Navaneet

Kamala writes:

Anand Navaneet (Bill Rose) was born in Alabama. He earned a BA in English with an MA in Counseling Psychology and received sannyas in 1979 from Osho.

Navaneet opened the first meditation center in Austin, Texas, married Anand Praveeta whom he loved until the last second of his life and with whom they had a child, Prem Amiten. They formed a community in Austin until they were invited to joint the Oregon commune where he worked, among other jobs, as a bus driver and dispatcher.

They were among the last to leave Rajneeshpuram. Back in Texas, Navaneet didn’t find work in Austin, but did in Dallas at Texas MHMR, as a trainer for carers working in the mental health and learning disabilities field. He was there for several years until he found a similar position in Temple, Texas. He left at the end of his contract and decided to give landscaping a go. Around 1997-1998 his son, Amiten, started working with him.

Upon Praveeta‘s death in 2017, he came to the community of Centro Osho Gyan Ensenada in Mexico, where he participated in group events promoting meditation. He was a fundamental pillar in the Osho Ranch project where he dedicated many hours and funds to transform the desert land into a little oasis.

His gentleness, sweetness, and generosity have opened many hearts, and have always been much appreciated by those who knew him.

In the last period of his life, he dedicated himself to writing about death. His first experience with cancer gave him a lesson not to postpone love, to dance and to celebrate.

I remember one day he asked Osho, ¨You say you are an ordinary man, but dancing with you is no ordinary experience.” And Osho answered, “Who told you that I am an ordinary man?” Those two words define Navaneet, as an ordinary and at the same time extraordinary man. Friendship, laughter, feeling supported and loved were something that he always gave away.

His totality and his dedication to the development of consciousness was lived up to his last moment. He chose to be conscious and to die consciously. In one of his last moments he said, “I say yes to Osho and I say yes. Tell him yes…” He smiled and closed his eyes. I don’t know if I was imagining or if they were already welcoming him.

Thanks to Shakura for organizing, to her and to Maitri and Viramo for photos

A letter to my father

by Amiten

Hi everyone. I want to thank everyone who has been reaching out to me and my dad through this whole process of caring for him and spending time with him in his final days. Unfortunately, my dad has passed during the night and is now truly at rest. I give thanks to him for the life and the love that he shared with not only me and my mom, but all that came into his life. I can’t deny the immense impact that he has made on me – the lessons on life, sports, plants, and with the outside world.

I can only hope to be half as inspiring and full of light as you, who brought so much to my mom and me. Thank you, dad.

The man in the garden…

by Mojud

That is how Navaneet was introduced to me, “Look for the man in the garden, you’ll see him…” at Osho Grand Kuxtal in Ensenada, Mexico.

Navaneet seeded love into the earth as he gardened it through his life. Every time I sat with him on the porch of the ranch, he talked as if the “plantas” were whispering to his heart, deep down he was having lovely conversations with his beloved Praveeta, the garden was named after her, ‘Praveeta’s Garden’.

Some other times he would share old stories of when he was driving a school bus in Oregon and how his meditation and love for Osho would rise while driving 12 hours a day. After so many years his eyes still shined as he told these stories.

A Zorba in deep touch with his buddhahood, a Buddha that loved to be a man in all of its senses. As he used to say, “I am just dancing, celebrating life until my time comes…” Death was his favorite topic, like a poet talking about his beloved.

Love, poetry and plants, that is the art that this beautiful human embodied and shared to every being around him.

Navaneet, One who is ever new.

“The Great Journey: Dancing to the end of life”

by Deva Maitri

This is how Navaneet used to call this last chapter of his life.

I met Navaneet a few months after Praveeta, his beloved, left her body. He was broken, yet getting together, with a different taste of life. Very sad and yet, squeezing the juice out of life.

We used to sit and talk for hours, laughing, crying, drinking wine and eating Brie. Most of our conversations ended talking about death. Death as we (sannyasins) “know” it, death as a celebration of life.

Navaneet fell in love with death, he had seen her right in the eye before, heard her whispering to his ear. He had a taste of death and he wanted to share it with everyone around him, and he would do it in such a loving way! By giving life to everything he touched, by living each moment to the maximum, by bringing joy to many who shared with him.

I dare to say that from that moment on he was focused on living an awakening life leading to a conscious death.

Thank you for this journey, my dear friend.

“Gratitude heals” – Navaneet.

PS I would love to share the last picture he sent me a month ago were he was wearing a t-shirt Mojud and I made specially for him. The t-shirt says, ‘Gratitude heals, thank you’. It was one of his favorite quotes, in his favorite dressing color, blue.

