From Sharmi we hear that on Friday, on the New Moon, Japanese Sadhu left his body at the Marie Curie Hospice in Belsize Park London. Sadhu has been living in London for a long time and has been going back and forth to Japan to be with his mother for quite some years. He was suffering from cancer and was told by his doctor that he only had three months to live. His funeral was held in London on 14th October.
Sadhu took sannyas in Pune in 1977.
A few poems by Sadhu
You
who delivered me
from my past
like a mid-wife
who cut through
the umbilical cord of
attachment
and yet
it is nothing but
your pleasure
to destroy
that which is not
and to create
that which is
What a joke waiting
for me to discover
that
the whole point
of all these hustles ad bustles
depends upon nothing
but to learn
just to be.
Thanks to Shiv Anand Bharti, Sharmi Agnidipta; and to Mega and Prabuddho for the photos
Tributes
I think I originally met Sadhu many years ago at the meditation centre in Kentish Town where I think he may have donated one of his paintings of the moon. In more recent years I brought him several piles of second-hand Osho books to send to West Africa with his ex-girlfriend. His tiny flat in Camden was decorated with some of his paintings – he loved using lots of gold and silver paint and his pictures were mainly of the sun and moon – as well as pictures of Osho and shelves of Osho books. He played a lot of online Japanese chess (it looked really complicated!) and there were often other friends in the flat, with a cup of tea or a bowl of miso soup on offer. The last time I saw him he was buying some cheap wood for frames in my area and I invited him in for tea. His poems about Osho and his own spiritual journey are very touching. He called Osho ‘The Drunken Gambler’! Even though I did not meet him many times he made an impression – and I am happy we had a great send off for him a few days ago in his flat – music, drumming, fires and candles in the garden and hanging out with friends: what he would have wanted! Lots of love to you, Sadhu!
Prabuddho
So glad I managed to meet up again with Sadhu last time I was in London. Too young to go, much too young!
Ashesha
Sadhu and I were many things to each other. We met in 1970 in Japan, married in 1971, so very young, I had just turned 21. He, the poet and I, the American English teacher. Both of us leaning toward free spiritedness. In 1978 Sadhu took me to India, and Osho, and a new life. We lost track of each other, until three years ago, September 2010. So many coincidences brought us in contact again. These last three years, writing and talking to Sadhu, have been a kind of catching up, tying up loose ends, loving moments, tense moments, realizations, gifting and learning. Seeing Osho, through Sadhu’s poems, music, and paintings, I am so blessed. I went to Mt Shasta in California for a kind of healing pilgrimage for Sadhu, and for me I guess, in August 2013. As I reached a meadow with the mountain spring, a woman came to me: “Are you an Osho girl?” “Yes!” … So was she! We danced with joy and wonder in the meadow as I told her of Sadhu and the pilgrimage. She gave me a handkerchief with hearts and lace. Seemed so fitting, another Osho surprise. With love. Always. Thank you Sadhu! Well done!
Ma Deva Sadhvi