Fond farewell to Parmartha – and an appeal for help


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Anand Parmartha, who has edited Sannyas News for the past 18 years, died peacefully on July 20 at the age of 73. He had been ill for some months with cancer, which he bore with a wonderful stoicism.

A celebration of Parmartha’s life, with a final farewell, will take place at the St Marylebone Crematorium, East End Road, Finchley, London, N2 0RZ, at 12 noon on Wednesday, August 15. It will be followed from 1.45 pm by a reception at the Five Bells public house, which is about half a mile to the east on the same road.

You are requested not to bring flowers. Instead there will be a collection at the ceremony for Freedom from Torture, the charity for which Parmartha worked.

Please email sannyasnews@gmail.com if you plan to attend so that numbers can be assessed for catering.

Parmartha, born Clive Critchley, was a much-loved stalwart of the community of sannyasins and their friends in London, and a prime mover of their regular Saturday-morning gathering and meditation at the Queen’s Wood cafe, Muswell Hill. Through Sannyas News, he was also in contact with sannyasins across the world.

A full obituary by Pankaja can be found here.

Parmartha’s death leaves a serious gap on Sannyas News. He was the last survivor of the three friends who founded the site in 2000. Paritosh (Chris Grey), who wrote the books The Life of Osho and The Acid under the pen name Sam, died in 2009. Dharmen (Brian Hemmings) died in May last year after a long illness, leaving Sannyas News without its technical expert.

Regular readers will have noticed that the site has been less active for some time as a result of Parmartha’s illness, and earlier this year it went offline completely for a few weeks for lack of maintenance. Sadly, the disruption meant that his own news site was the last to report his death. Apologies for that.

Sannyas News will remain online for the time being but if it is to continue more people will have to get involved on a voluntary basis. Someone familiar with WordPress, or wishing to learn, would be particularly welcome. But we’d love to hear from anyone willing to put energy into the magazine in the form of ideas, articles and subediting. If you are interested please email sannyasnews@gmail.com

 

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20 Responses to Fond farewell to Parmartha – and an appeal for help

  1. anandrahul says:

    Parmartha’s Soul would have found the light for the work he has done by creating a platform like Sannyasnews.

    Many neo-sannyasins who have not been physically with Osho like me relish the stories found here and in a No- Holds-Bare-All manner. Not the wishy-washy scenery of the Bhaktas or devotee types.

  2. Prana says:

    I think Sannyas News can function like Osho News: people submit articles.

    The only difference is that here, comments are allowed.

    Punya of Osho News doesn’t write the articles. Sannyasins from all over the world contribute.

    Often Parmartha reposted important articles from Osho News and put them up for discussion. Or whenever something important happened in the world of sannyasins (usually these become known on Facebook). If people see something important happening they can just mention it in the Sannyas News Comments section.

    Maybe Sannyas News can declare open season on submissions, and the whole website can grow organically.

    From what I know of WordPress, it is very simple to use. You copy-paste the text, arrange the font a little, and you click ‘Publish’.
    When you want to publish a new article, you go to ‘New Post’ – copy/paste the text, insert photo if needed – then publish.
    If the text is written it takes about 5 minutes to do this.
    It doesn’t require any knowledge of coding or writing programmes.

    I would like to contribute an idea. I recently discovered a cool website. Swaram is doing interviews with a lot of interesting sannyasins. It is not my website but I think it is worth a mention:

    https://loveosho.com/podcast/

    • jitendra says:

      Sannyas News has always welcomed input from anyone but for legal and other reasons (there are some crazy people online) all contributions are seen by an editor before posting. Also someone has to pay the bills. They total less than £100 a year, which may seem a small matter, but they have to be kept track of. Sannyas News went offline for a few weeks because a hosting fee went unpaid after Dharmen died. For the same reason the sannyasnews.com domain lapsed, and was bought up by a US company for resale.

      Using WordPress as a contributor or editor is, as you point out, as easy as using a word processor. Configuring and maintaining it is not a task for technophobes, but neither is it very difficult. And it is a very useful and potentially remunerative skill to learn.

      The site at the moment, frankly, is a bit of a muddle – a casualty of Dharmen’s long illness. If you Google Sannyas News you might get any of four apparent home pages, including one that shows only a SannyasNews logo, and another using an older homepage template. The current home page, which is what you are on now, can be confused with the Caravanserai blog, to which anyone can contribute if they register.

      I’m having to learn WordPress as I go along and I don’t want to mess with all this right now. The site has landed on my lap by accident and I have neither the time nor the energy to maintain it. The current sub-editor cannot do it on his own. The sad fact is that Sannyas News is likely to be mothballed unless new people come forward to put some energy into it.

      • Prana says:

        Thanks for sharing all this.

        Just wait, and see what happens. Let go.
        Even if it stays inactive for a few months, it will pick up eventually.

