Anandashru's Homepage

Waikato pastureland and Mt Pirongia

Anandashru was born during World War II and spent her early years at ‘Blue Ridge’, her parents’ sheep farm by the bush line on the lower slopes of Mount Pirongia, in the beautiful Waikato.

They lived miles too far from tiny Kaniwhaniwha school for a small girl to ride to alone on her pony, so when she was seven the family moved to a dairy farm at Ohaupo. There she and her three younger brothers completed all their schooling at Ohaupo Primary and Hamilton High Schools. Always a country girl at heart, after four years in Hamilton working at the Bank of New Zealand, she went back to the land when she married an innovative young farmer from Te Kowhai.

She knew there was 'something more' to this life and, while raising a son and a daughter, kept searching for answers, finally becoming a student of Sri Chinmoy's philosophy early in the 1990’s. Her husband passed away in 1999, and four years ago she got rid of the accumulated clutter of many years and moved from her ‘homeland’ to a small unit in the ‘City of Sails’, to live near the Auckland Sri Chinmoy Centre and become involved in their many activities. She has never regretted this big move even for a second. All of life is change and progress.

Nowadays her son is an accountant in Hamilton and her daughter, Toshala, runs The Blue Bird - a popular vegetarian café in Auckland where Anandashru can often be found behind the scenes.