Receiving tributes while still here

by Mukta

Three months ago my sister left for the other shore and people wrote such amazing tributes for her, and my niece Minal asked, “Wouldn’t it have been great if my mum had heard all these tributes, rather than us hearing them now?” (Although in a way people always told her how kind and gracious she was.) So Minal, her boyfriend, Madhunad, and one of our very close friends, Arun, decided to gather people, whom Navaneet loved and was friends with, to pay a tribute while he was still in his body – so that he could hear what people thought of him.

They set up a zoom meeting with these few friends, Navaneet and his son. We all expressed how and what we felt about him. Navaneet was so happy and accepted everyone’s in-put. It was a beautiful farewell celebration for him while he was still on this plane.

I wish him a beautiful and hearfelt journey into the beyond. It was so wonderful to know him and his family.

Fly high, beautiful friend.

Dissolved in the heart of the Master

by Milarepa

I knew Navaneet was coming close to transitioning when Madhunad, his dear friend, wrote that he and some close friends were organizing a pre-send-off celebration for him with the idea to share their tributes while he was still around to receive them. Upon hearing this, I wrote Navaneet to check-in. I didn’t hear back from him at first until a few days before the last Satsang when I heard his voice message on my phone. This was on May 7th. I am so happy I saved his message because when I woke up this morning with the news of his passing, I played it again and it made me smile. His voice was so strong, full of laughter and delight, saying how much he looked forward to joining the meditation with everyone. He was always fond of the band and laughed saying how excited he was to be seeing us again.

I might have seen Navaneet in passing at Rajnesshpuram, but we never really got to know each other until the band and I went to Mexico in 2018 for OSHOFest. We arrived late in the night a few days before the festival. Kamala had sent a message ahead that Navaneet would be looking after us and, if we needed anything, connect with him. When I stepped out of my room early the next morning, he was there by the house watering the Center’s garden. He smiled, put down his hose, and asked me, “Do you like good coffee?” (which of course the band and I do) and said that when the others get up he’ll take us to a good place he knew. Sure enough, he knew the spot. Out on a long barren strip of highway through the desert, we met his guys, a shaman kind of character that made coffee in a little mobile establishment. It turned out to be some of the best coffee I could imagine – and tasted even better with a homemade apple turnover the shaman made!

In the days that followed, we shared our experiences from Rajneeshpuram and realized an instant bond because of this. And, of course with Osho. It is funny: in our chats, we would always reach the same conclusion, over and over again, that our four years at Rajneeshpuram were the four best years of our lives.

I always think each sannyasin has a story to tell that is so unique and miraculous. Navaneet’s story is certainly one of these. He is one of the few people I know who, despite having a serious health issue, was able to remain positive, laugh, dance, cry, and celebrate. It takes a rare person who can do this, one who had dissolved so totally in the heart of the Master.

So Navaneet, I know you knew that last Satsang was for you — a gift of love and a farewell from the band and me. For all those many times you met me on the path with your tears and thanked me for the music, the band and I know you are in the best hands now. Osho! Osho! Osho!

More Tributes

Beloved Navaneet, now that you return to the origin, it only remains for me to say how you taught me thank you, thank you, thank you for coinciding in this life, for all the laughter, the dances and shared meditations. You are and will always be light. All my love,
Sampatti

Beloved Navaneet,
Life gave me opportunities to share with you in Poona around 2010 and also, recently, in Ensenada with Kamalita at the ranch when you came to start working in the garden. Three weeks ago we exchanged some messages on FB, always with lovely words. Now, I can feel that it was your way to say bye… Thanks for your presence in this life, fly high, beloved friend!
Pren Jharna

Oh my beloved friend, I will miss you. 😢You didn’t even tell me when we last communicated. Your courage is amazing, many things – most of all your heart. I’ll never forget you dispatching my bus on the ranch, the joy we had together, and you grounding me with your heart and fun! Fly with the Master, beloved. I know you are. 🌈💕

I am so lucky to have known you and especially to have seen you recently in Mexico, where you were working and sharing love in Osho Gyan and Osho Gran Kustal, making Osho available for more new people, and bringing us together. To me it was a blessing to be with you then, and to hear and feel how deeply you learned about death, and letting go, through Praveeta, your beloved. Your tears flowed generously, as did your joy and playfulness and creativity. Your trust and yes was a gift to me to feel. I will never forget you, beloved. When I tune in to you I only sense gratitude and flying high – you have said yes – again, in that moment – and let go.

Maneesha McClure

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote using our contact form or writing directly to web@oshonews.com (pls add ‘Navaneet’ in the subject field).