meeting sadhus and sadhavis

feeding the monkeys

the 130 year old maharaj

sooo cute....

As time goes by and I don’t write, usually cause its so cold in the evening, I go into my razai and blanket with hands safely below….
I spoke to Raghiv who is astrologer Vinays friend, who brings groups of foreigners to Kumbh and organizes spiritual yatras…so figure he must know something. He tells me that Akhadas are the recruiting grounds for the akhada…. Which are divisions which apparently had been set up thousands of years ago to defend the faith…. This has no relationship he say to shankaracharyas, so my attempt to make some sense of what happens at kumbh is still blank. He takes me to meet a 130 year old Maharaj, who he warns me, may or may not meet, may or may not talk…. He does, many stories of the Ramayan, with all nodding… then after an hour I say I want to ask a question,,,
Vedas say the whole world, everything we see is Brahma.. then is a dead body, when the atma has left also Brahma???
He coughs, and says he will answer the question tomorrow….. and also tells a story of how a king asked a sadhu a question and was asked to come tomorrow… but tomorrow never came…. Well I didn’t go back the next day cause it was raining and cold,and then there was kumbh to organize for but am planning to go on Monday. Good fun.
Next day talk to the manager at the guest house, SHakti who is a marvel at PR and knows just about everyone. I tell him I want to meet sadhavis, women sadhus, having seen a pix in a paper of female sadhus from Jhuna akhada smoking a chillum. He picks up the phone and dials Kusum, name is Bhagavati, who tells me she is going to be the security guard for her guru who is in the jhuna akhada and I can come with her…. And also I should meet her friend radha who is a sadhavi in laksman jhula, rishi kesh. I go over , and spend a few hours talking about akhadas, sadhus… she tells me that sannyas is only when you have spent 12 years training in bhramachari, and then when you have no more karma, no more mental agitations…then you are eligible for sanyaas and a special havan to make you one….
I tell her I will take a taxi to hardwar, and she says she will come… She has a pass for the Avahan akhada, which lets her into the security…so am thrilled that there will be someones hand to catch…in the rush its absolutely necessary…
Have spent 4 hours trying to figure out how to cut the videos am shooting but no luck so far… still hoping to learn… but good footage, and am sure that will be able to do something when back in Mumbai…..