It's sunrise in Rishikesh, and hundreds of sadhus emerge from their ashrams and huts into the crisp air for their early morning bath in the cold, rushing Ganga. This small North Indian town at the gateway to the Himalayas and on the banks of Hinduism's most sacred river is famous throughout the world as an enclave of illustrious saints and sages. Hundreds of prestigious ashrams and dharmasalas dot the river valley.
But nearby, ensconced along the edge of the nearly impenetrable pine forests and rugged terrain, live a myriad of virtually unknown sadhus and saints in nondescript kutias,cottages. One group is located across the river between the Ramjhula and Lakshmanjhula bridges, others lie further into the unchartered Himalayan foothills. These sadhus are fully occupied with contemplation, meditation and a life full of religious practices designed to keep the senses under control. They have no desire to meet people coming to Rishikesh as tourists, but do not mind meeting seekers of truth who come to learn about our ancient religion and culture.
At the request of Hinduism Today, I spent several days visiting these sadhus hosted by Swami Chidanand Saraswati (Muniji) of Parmarth Niketan. One of his sadhaka, Jai Shanker, accompanied me on my visit to this Himalayan Shangri-la. Ninety rough-hewn cottages are strewn among the hills on nearly 200 acres of land owned by the Shri Swargashram Trust, established in 1908 by Baba Kali Kamli Wale Swami Vishudhanand Ji. According to the trust's deputy manager, Ravi Sharma, control of the trust came into the hands of industrialists Jai Dayal Goenka, Jugal Kishore Birla and Padam Pat Singhania in 1938.
Baba's original aim was simply to provide food for the mendicants. Now the trust has expanded to include the 90 free cottages (mostly limited to sadhus over 60), a free kitchen where meals are provided twice a day, 2,000 rooms for pilgrims (at Rs. 60/day), a free dharmasala resthouse and a tree plantation. Sadhus must make an application when a cottage becomes available, and only one person is permitted to stay in a cottage. There is a kotwal,a kind of police officer, of sadhus who knows who is who and sees to it that meals are distributed in an orderly fashion. "There are no plans to expand the facilities," Sharma told me, "We want to extend the best possible care to these 90 sadhus only." Now let's meet some of these sadhus staying at Swargashram trust.
At 30, Brahmachari Shatrughanandais one of the youngest sadhus staying in the trust cottages. He has been here for the last four years. An interesting and articulate person, he gives a good overview of the ashram setup, as well a sense of the issues facing sadhus:
"My guru was Swami Sarvananda Giri, popularly known as Radhey Shyam Baba. He was considered to be one of the top saints of this area. He left his body just eight months back. Our path is the path of devotion. This path does not have any obstacles. Where God is remembered, there are no worldly problems. However, the environment in which you live certainly has an important role to play. I very rarely go outside this cottage. For months I do not go to Ramjhula bridge which is a few hundred yards from here. I get up around 2.30 am. My guru used to get up at 1:00 am and be at his meditation seat by 2:00 am. Originally he meditated for up to 12 hours a day; at age 90 he was still doing seven hours. When I was at his service for three years, I virtually did not sleep at all. After Baba left this world, I slept at a stretch for two months just to catch up.
"Sainthood cannot be attained just by reading books. What matters in a sadhu's life and progress is the grace of the guru. Sainthood is an art which you can learn from a spiritually evolved guru. My guru knew the past, present and future. When he saw that I am to get some pain in the future, he would himself raise the level of his consciousness and correct the fault in advance so that the future problem did not come at all. Whether it was a small thing he said or a big thing, whatever he said would always come true.
"These days I get up at 2:30 am and have my bath around 5:00 am. The scriptures say, `When the entire world sleeps, the one who contemplates or is a sadhu is awake doing his tapas and sadhana. And when the world is awake, he relaxes.' It is not that I do not skip. I do skip my for days together, but when this happens I feel guilty about it also.
"These days allegations are being leveled against sadhus that they lead a luxurious life. I think this criticism of some swamis and sadhus is quite valid. I feel such people are not from very good backgrounds in their lives and are attracted to material things even if they have become sadhus. But if your family background has been sound, and your guru also teaches you that sainthood is for sacrifice, you will not get attracted to worldly things. If the guru inculcates in you the spirit of sacrifice, how can you become materialistic? But when generation after generation of sadhus is busy in managing big empires in the shape of ashrams, the life style is bound to become luxurious. After all, your mind cannot be used both for worldly and spiritual things at the same time. Now if you decide that you have to set up an ashram, what would you do? The time that you spend on managing the construction of the ashram will be at the cost of your spiritual pursuits. A sadhu should have no desire. But when you construct an ashram, you do it at the cost of your spiritual activities and you also get attracted to it. Now this attachment is the root cause of your becoming worldly and materialistic.
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