        As a solution to financing, you can do the same as Osho News and sell advertising space on your website.

        See the advertisers list on the right hand side on this page:
        https://www.oshonews.com/2018/07/29/almost-ninety-nine-percent-of-the-future-is-already-there/

        If you just need the 100 quid needed to pay for keeping the website going, you could just have a banner on top or at the bottom. Rent that banner to a therapist or someone who wants advertising – problem is solved.

        If you want to sell more advertising space you will need to invest a little bit in a web designer.

        Making money on this website will also give you an incentive to actively become involved and look for people who will contribute with articles. And it will give you a nice extra source of income.

        It depends on which direction you want to take this website.

        Oshonews started slowly, and as the readership increased, Punya was able to sell more advertising space, and this kept her going and motivated. The more activity on the website, the more advertising, the more advertising, the more motivation to get involved and keep the website active.

        The reason I mentioned fixing this page http://www.sannyasnews.org/sannyasnews/

        I search sannyasnews with google and I usually visit this page.

        Many people might visit sannyasnews and not know what happened to the site, they just see the article about Vivek.

        MOD:
        As we said, the site is a bit of a mess at the moment. We suggest that you use http://www.sannyasnews.org/now to reach us. If you use it once, your browser should remember it.

  3. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Hi Jitendra, Satyadeva too – for some sparkles of info re the SN/UK situation.

    As I´m kind of stuck in my Munich home here-now for quite a long while and not able to give a word-press relaunch a start-off (fresh-as-fresh-can-be), I´ll nonetheless give a hello and a question from here today.

    The question what does it mean that a US company ´bought´ the website Sannyas News could be – maybe – answered here by some of the Londoner friends?

    I’ve already left my response of Gratefulness on Osho News who have published Parmartha´s obituary.

    Really love to hear now that some of you Friends of THIS are going to meet in August in London – and even more I loved that there is a Homage to (with donations for) planned IN that meeting for Parmartha´s social work re Freedom From Torture efforts and issues. That feels so right!

    I ll miss his Integrity and his stance in this our chatting caravanserai, although I feel it energetically present, as I said.

    Let´s see how the ´Leela´works out…

    Hope that message will get through.

    And special greetings to Satyadeva today – and may all else of you UN-knowables have a beautiful day.

    With Love,

    Madhu

    P.S:
    Well, let’s hope the ´we´ as moths are NOT ending in one of these STINKING mothballs, Jitendra…God forbid…there are indeed better places to fly into, arent there?

  4. swamishanti says:

    I sure will miss Parmartha & his excellent editorials and writings – and conversing with him here in the webzine he created.

    I remember getting leaflets sent to my house in the nineties, adverts for satsangs for Samdarshi, Maitreya and others, and I guess those came from him.
    Also a leaflet for ‘Life of Osho’ by Sam – which I ordered through Pari*.

    He gave us so much to read here at SN.

    Now he’s in heaven spending time with Dharmen, Pari & Osho – soon he’ll be blasting off in his spacecraft across the universe…

    Love.

    Swamishanti

    MOD:
    *Pari is/was Sam!

  5. sw. veet (francesco) says:

    Thank you, Parmartha.

    I’m writing with a mobile, after September I’ll use the pc again. Now that i have a job I would like to give my material contribution to see sannyasnews runs again.

    Big hug from Venice.

  6. Kavita says:

    Jitendra,
    It was very sad for me to hear about Parmatha. Even though we didn’t meet/know each other personally there was warmth always, despite being just virtual; for most of us regulars here Sannyasnews has become an extended commune.

    I somehow feel & think we are all having our hands full, some with prior commitments and some to commitment to non-commitment.

    As you mentioned, “Sannyas News went offline for a few weeks because a hosting fee went unpaid after Dharmen died. For the same reason the sannyasnews.com domain lapsed and was bought up by a US company for resale.” Is it possible to know who these American sannyasins are? Maybe they can help the original SN to retain the originality of an OPEN DISCUSSION format on their SN website?

    Now it seems SN too will evolve. Wish you and all others who contribute here all the luck to get SN back on the tracks.

    MOD:
    Kavita, the company who bought the domain is a commercial enterprise seeking to profit by reselling it.

  7. Bong says:

    All is well in New Zealand. I know WordPress a little. So nice to breathe freely again.

    NO MOTHBALLS, PLEASE.

  8. Dev says:

    “MOD:
    Kavita, the company who bought the domain is a commercial enterprise seeking to profit by reselling it.”

    Please read this:

    https://uk.godaddy.com/help/how-to-gain-access-to-domainsaccounts-after-owners-death-8356

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=943089

    https://www.namepros.com/threads/domain-transfer-after-owners-death.520400/

    That’s daylight robbery.
    If a web domain expires, the person (or website) who previously owned the domain should have precedence if he wants to continue to use that domain.

