neo-sannyasin (disciple) of Osho since January 27,1999, Ma Deva Dhiraja*, also known as Ludmila or Luda, is Russian, but was born in the Ukraine (then a part of the Soviet Union) on November 19, 1973. Her mother was a medical doctor from Moscow, and her father, of Tartar stock, a veterinarian and jeweler from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg),  Russia when it was the Soviet Union.  As an infant, Dhiraja moved to Tajikistan (just east of Afghanistan, bordering China)  

She spent her early childhood living within the indigenous culture of Tajikistan, a Moslem country, influenced by China and Afghanistan.  As the rumblings of war were heard in the distant air in this Soviet republic, heralding the end of Soviet domination, in 1983 Dhiraja left the desert mountains of Tajikistan for St. Petersburg, Russia.  She was 10 years old.

Pulled from her Tajik culture, her childhood from 10 on was reclusive and highly empathic. She studied art at the famed Art Institute of St. Petersburg, Russia, and today enjoys intuitive art, and loves to create collages, and work with all art media. Dhiraja sees art in life's simplest things...from a crumbled leaf to a street artifact, and often uses what she discovers in "life's storage bin" in her art. 

Dhiraja is not of this world, and is often able to predict situations before they occur. Often she travels into other dimensions of consciousness. A natural healer, her touch itself can create an altered state and healing. Dhiraja  embodies a spiritual philosophy of existence and enlightenment.

Comes to America...

Dhiraja met Virato on September 18, 2000 in St. Petersburg, Russia while he was conducting consciousness expanding Tantra events there.  A story book romance incurred and soon they became close friends and lovers. They were together again for several months in 2001, both in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

After two years (because the US Dept. of Homeland Security  lost her paperwork),  Dhiraja arrived in America, on January 31, 2002, and were greeted with a magnificent spiritual marriage party with her beloved Virato in Decatur, Georgia, at the palatial home of a long-time friend of Virato.

On February 14, 2002 (Valentine's Day) she legally married Virato (barefoot in sandals in a Chattanooga, Tennessee court house in the presence of a Southern judge) Another spiritual marriage ceremony followed at the Dharmadip Osho Center, Lake Lure, North Carolina, USA  on February 23, 2002.

When they are not traveling, they live most of the time in  Asheville, NC. where you may see them in the West Asheville area or walking downtown.

Dhiraja has a full-time job, and in her free time does her artwork, writing and gardening. She was even  host of a new paradigm Russian language radio program in Asheville on WPVM-FM in 2006, and now is frequently heard on 880AM as a co-host with VIRATO LIVE! with her beloved. She is currently studying  becoming a thespian attending classes in he Drama Dept. of AB Tech (Asheville-Buncombe Country Technical Institute).

She enjoys working at Asheville's largest natural foods supermarket, but her cherished time, she says, is sharing her heart and consciousness with everyone and.....simply being...both alone and in Virato's company...as he does hers. 

They bathe in love...

Spiritual Intoxication Happens Around Dhiraja....

* Dhiraja is a name given her by the enlightened mystic, Osho. Ma can be taken to mean Divine Mother.  Deva is Sanskrit for love, and Dhiraja in Sanskrit means patience.

So her name could mean nurturing divine mother of love and patience. Within the Osho community it stood for nurturer, and meant the same as "swami."   She follows no specific ritual other than experiencing existence as fully as possible in this dimension.