Whew! It's over! I'm
really exhausted, but happy!
For the next couple of days I
hung out in Ram Puri's room in the akhara, and visited some sadhu
dhunis with Mangalanada.
One of the best dhunis is that of
Swami Shankar Giri, an irascible old ascetic, who usually lives near
Manali. Shankar Giri is respected among the Babas, the
cognoscenti consider him to be the real McCoy. Over the evening
at his dhuni, quite a few people gathered, both sadhus and
civilians. Many dudes, no doubt, came to puff on the chillums,
and get the Baba's blessing, sealed with his thumb dipped in the ashes
of the dhuni, and then pressed onto the forehead, Many pilgrims,
whole families, came to take his blessing, a Tamil refugee from Sri
Lanka was there, almost not believing what he was seeing.
The supplicants offered the Baba
some rupees, fruits, boxes of sweetmeats, or a piece of charas.
Baba Shankar Giri spoke to each person, listened to their stories, and
offered advice if required. He was very happy to see Mangalananda
and Ram Puri, asking them to sit close to him, and again listening with
attention to their stories.
He played with the children.
His confabulations were
interrupted from time to time with a fiercely shouted chillum
mantra. I don't understand Hindi, but I'm told that his rustic
speech is liberally peppered with obscenities. Nobody takes
offense. Even Sri Ramakrishna was known for speaking
coarsely. The evening at Shankar Giri's dhuni ended with a
rousing puja which everybody chanted, while lights were waved and
Shankar Giriji twirled a snare drum, the damaru of Lord Shiva.
After that, a delicious dinner was
served, consisting of a spicy curry made from mustard greens and
country-style breads (roti) made with cornmeal. Then there was
tea and some of the donated sweets.
That
evening a nice thing happened. While i was sitting in my room I
heard a commotion, and the blowing of conchs, and ringing of
bells. I looked out and saw an Indian family - a mom and pop, a
daughter and two sons - engaged in performing a puja to Mother
Ganga. The little temple was opened, inside there were flower,
sweets and other offerings. A hotel employee held a cassette
player playing the song to the Ganga which is sung on these occasions.
The mother invited me to join them, which I did, and so I was
able to perform this ritual, which I have actually never done, of
propitiating Mother Ganga, throwing flowers at her, pouring milk and
popping sweets into her mouth. At the end we all floated leaf
saucers with flowers and a burning light down the river. It's a
very tender and evocative action.
When I
woke up early the next morning, I turned on the TV and saw that
thousands of people were already bathing at Hari-ki-pauri.
I got a phone-call from
Mangalananda that the Juna akhara jaloos would depart around 10, and
they would not march around the city as I expected, but march more or
less directly to the bathing ghat. Change of plans. I
decided to take my bath first and then go over to the akhara to watch
the preparations for the march. So I got myself together, and
went down to the ghat. The River had definitely risen by about
two steps from where it usually flows. One would like to think
that this was because of all the pious bodies plunging into the water,
but actually the dams above Hardwar has been opened to accommodate the
pilgrims. The current was also faster. It was pitch dark,
and i couldn't really read out my text right at the ghat, even with a
torch (flashlight), so after initially dipping my hand and sipping the
Ganga water, I sat in the doorway of my room so to catch enough light
for reading. Basically what the text says is that, by the command
of Lord Narayana, during this cosmic era (kalpa), under the reign of
the umpteenth Manu, in the Kali Yuga, this year and day, I so and so,
of such and such a clan (gotra), in the presence of the major gods, and
the 33 gazillion other gods, in order to wipe away my sins of the sense
organs and the organs of knowledge, such as greed, sloth, ignorance,
etc., etc., incurred from birth to this moment, I resolve to take a
ritual bath (snan) at this location on Bharata Varsha (ancient land of
India), in the following river. Then you pray that the water you
bathe in becomes a sacred bathing place combining the seven sacred
rivers - Ganga Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindu, and
Kaveri. Then I went down in the river and plunged
myself head and all into the freezing water. Your supposed to do
this several times, many times, but I could only manage one full
dip. I had taken the bath here from this ghat 12 years ago, but
it was later in the year (April) and on a sunny day. I have very
fond memories of that dip. This was another matter. But I
did it as best I could. When I got back to my room, I was able to
pour a bucket of hot water from the hotel over me. That helped
get over the shock. Then, when I warmed up a bit, and had a cup
of coffee, I ran over to the Akhara. It was just getting light by
then, and the street was full of people moving in the direction of
Hari-ki-pauri. I was able to insinuate myself past police
barriers and check-posts into the Akhara compound, and spent
several hours watching the gathering of mostly naked Babas, Not
really naked - clad in ashes. I'm not going to describe all the
things that went down there. The Babas, the devotees, everybody
was in very high spirits, the Babas most, and it took a lot of
persuasion to get them to act in a fashion orderly enough for the
principle sadhus of the akhara to pass and proceed to their chariots.
I was also invited by Ram .Puri to
come in a chariot of some mahamandaleshwar to the bathing place, but
since I have a gimpy leg from an ancient trekking accident and need to
wear an orthopedic insert in one shoe, I felt I couldn't really attempt
that barefoot journey, even if in a chariot much of the
time. And I wanted to perform the bath with the recitation in
relative calm.
After the
the important mahantas and sadhus, including Ram Puri and Mangalananda
marched out of the compound, a portable shrine, which travels
everywhere with the akhara (it contains an image or some relics of
Dattatreya, the primary and primeval Guru of the sadhus), was lifted up
and carried out the compound. Then the naked Babas departed in
their usual raucous fashion. Towards the end of the departure a
group of Mais (female sadhus of the akhara) appeared and joined the
parade. This is a rare sight, one ever hardly sees these women in
public, and they generally don't appear naked, like the men. For
obvious reasons.
The Babas
departed and I walked back to the Ganga Sagar. I practically
collapsed on my bed ans slept for 3-4 hours. When I awoke and
took stock of myself I realized that I felt somehow augmented by having
taken the bath. I felt somehow fuller and more whole than I had
before the experience. I felt that my aura, if i can use that
concept, was more palpable, and it had a greater range, so to
speak. I still feel that.
One way or the other it was a
positive experience, probably in more ways than I can conceive.
Whatever hardships there were don't really matter. As far as the
sins and their removal goes, what can I say? I'm going to need
another bath pretty soon. But it always feels good to scrape some
barnacles of the old hull...
Love
& pranams, Billy
