathleen Dowling Singh in her reassuring book, The Grace in Dying: How We Are Transformed Spiritually as We Die. I believe this book prepared us for what was to come, to both let go and allow it to happen naturally.
Sali would soon be put back on Hospice for added care, and moved to a private room, which gave us the needed privacy for such an intimate experience. She would pass within a few days, at an auspicious time in the Vedic calendar.
The second book was The Ramayana: A New Retelling of Valmiki’s Ancient Epic–Complete and Comprehensive, written by Linda Egenes, a friend, and Kumuda Reddy. It is an inspiring story as relevant today as it has been throughout the ages, of dharma, duty, triumphing over evil; enlightened leadership; and an ideal love between an evolved man and woman. Listening to that story kept our attention focused on something spiritually elevating during her final days.
I got as far as the end of Chapter 36, where Hanuman, after finding Sita, consoles and reassures her that Rama is preparing an army to free her from her abductor, Ravana, king of the rakshasas. This comes as a great relief to Sita who was at her lowest with no hope in sight.
For the previous two days and nights, Sali’s breathing pattern consisted of short quick breaths, in and out. It was at this point in the story that her breathing began to change. It became softer, slower, and then, stopped. I waited for another, very feeble attempt, then put one hand over her heart and the other on her head. Not finding any sign of life in the body, these words came into my mind: “It’s done. The karma is over.” With a sense of relief and finality, I said: “Peace, Peace, Shanti, Shanti,” and lovingly kissed her forehead, our last goodbye. I felt a profound peacefulness deep within me, which I could not fully comprehend. The answer would come later, in a word, while meditating in India, where I wrote this poem.
UNDIFFERENTIATED
The Peace that Passeth Understanding
The final feeling
Between us was a Great Peace
Deep within the Heart
All that remained was Silence
After you took your last breath
Where was that Peace coming from
In your heart, mine, or ours
Beyond my comprehension
UNDIFFERENTIATED
As promised, I did continue reading the rest of The Ramayana to Sali, wherever she might be, that evening and the following morning, finishing it at the funeral home, after they had picked up her body and brought it there. Her memorial and cremation would take place a few days later, still within the auspicious Nine Days.
Narmada River, Brahmasthan, Atirudrabhishek
At the luncheon in Revelations following Sali’s cremation, one of our friends, Sheila Ross, suggested I take the cremains to the holy Narmada River, where some of Maharishi’s ashes had been placed. She said it was also close to the Brahmasthan, geographic center of India, where meditation courses were being held, and thousands of Maharishi Vedic Pandits were reciting Atirudrabhishek, an ancient Vedic performance to create world peace.
At the invitation of my family, I did go to India, a little over a month after Sali’s cremation, to spread her ashes from a boat at that location near the Gwari Ghat. It turned out to be during a most auspicious time—a celebration of the holy day of Kartika Poornimah, November 14, 2016, also known as Devi Dipavali, the Festival of Lights of the Gods—one of the most spiritually significant days in the Vedic calendar, during the biggest full moon in 70 years, the supermoon! Truly befitting someone of Sali’s spiritual merit.
Staying at the Brahmasthan afterwards for three weeks was healing for me. It was a powerful and blissful experience visiting the Maharishi Vedic Pandits in their large meditation hall, listening to them perform their Vedic recitations! You can sample some of them in these eCards, enhanced with audios, videos and slideshows.
To get an example of Sali’s sweetness and our special relationship, see this previous post from December 8, 2016—Capturing an authentic moment in writing—about Being with Sali on August 1, 2012, during another full moon.
I am so thankful for the support of our families, the Slusers, Kaplans, Mitchells, and Petch Peden and Robert Harper, and for many of our friends who helped handle so many details, especially Kate Ross and Jennifer Hamilton! I also appreciate acupuncturist Sarah Brooks, the staff at Parkview Care Center and Hospice Compassus for their tireless care of Sali, and sometimes me.
Recently Added
Celebrating the Glorious Life of Sally M Peden; Final entries leading up to and after Sali’s passing; and this new poem, Haiku for Her. Added, June 30, 2017, 9 months after Sali’s passing: For Us—a tanka honoring Sali and what we shared. Added Sept 1, 2017: ‘In Our Loving Eyes’ a poem by @kenchawkin remembering a special love with Sally Peden. Added October 1, 2017, A tanka remembering Sali and her gift to me on the one-year anniversary of her passing. Added October 15, 2017, Still Sali Haiku—the persistence of love over grief. Added November 12, 2017: 1st anniversary of my India trip to spread Sali’s ashes on the Narmada River, visit Bijouri campus and Maharishi Vedic Pandits at the Brahmasthan.
June 6, 2018: After rereading this, I realized how spiritually auspicious the dates were of Sali’s passing, on a new moon during the start of the Nine Days of Mother Divine, and the spreading of her ashes 45 days later in India on the holy Narmada River during a full moon, the biggest supermoon in 70 years, and on Devi Dipavali!
According to numerology, these numbers are significant: 45, 4+5 = 9, completion, fulfillment; 70, 7 is made up of two lines, the individual I am, horizontal line, upheld by the Cosmic I Am, vertical line; and 0 is wholeness. Taken together, the whole thing seemed pretty cosmic to me!
Added June 28, 2019: Poem for Sali—An Undying Love—heals the heart.
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