from the 12th onwards till 21st- pitra puja, hardwar, sadhaviss etc

Decided to do the pitra puja which is a prayer and offering for all dead ancestors...almost like we still remember you and giving you offerings for your existence wherever it is... the day being amavasya was an auspicious day as told to us by an astrolger so radhaji, a sadhavi did it...these are the sari towles fruit grain offerings

Nanis pix in the pind thali

pind is made of wheat and milk, and dipped into black til and whole wheat grain.. apuja is done with offerings to ancestors and gods and then the pinds offered to the Ganga and the sari etc given away

Me walking in the mountains... before sasha says mom some pix of you

these are 2 naga sadhus who were initiated the day before... theone on the left is japanese, and he has been in Tibet and India for 3 years doing seva in the ashrams cutting veggies and washing.... now he is getting into the juna akhada... we saw his teacher driving a jeep... a thin fiery man with energy,,,... wow

this is a lativian couple... at theor reception at the old gurus... they are dressed as radha and krishna and go through various poses of the two ... they got married indian style on shivratri night,,, have their story in video... the sweetest couple

their guru, the 118 year old saint from nilaki (or something like that) akhada... he is answering a question i asked about bhrama and atman...long shpeel on tape... i think i understood 10 percent......

thisis bhagawati.. a sadhavi of juna akhada... she is australian and was with Osho for 7 years... now is part of a tradition, t

"time and tested" way of doing sadhana, and not experimental... as Osho is...got a interview ont ape too

SHakti the manager at the guest house has been taking me for rides on his motorcycle.... this place is amazing cause there are literally hundreds of places which you can drive too and each has a story and are usually high in the mountain where you have to trek up... went to a shakti peeth (where peices of satis body fell on earth );;up on a hill had to walk 350 steps..

was in hardwar ..and we went to pilot baba camp... he is into having lot of art around .. an ex pilot thats why hes called pilot baba

the entrance of pilot babas camp.. he has an enlightened japanese woman giving darshan also

thisi s 24 hours havaon at soham babas place which will go on alll through the 4 konths of kumbh... amazing fragrance of herbs, and chanting going on

SOham bab giving darshan.... cant be photographer and interviewer at same time, was so into photgraphy that i forgot that i could have asked him for an interview... anyway.... hes qute approachable asked me where i had come from, and is generally smiling away... indian but settled in Holland.

WHoo... another hour passed.... am leaving on tuesday to delhi and to mumbai on wednesday...want to edit the videos and to make a short quick cut, which lets see if we can get cash to do a documentary...also want to meet sis Rima before she goes tot he states for 3 months..so thursday will be in mumbai, if ashi books my tatkal ticket tom

those following in the procession

Is anyone other than Sasha reading this blog? If so do write in a comment....
These are some more random images of the procession... the longest and biggest is of the Juna akhada.......... here is a naga baba on a donkey or something like that... I dont know if i have mentioned it before but there is something special about the naga babas, and they are the ones who have totaly turned their back onto social convention and norms so that there is a fire in their eyes ... i did not talk to anyone, find that i am generally quite shy in these circumstances and not going and talking to anyone ... mainly what do i ask them? or anyone for that matter? One knows that they are going through sadhana of different kinds.... chanting, yoga, meditation, doing some act or the other for centuries (like the guy who has been holding up his hand for 10 years... cant at all figure out things like this at all...but they are there...standing for 10 years or whatever... i guess it removes all other aims from your mind.... i am keeping my hand up for ten years... yeh.... i shalla cheive godhood or pece or something doing this... well i dont wanto even think about it or try... but tomorrow (ie. 19th) shall be going to hardwar with a 25 year old Phd student from BHU, a devotee of Radha and shall hopefully use him to interview).....

they came on top of vans, tractors, bullock carts.... i think this is avdeshanand mahamandaleshwar juna akhada... two women have been appointed in senior positions here creating news ... saw them in the procession...

