Nirjana

Celebrating the sacred at the heart of every day”
– Nirjana Melanie Pike

Nirjana (aka Melanie Pike) left her body peacefully in the early hours of 7th October, surrounded with love from friends and family from near and far. She was 48, and died in hospital from metastatic breast cancer. She leaves behind many friends and a loving family including her parents, her brother Chris and sister Amanda, and their respective partners, and her nieces Amber and Kiri.

In Nirjana’s early life she went to a convent school and, although she was expelled, went on to get a double 1st honours degree in modern languages at Oxford University. Afterwards she spent a placement year teaching in Berlin – and also selling hot dogs!

Nirjana took sannyas around 1992. She had met a sannyasin from the Antipodes and went to live with him in Australia for a while and took sannyas there. Always creative and a ‘maker’, she set up a picture-framing business in Australia and did very well with her mobile stall.

By 1995, Nirjana had returned from Australia to the UK, living at the sannyasin-owned Relaxation Centre in Bristol. It was there where she first met Tanmayo during a group run by Devapath.

The same year Nirjana spent a few months in Pune and on her return she settled, together with Tanmayo, in Bristol where they stayed for some years – living nearby or with other sannyasin friends, including Trish and Pyasa. The long-standing Bristol Women’s Group was formed around this time with Nirjana, Trish, Maya Vati, Sarasi and Nishkam being early members.

Around 1997, Nirjana became seriously ill with Crohn’s disease; she was supported by Tanmayo through her illness, and by the Women’s Group. Nirjana always challenged the conventional medical options, trusting her own intuition and her body wisdom. She very courageously got herself off steroids, opting for diets and alternative therapies and so avoided the usual de-facto option of surgery. Her experience with this illness profoundly influenced her approach to life. Nirjana says this on her silversmithing website:

A decade of serious illness (Crohn’s disease) caused me to re-evaluate what ‘precious’ is. I now believe it to reside in the way things are, rather than in how I think they should be.”

By 2003, Tanmayo and Nirjana had parted and she moved to her own flat in Bristol where she continued to recover from Crohn’s disease and embarked on retraining as a silversmith. Her work as a silversmith and jeweller brought her great joy and satisfaction – she had amazing talent and creativity, specialising in working with found objects.

Nirjana gained a qualification from the Bristol School of Art and did further training with Bob Ebendorf. Some of her work was featured in published books and was selected for Open Exhibitions at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. She was a regular exhibitor at the local arts trails and the Made in Bristol shows. She undertook commissions as well, finding a gift for repurposing precious mementoes into beautiful new pieces of ‘wearable art’. In 2014 she also embarked on teaching jewellery workshops in France with great success.

During this time of her increasingly recovering health, Nirjana was a regular at Osho meditation and celebration events at both Osho Leela and Croydon Hall in south of England. It was at Croydon Hall where she met Glastonbury-based Narayan with whom she was then in a relationship for about four years. Together they travelled to Nepal on buying trips; they also visited her sister Amanda in Australia and enjoyed campervan trips to France and Devon.

In the last few years of her life she was single and relished a deepening relationship with herself – spending time travelling in her Bongo campervan, loving to be out in nature, wild swimming, beachcombing for items to include in her work. She continued to be an active part of the Bristol Women’s Group which now also includes Beth (Kanksha), Mala, Sidika and Kamla. Nirjana’s continuing spiritual explorations also brought her to enjoy being part of the Balanced View community, both in Bristol and internationally; she found these teachings an invaluable addition to her life.

Nirjana’s breast cancer diagnosis in August 2015 came as a big surprise to all of us and we thought she would overcome this too. Again Nirjana chose to challenge the conventional medical options and decided against having surgery and chemo at that time. She has been an inspiration with her wisdom, clarity, integrity and commitment – all of which she brought to her chosen journey of healing through this past year since her diagnosis. She said she had had an amazing year, did not regret any of her choices and felt complete with everyone in her life.

In recent weeks Nirjana’s energy levels dropped considerably and she was admitted to hospital in early October with a view to starting chemo. However, scans showed that the cancer had spread extensively through her liver and into her bowel and lungs. She met this news with her typical grace and equanimity (and a certain amount of wry humour). Again she was very clear about her choice not to go ahead with the chemo as it would not offer a cure at this stage. Unfortunately, she began to be in a lot of pain and needed ever increasing pain relief until she peacefully passed on just a few days after being admitted to hospital. None of us knew just how quickly she would leave us – it was shockingly quick.

Her family and many friends came to visit in her last days; some who couldn’t reach in time were able to speak on the phone or on Skype. Her Bristol Women’s Group friends and her Balanced View community friends offered her much loving care in her last days and hours. There was so much love in the room and the nurses commented on how well she was supported – the staff at the BRI oncology unit were outstanding in their kindness and care.

We are so grateful for the inspiration of Nirjana’s life – and indeed the way she faced her death – and so glad she is now free of pain and flying high.

Text and photos thanks to Kamla Shahnti Deva

Nirjana’s funeral will be held on 18th October, 1.30pm, at Canford Crematorium, Bristol, followed by a celebration 3-9pm, venue in Bristol, tbc. All who knew her are welcome. Please see links for details facebook.com/events – oshosammasati.org/

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote using our contact form (please add ‘Nirjana’ in the subject field)…

Beloved Nirjana,
What a privilege it has been to call you friend for nearly twenty years in the Bristol Women’s Group – intelligent, beautiful, sexy, multi-talented. You were always so warm, so open, taking a genuine interest in others and articulate in taking responsibility for yourself. You fully embodied Osho’s message of love, life and laughter, despite much physical illness.
In Poona I heard Osho say: “At the moment of parting you know the depth of your love.” Your leaving us at only 48 is hard to bear; your going leaves a big shiny hole in my life as it does for so many whom you touched deeply with your clarity and honesty and loving heart.
Thank you, most precious friend,
Maya Vati

I first met Nirjana, a beautiful and radiant young woman, in Brighton where she lived for a while with Tanmayo in the 80’s, before moving away, so I did not see her. Many years later I bumped into Tanmayo at Osho Leela, who recounted to me the whole story of how Nirjana had been very ill with a long illness and that he had taken care of her during that time. Some years later I was in Croydon Hall one weekend when I saw her there, very thin and frail, making a rare outing and supported by a burly handsome man! I spoke to her and hugged her, told her I knew about her illness. After that she was able to come to Croydon Hall more often and we would chat about our health, being no stranger to ill-health myself. Each time she came she looked a little fatter and a little stronger and would tell me what more she was able to do now. I felt very happy to see her getting stronger and her little face getting brighter each time; she never complained about anything. So it was with deep sadness that I heard some time ago that she had become ill again, and now has left her body.
A couple of years ago she looked at me and said she had a pink silk blouse, the colour of which she felt did not suit her very well, and said she would send it to me; it duly arrived and I remembered I also had a silk blouse in a deeper shade of pink, so I sent it to her.
I hope it suited you, beloved. I shall be wearing yours on the 18th. With much Love.
Aradhana

Nirjana had a special sparkle and joy in her energy – maybe it was recovery from life-threatening illness that gave each and every moment great preciousness. That came across at the early Balanced View meetings when her radiant aliveness and love were so apparent mirroring a time when Divyam was still alive as well. My relationship with her was somewhat tangential and I regret that – I will miss her warmth and her wise head and heart. She gave a lot of love to life.
Kalandar