Allahabad, Jan 22
It was 38 years ago that Baba Rampuri, as this once Beverly Hills
resident is now called, set out from Los Angeles in search of truth
and peace. He was just 18 then. He has been at each Kumbh and Ardh
Kumbh since 1971, and the son of an American dental surgeon turned
Hindu ascetic says the English dictionary "does not have a word to
describe the bliss I experience each time I am here".
His first halt was an ashram in Rajasthan, from where his guru took
him to Haridwar, one of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage centers on the
bank of the Ganga, where he found his new home. By the time he was
20, he made up his mind to give up all worldly pleasures, including
the company of the rich and the famous, to step into a contrasting
world where abstinence was the buzzword.
The saffron clad 56-year-old - who refuses to give his original
American name - is now camping on the banks of the holy river here,
taking part in the 42-day-long Ardh Kumbh - the every six-year
religious cornucopia during which millions take dip in the Sangam,
the confluence of three rivers sacred to Hindus, in the hope of
gaining salvation from what the faithful believe the unending cycle
of births and deaths.
"A dip at the Sangam during the Kumbh Mela gives me more pleasure
that one could get in a football match," Baba Rampuri told IANS,
taking a few puffs of the 'chillam' which he describes as "part of
the tradition".
"I did go back to LA after my first visit here in 1968 but decided
to return to India in 1971 once and for all ... and that too with
just $20 in my pocket."
Baba Rampuri was formally initiated into the world of Hindu ascetic
life 36 years ago on these very banks of the Sangam. He was among
the first few whites to find a privileged place in the Juna Akhara,
which is considered the oldest of India's nine Hindu akharas, or
religious orders.
"Yes, I have had my share of sex, drugs and even political activism,
but that is all history," he says.
There are many foreigners like Baba Rampuri, including women, who
have left their homes in far away continents and have become Hindu
sadhus. Most of them prefer not to reveal their original names.
Says Jasraj Puri, an Australian who became a sadhu: "My original
name was washed down in the waters of the Ganga and got immersed in
the Bay of Bengal 15 years ago when I joined the ashram of Swami
Maheshwaranand, who went from India decades ago to set up base in
Vienna."
The 35-year-old former physiotherapist has picked up reasonably good
Hindi as well and currently heads an ashram-cum-school run by his
guru Maheshwaranand in Rajasthan.
The polluted waters of the Ganga don't discourage him from a daily
dip. "The Ganga is spiritually so pure that pollution and even
visible dirt becomes secondary and immaterial," explains Puri to
IANS.
Similarly, Ganga, 45, arrived here from her home in Britain nearly
10 years ago. "I propose to spend the rest of my life in the Maha
Nirvani Akhara," she said.
While camping at the Ardh Kumbh, Ganga makes it a point to take a
dip in the Sangam every morning. "But it was a different experience
on Mauni Amavasya (Jan 19), the holiest of the holy bathing days,"
she said after stepping out of the water in which an estimated ten
million took a hallowed dip that day.
Hindu spirituality continues to attract youth from various
countries. Verena, 25, is a first-time visitor to the Kumbh from
Germany and is so overwhelmed by the spiritual rituals here that she
wouldn't mind settling down as a disciple in the Juna Akhara.
And 24-year-old Dase, another Kumbh first-timer from Latvia, is only
too keen to give her company.
Susan, who has come from the US, is still debating whether she
should abandon her filmmaking career in California and settle down
to a saffron life of Hindu renunciates.
"I will go back at the end of the Kumbh Mela but I might be back
soon. The divinity I have tasted here has been an unparalleled
experience, which I cannot describe in words," said Susan.
The list is endless. Besides the over 450 foreigners in the
Maheshwaranand camp, the Juna and Maha Nirvani Akharas too boast of
nearly 250 people belonging from 17 countries who have chosen to
embrace the Hindu spiritual path.
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