this is shoham baba... indian but i beleive settled in holland... the more traditional see him as fake baba, cause he has a massive foreign following plus he talk about global warming and planting trees.... however for me something clicked... especially after meeting all these babas and sadhavis who are shutting themslves in rooms and only doing sadhana ... and who are obsessed with cant eat from outside, cant give hug, energy diminishes etc...Something clicked. Finally.
I was happy to see the Naga baba, to see Sohams group and Pilot baba. They are infusing a much needed element into spirituality, and one based in our traditions,
Vedanta was always one with nature, and Sohams devotees handing out a tree sapling was very much in our tradition, where one of the deeds which are mentioned that must be done is plant trees. And look after waters…. What have we done with looking after our rivers…and this is being done in a country which is filled with Hindus…… how stong is their belief that they believe the ganga is pure when even at hardwar the pollution levels are not tolerable.
These are matters that our spiritual leaders should be telling the masses about. Ramdeo is taking yoga to the villages, Swami Vasudev has had his followers plant and look after over a million trees. He also has started rural Olympics and has sports at the village training for the competition.
Also athe arts and crafts. The integration of spirituality and art….. the magnificent temples and paintings, the dance and singing that occurred…… there were temple dances gone ffrom the temple and to a performance stage……

people carrying posters of pilot baba and soham ;both from juna akhada.... traditionalists dont like pilot baba also... again cause he has a lovely setup here , foreign architects having constructed a dome, and integrates music, and art... will be going to see thm hopefully tomorrow

one more baba

lion and dancers of soham baba

the marriage bands playing before each baba... the bands carry their names sometimes bigger than the babas names and its trumpets etc.... cant understand why marriage bands....

this very active girl woman was telling everyone to shout bholenath... bol bol hiv om... she reminded me of cousin mala....

dancers of Soham processsion

vivekanand[uri juna akhad... again all these names may be wrong.... but me thinks that thisi s enough on the procession theough there is many more sants coming behind...

however except for the naga babas and the juna akhada and a little of avahan akhada, there is not much activity and there is like just people walking... someone said that they actually got peole to walk with them since there were no devotees... then came empty chairs on top of some vehicle or the other..... babs who did not come ?

Various sants are there.... like ramdeo, asaram baba, i think also sri sri but they arenot part of the procession.... maybe this is only for akhada and gurus from those akhadas?????

THE NAGA SADHUS PROCESSION

Oh well I did it wrong.... the begining of the procession has come as the lst pix... and this going into the procession after the naga sadhus have done their dance etc... the naga sadhus are the highlight and the begining of the procession....

I am writing this ont he 17th and am writing about the 12th.... must bring this up to date... am taking many videoas, so before i can upload anything, i have to make photos from the video... and that takes so much time... plus its cold, and up unde rthe razai rather than be on the comp...

Morings there is such a strong cold breeze outside that you can barely go out till 10.00 or so when it stops... we are on the other side of the mountain so the sun does not come till around 1030... am sitting with jacket, head wool scarf, and socks... oh well

These are sants from the various akhadas... from what I understand there are 8 akhadas which were set up by shankaracharyas, and the naga sadhus are basically the warriers who have no fear of anything... they each carry some weapon, and can belong to any akhada but the maximum are witht he Juna Akhada. Each akhada has its own gurus those who speak and who are the ones who do sadhana and supposedly get enlightened or at least their senses under control. There are no elephants at all in this kumbh... only trucks with the sadhus sitting on top....i guess elephants would be impossiblei nt he rush that is there...

THe crowds at kumbh are increasing each time... and it is a big crush especially witht he ropes keeping us in...and people are squeezing in behind wanting to move... or leave or go to sahi snan place... the place of the bathing has been totally cleared when the sadhus come in for their snan.... we were at the begining of the procession and did not go to the place where the snan was ...the crowds were too much...

various sants....pretty sombre guys they look like...

this is how the procession looked like ...devotees in front with flags you can see the "Chariot" at the back behind the poster,,,, all of them have marriage bands...mentioned earlier... funny to have there trumpets etc with jai bholenath being continuously shouted ....

each group is announced with a banner like this.. this is of Swami Somnath Giriji Maharaj of Juna Akhada...i guess one of the sants above is him...

The next pictures are of the procession of Nana sadhus of the jhuna akhada... this goes on for quite some time there must be thousands of them...one group danced and played witht heir weapons in a wil d fury of shouting and screamin and the effect of them moving so fast, with their sticks moving all around (reminding me of fire dancing at the techno parties except these sadhus were much much better at it)....

wish i could load up the videos...but you can get a feel of the dancing i hope in these pix....

more on the procession in the next blog....

gosh it says saving and publishing may fail.... have to keep this shorter so dont get cut off connectivity...

before the kumbh procession -

this is what the street looked like before the procession was due to begin... there are there must be over 100000000 people here watching this event, on both sides of the long road, on every floor and terrace of thehouses lining the road..... and there is perpetual shouts of bhom bhom bolay bhol, jai bhole nath music cymbals, insence, and the cops.... the road is absolutely clear, with cops all around

one team of photographers walking down the street... and there are many of them...all with ptofessional digicams... is that a tripod in his hand....

