A Bala Yogi

 

The most mischievous Bala Yogi...a Naga....he didn't speak..just hums like a black bee .. continuously..I laughed that he is actually a black bee hovering over the divine flower to sip the nectar of self realisation...

A sole Buddhist among Hindu Babas

 

Bhola Rikiyasan, a sole Buddhist among hundreds of Hindu mendicants...he recently said to the group of saffron clad sadhus around him that all of you are not at peace and that's why you people are wandering around. An argument started, turned into a brawl and soon would have changed to a fist fight, from the side of Hindu friars who looked very spirited to defend their dharma. A Hindu mauni baba negotiated peace with his lovely presence. 

Rikiyasan is from Gaya, was a Shiva devotee for 26 years, felt stuck up on the  path and converted to Buddhism six years back. Maybe that's the reason the Hindu Babas dislike him. Religious conversion is a  serious issue in India. But look at the great syncretic tradition of India, he still has Bhola, Shiva's pet name, in his official name. Well, he is 75 -- I checked his ID to confirm it because he doesn't look 75. 'One meal a day and meditation to calm the mind are the reasons for it,' he says. He looked at peace and joyful about life. I saw a thick wad of money in his wallet. 'Just 10 rupee notes. Won't count for much!' he laughs. 'I'm collecting money for making a little Buddha shrine at my village,' he justifies his collection. Well, all of us are after money for our reasons and I have talked to hundreds of sadhus, most of them are after money to make ashrams and temples. Householders are after it for building houses and buying cars. I hardly see any qualitative difference between the two.

A couple of days ago he was bitten by a dog in the wee hours as he was walking in the street after taking a bath in Ma Ganga. A few hours later I found him standing desolate at his corner with his brass begging bowl. He had tied a strip of cloth at the wound...it was all bloody. A big bite. I hope his Hindu baba adversaries didn't set a dog after him. He said he will have to walk towards the other bridge, almost a kilometre away, because if he goes from here the auto would charge 50 rupees and from there it will be only 10 rupees. But he could hardly walk. I understood that he would delay his treatment because he was in pain and could barely walk. And one needs vaccination at the earliest after the bite. (Why would he still bother so much money even in such a situation? Well, I think baba or no baba, money is a big issue in the world. And like ordinary householders, Babas have every right to think that it's their hard earned money because they have to stand throughout the day to get alms). And He needed vaccination so I hired a scooty to take him to the government hospital, requesting the scooty guy to take him to the concerned block and guide him through the process. By this time he was in much pain and looked all ready to shed this miserable body. "If I die that would be good. This poor body will be shed!' he looked depressed, sad and sullen. 

And the next day I find him all freshened up with three anti rabies injections, one on his left chuttar (as he put it with a feeling of insult and pain) and one each on both arms. But the urge to live and be joyful and meditate had returned. He looked contended and at peace with life. I advised him to carry a stick... maybe that can help him in religious debates and brawls with Hindu Babas as well...

The mendicant with a dog

 

One hand supports the head like a loving pillow...the other fanning the dog to sleep. People got amused and laughed, thinking him to be a crazy baba. To be frank I also thought so. When I returned after a couple of hours, he was still fanning the dog to sleep with the same loving passion. I thought there must be something wrong with the dog otherwise why would it lie so still with closed eyes in broad daylight with hundreds of feet tapping the narrow street. So I sit down to chat. 'Maybe the dog is sick,' I ask. He laughs and points to a big food bowl, 'No Badal ate too much and who won't sleep with fan air and palm to support?' The dog's name is Badal. 'This also is Bhagwan's avatar. If you can't love a dog, how will you love humans, and if you can't love humans, how will you love God,' he elaborates his simple spiritual equation. He was offered to Joona Akshara at an early age. I ask him does he miss his parents sometimes. He cracks a big laugh, 'What a question! He is the biggest Mai Baap!' He brandishes his fan towards Lord Shiva's statue above us. I feel embarrassed. Yes he is under the protection of the biggest Baap!

A real Gau sevak

 

There are sadhus in front of an ashram that serves food in the morning daily. And there are cows also. The sadhus are having the routine sweet sour chit chat while having food. The cows are chewing cud, contended. There are drops of dung around. Then a cute rolly polly baba arrives, his presence silent and peaceful. He has a unique attire, a piece of sackcloth tied like ancient Romans, a wollen cap, and a piece of cloth on the bare shoulder. His left hand isn't visible. To be frank, I'm not sure about its status. It might be missing; it might be tied along his stomach in penance to take this worldly yatra with a single hand. I give fifty fifty chances to both probabilities. 

He has a lovely way of walking, a kind of spirited ease of a child. A trace of smile doesn't leave his face even for a single moment. He is a Mauni baba, so by default his tongue is restful, which in turn avoids unnecessary fuel to the chattering mind. There he comes and starts picking the cow dung with the joyful ease of a child playing on the beach. He uses his free hand to pick up cow dung and drop it into the garden across the street. The street is soon clean. In fact his lovely walk to and fro works like a cosmic broom to clean the air itself. 

