…left his body mid-April 2014.
From Ritambhara we hear that our beloved Veet Simant has left his body! He has been battling cancer for some years and he died last week in his home.
He was a musician and composer and, each spring, he was passionate about taking photos of trees in blossom.
There will be a ‘live’ celebration for him on 3rd May at a downtown ‘live-house’. It will be a mix of both sannyas music/musicians, and musicians from the Osaka musicians community.
Tributes
For the last few years Simant had been battling with cancer of the liver, and other severe health problems. He had been living alone, in a very old, and small, Japanese house, in Koriyama (a semi-rural area), in Nara. He had also been in and out of a nearby hospital regularly, and with increasing frequency, in recent times. One of the complications of the cancer was a lot of pain in his lower lumber region, and in his buttocks, which made sitting, or lying down, for any length of time extremely painful; most days he preferred to stay upright.
He loved tending to his many plants in his tiny garden in front of his house. He enjoyed taking slow, meandering walks around his local area, and in the gardens of Koriyma castle, (10 minutes walk from his house), and always with his camera; many of you have enjoyed seeing his pictures. At other times he’d visit a couple of friends who lived locally.
Simant was much loved by all of us, and he often had friends either driving out to visit him, or making the trip by train, from Osaka. We’d see him at his home, or at the hospital. We communicated with him regularly, by phone, or via the internet, but couldn’t always ‘connect’ with him, especially when he was having one of his many check-ups at the hospital.
Last Monday, a few friends began to question the lack of response from Simant, after they’d individually tried calling him, a couple of times, during the last week, and had noticed he hadn’t posted anything on FB since the 12th of April (unusual for him!). After checking with the hospital, and finding he hadn’t been admitted there again, a local friend connected to Simant’s landlord, and got the key to unlock his door and found his body, and heard later that he had vacated his earthly shell about a week before. I heard it was his heart that finally gave out.
The news that our beloved Simant had left for the other shore, sent a wave of energy of tsunami proportions through our community and network of friends, all over Japan, and the rest of the world too! He was much loved by many, and will be greatly missed, particularly by many of his friends, here in Japan!
After his body was found, a group of friends (including me) meditated with his body on Monday night. The next day, when he was laid out, many more friends went to his house to pay their respects and later gathered at his local friend’s house, where a lot of sannyasin musician friends played music together. My beloved told me, it was a great music celebration, and Simant would have loved it! His body was cremated yesterday, April 23rd.
In early May, a ‘live music’ memorial party for Simant will be held somewhere downtown Osaka…he had many friends within the Osaka downtown musician community, and many bands will play in his memory.
Much love to you all, Namaste! OSHO! OSHO! OSHO!
Prem Ritambhara
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