A sadhu from an akhad to join after the jhuna akhada..who always lead the procession organising the group... there are lots of bands around,,, each group has this wedding band.... strange.... frankly i dont remember what music they played ...hope fully captured in the video...all these are images from videa and the effect of the sound going on and the movement really brings it to life...

a man dancing away going round and round with this kumbh on his head and beating the what do you call it, cymbals??? all throughout... i like his smile which is always there....

before the procession 4 cops on 4 horses come down the road...big horses...and they walk next to the rope tying people in.... so people outside the rope duck in...the horses are big

the line of cops which follow the horses.... this mix of sadhus and security...... its like no other kumbh i would imagine,,,

Cops tying the crowds on the side in with ropes....the lady in front was laughing away and everyone was helping the cops....

and the first glimpse of what is to come, the begining of the procession witht he juna akhada naga sadhus smeared in ash covered with flowers, holding trishuls, and sticks...

the highlights of the naga procession in next blog.....

shivratri kumbh and the nagaa sadhus

I have finally mastered how to do the blog with pix..... yeh....
we left laxman jhula at 7 first doing arati at the big shiv temple on the other side of the river. Bhagawati has left by bus cause she had a call saying she had to be there at 730 since the shahi snan had be moved to 830.
We drive through the Rajaji National PArk, I see only a peacock and 2 tied up elephants. In Hardwar, there are crowds crowds crowds everywhere. We manage to get to the last parking lot, whilst all the way people are bending to fold their hands to Radhaji, who is folding her hands to everyone. We have been alowed in because Radhaji has said that she is fomAvahan Akhada, has a pass, so they let us threw one barrier after the other..no vehicles allowed.

We pass many many people getting ready for the procession... this one is of SOham Baba or is Pilot Baba... they are carrying signs against global warming and carrying trees and telling people to plant and look after trees. MAny foreigners... Swamis pix in the background

We walk into a camp for the Avahan akhad and we walk into the enclave of the Naga Sadhus of Juna Akhada. There are fires lit everywhere, it is cold, and naga sadhus smeared with ash are everywhere. There is tent after tent affter tent, and groups of naga sadhus just hanging around. It is not uncomfortable, and there is a relaxation and comfort all around......

We go to this tent, where Radha is known, he calls her in, he is sitting on a bed, surrounded by about ten naga sadhus.... who have just handed him the chillum. He smokes, passes it on, and then I too take a puff, getting stoned immediatly...

they all wear flowers, and the ash on their face adds to their annonymity...

This guy was dancing away....

some more.....

This is a place where noone is allowed in... but we saw quite a few strolling around, taking pictures. But the procession is to start and there is movement and find our way out....

So much happened that day that am splitting the blog ... I have to go to each video and there are heaps more....and find a pix then go onto movie maker, make a snap and save it in a file i have to find...then upload it.... enough work for a day ... so the procession.... of sadhus..... beats the republic day for sure....

brazilan master

arati at ganga

radhaji - a sadhavi

10/11 feb
My table is a mess with wires all around… phone charger, camera charger, comp chareger… and various wires all around… cannot think of putting it up again in rishikesh…
Been having ayurvedic massage … will be the third time today… am going to have it daily for next ten days and lets see if varicose veins decrease.
Am still trying to catch up with the past updates, so can come to the kumbh procession…. The videos are good fun…. But cant use movie maker, and anyway the cyber café does not allow uploads or downloads… so guess will have to wait till Mumbai. One day I went into Premhis satsang… it landed up being a Brazilian master who spokje in brazillian…. There was nice singing of kirtans with live guitar and the participation of the people was quit amazing… after that he had a question answer session… with his Brazilian being transalated into English. Mainly questions about dealing with life, and ofcourse sexuality.
Then there was Radhaji, who spoke on a whole range of topics…. I will need to transcribe these … am sad I cant put it up, but that’s life.
There is an arati done on the ghat near the room by the Somani temple people… small and personal and I go in the evening and do a personal not group arati .. rohit has been doing it too… its nice, being part of a small group which is not related to tourists…
Am planning programme… yesterday was Lalitas one month … amazinghow time flies. Swami has got his transfer to Pune… amazingly fast… plan to leave for delhi around 26th, then go to Bhopla. Plan ato be back in Mumbai around first week of march…. Plan made to be able to meet rima but now it seems she may leave earlier for Athena….
Am writing this 14th… rohit left on 12th morning, and called to say his ticket is confirmed…. So he will be back on 14th to Mumbai.

the brazilian master premji