Updated 3 months ago
June 2, 1983 – November 14, 2015
Mayur was a Sadhu who died tragically young.
It has taken me several years to write this – I was devastated by all the lost years, lost opportunity and promise. I felt dead inside just thinking about what his poor parents went through. But with the passing of Stefan, I realized I had to step up to the plate and do my duties.
I first met Mayur hanging out with Charlie in the rave scene in the early 2000s. Even with a ball cap on and an athletic outfit, he looked out of place. I remember telling him, “You are in the wrong place my friend. This is darkness. I have something beautiful to show you.” I got him to come to trance parties, where he was a natural fit, being a Sadhu. He did have a chuckle at dudes wearing bindhis.
Although he came in a bit after the peak of the New York trance movement, and by the time I met him I was a withering husk from too many all-nighters over the years, he adapted and fit in quickly.
Mayur strengthened the local scene, greatly infusing it with his mere presence and enthusiasm. He was always entrepreneurial and busy.
He got into DJing, and grew to love minimal trance, which seemed to me a bit ironic, given the base music was Goa Trance, which came from India. Even today I would kill to get his CD collection.
In 2002 he sent me this:
hey jeff,wats up?? happy new years man!! its mayoora, in india, ill be bak soon..dude i jus saw goa gill play in GOA!! one of his 15 hr sets, for a 100 rupees, 2 american dollars!!!!! he remembers nyc, you and timothy!! new years was awesum, goa trance doesnt exist outside goa, especially on new years, it was rockin… i miss nyc, and i cant wait to get bak.. plz post this on brainmachines..luve-mayur
As would be typical for one of Sadhu descent Mayur had a grace that transcended his age. And he was an alpha male. Although he was very short and very brown, he dated a tall beautiful white model.
He became an expert in marijuana and took it seriously. Even when starting out, with very little possessions in his apartment, he had all the latest issues of High Times on his shelf adorned with all the latest pipes and such like a little shrine.
We had several years of amazing times. He traveled often, going to parties everywhere, such as Tulum in Mexico, where he had many adventures.
One night en route to Jeff’s in Pennsylvania, where it was so clear he and Kati played me these songs in her car. I laughed when he said the first song was from Zelda. Too young to know Dr. Who, I guess.
Once we arrived at Jeff’s land in Pennsylvania, I was amazed. Stars, everywhere. So many stars that I could not for the life of me understand how the sky could contain them all yet be so black.
Back in the city, I remember mornings after, where he, Stefan and I would be up at 9am doing lines and lines of his coke at his apartment in the East Village, and I marveled that we were “living the life.”
His girlfriend at the time, a nice Jewish girl rolled her eyes and flatly asked me, penetratingly, “Oh please. And exactly what life is that?”
I had no idea both of them, smart and streetwise, would enjoy great successes, yet die young.
Here is Mayur DJing in 2010:
From 2010: “Mayur (Psybotik/Spectra/Coalesce/Teknofeelya) DJ, academic, and global neuronaut, Mayur has been dedicated to the NYC underground for several years. Opening for such acts as Atmos in Japan, Son Kite in Morocco, and headlining with acts such as Dijital Talk in San Francisco; there seem there’s no place Mayur hasn’t been! Starting about a decade ago with Spectra Productions, Mayur has since then focused his valiant efforts organizing exceptional events with Psybotik. So far this year has had a barrage of dance throbbing sets coming to you almost every weekend if you’re lucky.”
Mayur eventually (inevitably?) gravitated to Northern California and worked with a marijuana dispensary going to trade shows. What a perfect gig for Mayur, I thought. Life was good.
At some point, he was back visiting in New York in 2015, and on November 14 crashed on a couch at Ethan’s house downstairs, and never woke up.
I had no idea he had begun experimenting with heroin. I had always expected him to become an old wise man in a cave somewhere in the Himalayas.
I sometimes ask myself, would he be alive today had I not asked him so many years ago to come into the trance scene? Then I think of the great times and wonderful people that he met along the way, and that the heroin came in from the outside, and have thought no more of it.
Mayur was always very generous with everyone. If reincarnation was real, I’d like to believe he’d be near the last stages. But his soul would still have to learn to navigate whatever pain he was trying cover with opiates.
He also said that he had no intention of growing old, that he believed in the destructive force of Kali, and that the universe tended towards chaos.
I would like to believe that Mayur’s final gift to us was wisdom.
The wisdom to avoid heroin at all costs, and to be violently, uncompromisingly vigilant against its use and presence.
And wisdom to cherish every day as a miracle.
I am the beginning, middle, and end of creation.
Among animals I am the lion; among birds, the eagle Garuda.
I am Prahlada, born among the demons, and of all that measures, I am time.
I am death, which overcomes all, and the source of all beings still to be born.
Just remember that I am, and that I support the entire cosmos with only a fragment of my being.
PSA