    It’s not like anybody can snatch it up, just because it expired for a few weeks.

    What registrar did you use?

    I’m sure somebody’s death is a special circumstance. Maybe you can appeal to reclaim it.

    If not, sannyasnews.org should be just fine.

    • jitendra says:

      There’s a grace period for renewals, which expired because of Dharmen’s death. We managed to catch the .org domain in time. We haven’t tried to buy back the .com address because we do not know what is happening with the site. We certainly won’t pay through the nose for it.

  9. shantam prem says:

    http://www.sannyasnews.org is a legacy of Parmartha and Dharmen.
    Many of us have participated actively into fuelling its presence.

    It is not a work but a playful job that it continues with the same spirit.

    If given any job, I will accept it, if there is an annual fund raising, I wish to contribute also.

    Let us presume someone else has the domain name http://www.sannyasnews.com. So what? Nobody will dare to compete with the original for the reason it has no business scope. Neither editor was making any money, nor sannyasin journalists like me.

    So show must go on. Curtain must not fall and storyline remains the same.

  10. chetna says:

    Goodbye, beautiful soul. So many problems with the physical body but untouched by its pain and misery. Cheerful, loving, devoted to Osho. I will miss you and what you have given to sannyas community. Fly high!

    With much love,

    Chetna

  11. samarpan says:

    Sannyasnews had a good run. No one seems to be jumping at the opportunity to keep it going. Maybe just a fond and dignified farewell is in order, letting it go the way of big P.

    Thank you, Parmartha, for your balance, your gentleness, your intelligence.

    MOD:
    Samarpan, these are still very early days. Sannyasnews will continue, as was Parmartha’s firmly stated wish, even if at first only via the Caravanserai pages, which remained open throughout the period of Parmartha’s incapacity and which contain a few items that otherwise would have been featured articles.

    • satchit says:

      “MOD:
      Samarpan, these are still very early days. Sannyasnews will continue, as was Parmartha’s firmly stated wish, even if at first only via the Caravanserai pages, which remained open throughout the period of Parmartha’s incapacity and which contain a few items that otherwise would have been featured articles.”

      Sannyasnews is basically a site from UK.
      If it wants to continue then it needs energy from guys from UK.
      Master of words, like Lokesh or Arpana.

  12. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Hi Samarpan,

    ´Mind-no-mind the gap´, I´d say; it´s a dignifying one, I´d suggest.

    As Sannyas News (and the especially ´runs´ on our Caravanserai also) could well need a dignifying Gap.

    Honouring the Integrity, the Balance, the Gentleness and the Intelligence of Heart of its very founders by former regulars as well as newcomers.

    And by giving space to that, the possibility of feeling same treasures in ourselves: How else could that BE?

    Sunday morning, Samarpan, loved to see your name on our viral caravanserai (screen) here after giving parts of the courtyard plants outdoors a cool shower and after having had a listening to Shastro´s and Chinmaya´s ‘Meeting by The Bamboos’ which I recommend as support to all and everyone who could or likes to give such a call (either via Osho News, June 6th this year or also available via youtube).

    There & then- at 13´, I´m celebrating these last weeks with the help of these musicians & Sannyas Friends – a Gap – and that is when capturing the very moment when these two friends and musicians hold hands after playing.

    So very beautiful, I cannot say…

    How do you, Samarpan – or others here – celebrate a Gap?

    Madhu

    P.S:
    Thanks, MODs.

  13. Dharma says:

    Personally, dear Jitendra, I love the attitude you have, especially your humbleness, lack of ambition, lack of ego – so I would say you are the perfect person to carry the torch and continue this website.

    Your lack of ambition is a good sign.

    Please don’t let any egomaniac take over.

    It is fairly simple to learn how to use this website, you will learn as you go along.

    MOD:
    As he’s explained, Jitendra is far too busy with his own projects to consider running SN.
    But yes, Dharma, the qualities you mention would be ideal, and SN will definitely not be run by any agenda-driven person or group.

    ———

    Dharma also writes::

    I found an interesting article at oshonews.com, written by Mark, regarding group-think and personal responsibility at the Ranch:
    https://www.oshonews.com/2018/08/05/wild-wild-rajneeshpuram-a-collective-responsibility/

    Marc’s bio is here:
    https://www.oshonews.com/about-2/contributors/#marc

  14. samarpan says:

    Thanks, Madhu.

    Enjoyment of the gap for me has been with poetry, music (listening and playing), friends, travel, family, dance, fasting, and a lot of guided relaxation with Maneesha’s Osho Bardo Meditation Support for Living and Dying CD.

    I am preparing to follow Parmartha, you know, just in case death wants to dance…. :)

    OSHO Bardo: Right-Mindfulness In Living & Dying
    https://oshosammasati.org/products/osho-bardo/

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