Narayandas

…left his body on 27th September 2016.

From Navina we hear that Narayandas (aka Nary Mitchell) from the US, suddenly collapsed while working and died soon afterwards in hospital. He worked in Pune 1 as a guard and as an assistant in groups. His lifetime love was horticulture. By old friends he was known as Johnny Appleseed as he seemed to always be planting fruit trees, wherever he went.

For several years he has been living in a Dzogchen Zen community in Massachusetts where he enjoyed gardening and helping others in whatever way was needed. He also loved working with wood. In a recent email he told me enthusiastically about the hundreds of blueberries planted a few years ago that were just coming into their own, and also about the many raspberries they had more recently planted. In what turned out to be his last communication with me, he also wrote: “There is no separation from you and all other objects, it’s only in your mind that that illusion exists; you are conditioned by culture and family to believe that as a product of your perception, which it is not…”

Members of his family and community surrounded him and sang to him as he left… and I sang Fly High for him from across the continent.

Text and photos thanks to Prem Navina