There are gau rakshaks who take to violence in the name of holy cows. I would say most of them are people with violent tendencies and take shelter of the mother cow's name to hide their violence. Gau mata doesn't need rakshaks, she needs sevaks, like this lovely baba. 

The baba then cleans his hand under a tap, caresses the cows with the feel of a boy touching something precious. That's when the wagging tongues between the Hindu Babas and the Buddhist monk start the fireworks and before the tongues could handover the work to fists, the joyful mauni baba comes in between and dispels the heat just with his smile, silent nods and gentle wave of hand. It's a lovely feeling just to be present in the presence of someone who is at ease with himself.

Trickster on the banks of Maa Ganga

 

Mutterings from rishikesh: 

A woman ascetic with a brass kamandal tried to plunder money...she approached like a realised mother, all made up of course and asked for money.....she asked food for five of them. 'We are five matajis, so 20 rupees for food for each of us' she says. These are navaratra days, so I give her 100 rupees without bargaining...she probably thinks that I'm a sitting duck for cheating...meanwhile she took a thief's peek into my modest wallet as I took money to give her...I want to move but she puts her hand on my head... trying possibly to play some energy or magical trick ..sort of hypnotic meanouvre so that she could plunder more money...I have enough energies in my head...she starred shivering 😂..'Please take out two notes from your wallet. I take a vow in the name of Ma Ganga that I will give them back,' she says. And already she is tying a mauli dhaga on my wrist asking, 'Are you married?' I'm not interested in her queries about my matrimonial status. 

I don't have change in my wallet but since she has taken a vow in the name of Ganga Maa while standing on her banks, I give her two 500 rupees notes expecting her to return them...the moment the notes landed in her claws she folds them in her fist..the way she holds them makes it sure that they are in her greedy talons not to be returned. Now I realise the tales of thugs who take money and play the magic trick of making it disappear with the clap of a hand. 

I remember an incidence from early youth in the village. A street magician took 100 rupees from my friend and a clap and the money vanished. He had a lovely python and a flute to add to the charm of his street show. Now 100 rupees of those times were a big issue. So we manhandled him, his pagri fell. One guy was just ready to break his flute on his head. That's when the poor magician realised that Jatland isn't suitable for magic tricks. And the money comes out of his gullak. He holds the python's mouth, pries it open, puts his hand in and draws out the money. Imagine the smartness. Magic money goes into the python's mouth!!

'We will go to kedar with the money,' the female thief in saffron says. To me it's not about money. It's about taking a false vow in Ma Ganga's name. I don't know what Ganga Maa thinks of me but I feel I'm Her ardent devotee. I shamed the woman for being a liar, looting money in the name of Ma Ganga. I got really angry and in no nonsense terms asked her to return the money as promised. Somehow she hasn't been able to make the money vanish. Good that she hadn't a python with her. Somehow her trick of making the money vanish failed. Maa Ganga's blessings! 

She gives back one note, like I'm plundering her. I am firmly against such a shame sadhu...so I point my finger at her and asked her to return the other note as well. She is trying to make me feel ashamed for getting angry, for losing control of myself just about money. Why should I be. I'm not a saffron clad saint to be ashamed of my well deserved anger on cheats. With a broken heart she hands back the other note all crushed due to the pressure of her talons. ' I was just checking your manas for money,' she says as if I had failed her test of my desire for worldly things like 500 rupees notes. 

Then she tried to give me a Rudraksh bead. I told her I don't need anything from her. Neither her blessings, nor her bead. I don't want at least from those who tell lies in the name of taking vow of Ganga Maa. Had it been a male sadhu I would have snatched away even the hundred rupees. But these I left with her as a grace mark for her being a woman.

But Maa Ganga knows how to spin her lovely magic and change mutterings into musings.

I'm walking sullenly about cheats on the banks of Maa Ganga. But She is such a kind mother. She knows how to uplift the spirit of Her child. I'm walking in the crowd and suddenly see the autistic girl I wrote a story about...a few years back I saw her with her parents on the banks of Maa Ganga. She looked so unjustifiably deprived of her slice of joy among all that festival aura... and with tears in my eyes I prayed so sincerely for her during my entire stay at that time...and wrote a long story of blessings on her...she is a woman now...I had prayed for the faith and health of her parents so that they could help her in her journey for as long as possible because nobody can take care of a special child like her parents. And there I see them carrying her in a wheel chair in the busy bazaar...she looked healthy and beautiful...she is a young woman now...her parents in good spirits and healthy, happily carrying their responsibility... imagine out of thousands Maa Ganga presented them before me ..to let me know that She remembers my prayers of this family...