Sadhu and me

I have this penchant of being  drawn to Sadhus, it is not acquired now but as far as I can remember it is there from my childhood. During our school days in Delhi, we would be following Sadhus with Kamandal and Trishul  whenever they came to our area, as though they were pied pipers. They would be going round the houses to collect food grains or money and we would follow them around. Some of them would get annoyed finding us following them . However, a few would entertain us by singing bhajan or show some magic like producing something from the air.

I have interacted with various Sadhus during my adult life, in my earlier blogs  I had mentioned those.

I am not very clear whether Sadhus attract me or they see an easy prey in me to make a kill so they approach me, this boosts my ego as though I am the chosen one. One such Sadhu fleeced me of some money when I was in Barauni inspite of my wife cautioning me that the fellow was a fraud.

But now I will tell you about a Sadhu the conversation with him is still etched in my mind.

It happened long time back.

The meter gauge train from Gauhati was whistling out, I was waving at my friends from my first class compartment. Those days first class was a coupe of two. There were lot of women seeing off a Sadhu who was my co passenger. His devotees made the bed for him in the lower berth, my reservation was for upper berth, but it was yet not sleeping time. From the door, I looked back, the sadhu in plain white kurta and dhoti was sitting relaxed, I was irritated as he had left no place for me to sit. With irritation in my voice I said, “It is not yet sleeping time!”

He was embarrassed and with a folded hand invited me to share his bed, “Sorry for the inconvenience, my devotees in over enthusiasm spread the bed. If you wish I can roll it!’’

‘”No , please don’t, I will sit by your side.’’ I was ashamed of my rude behavior.

My luggage was below the seat; I pulled out my suitcase , took out my nightwear and headed for the attached washroom. After changing to casuals I comfortably sat by his side.

“Have you taken dinner? I can offer you some.”

“”Thanks, I had dinner at the station dining hall with my friends, you please carry on.”

“I don’t take dinner; I will take some fruits before going for sleep.”

Thus our acquaintance started. During the conversation, he told me that he has followers in Assam, Bengal and Bihar running to nearly a lakh.

He smiled at me and said, “From your attitude and questions I can make out that you don’t have much faith in God.”

I was caught, hesitantly asked him,’How do you know that the God exists?”

“Why your own Ramakrishna has said that if you believe then the God is there but if you don’t then the God doesn’t exist. It is the belief. You actually want to see or feel Him.’”

The discussion was becoming interesting; I was getting warmed up to the subject as I could feel that I was having conversation with a wise learned person..

He continued.

Have you seen Alaska? Have you seen Mars? You have not but you have heard or read about those. Similarly, you would get people who have felt Him or got some blessings from Him. I know you are a student of science and will look for scientific proof. Have you ever wondered who had produced so many species of leaving beings, the ocean and mountain? Can scientists produce a  tree where the water will be found like inside a coconut? Do you know that an albatross flies round the world without flapping it’s wings. Who designed those wings, which they flap only while taking off or coming down? It is believed they sleep during the flight, rarely come down and keep flying hundreds of miles without any rest, in their life period of 60 years or so they fly millions of miles. The aero engineers are studying the flight pattern and wings of this bird to design efficient airframe. Imagine a bird weighing 7 kgs or more flying on wing span of 12 feet across the continent miles after miles. Who has created this heaviest creature to fly?
There is God in every living being, you me and all.When you help some needy then you become God for him for that moment. We can not do faith healing but at least by extending our sympathy and empathizing with others problem we can give healing touch to their troubled soul.I don't perform any miracle or don't have solution for disease, that is the job of a doctor. i listen to others problems , try explaining the reason. 

Whatever he said on that day is the universal truth, there is no conflict of ideas, i was pretty impressed by his prabachan.

Well I was a skeptic but after talking to him I could know the limitation of my knowledge. Those days there was no Google to get instant information, one got to study books to acquire knowledge and then have to have intelligence to interpret those information. That Sadhu had read books and some realization had come to him which made him to adopt the life of a sage. To me he did not appear to be a fake like the modern ones we come across. He did not offer any magic potion to me like I have mentioned in my other encounters.

It was approaching bedtime, after bidding him good night; I climbed to my upper berth.

Next day morning the train reached Barauni, again there was a crowd of devotees to receive him. He smiled at me; I waved at him and got down with my luggage.

During my service life i was lucky to be posted in BHEL,Bhopal where apart from day to day work there were lot of social events. I was fortunate to come across some religious leaders like Jitamanand of Ramakrishna Mission, Rajeswaranand ( a muslim sufi turned hindu sage), the head of Digambar Jain sect, Shankaracharya of Kanchi,Mata Amritanandmayi of Kerala etc but that Sadhu on Assam Mail left an everlasting impression in my mind.

The Northern light

Yupik thrust a gaming rifle to me, I was terrified as we were chased by a pack of wolves in that snowy Siberia. I had fired a few shots during my NCC days but this situation was of life and death. Our sled pulled by husky dogs was smoothly sliding on piegnartoq (solid ice in Eskimo language), the green Northern light or Aurora Borealis was sufficient enough to see the vast icy landscape but suddenly the pack of wolves appeared from nowhere.

I had not bargained for this kind of adventure when Alexendrov offered me in Moscow to show Eskimos and their life styles. It was planned as two days trip, take two and half hours flight by Ural Airlines to Tbilisi, check in the hotel and  go to the nearest sled station for a round trip in that Siberian habitat of Eskimos. Stay the night in Tbilisi after the trip and next day return. It looked a very convenient plan to me so I had agreed.

From Tbilisi airport, Alexandrov and me took a taxi to a cheap hotel named Ma Xata, within half an hour we were in the hotel. It was in April ,the days were short but if we were lucky enough then it would be possible to see the Northern light during the late evening. We had a quick lunch then headed for the sled station at the out skirt of Tbilisis for our journey to the heart of Siberia by sled.

We had two sled drivers Insupiat and Yupik , over my jacket I was wearing a hooded parka and snow goggles to save the eyes from frost. Four of us on the sled, it was moving at 20km/h speed with 6 husky dogs were pulling it.The icy wind was hitting my face, i pulled out the stainless steel flask from my parka pocket and took a swig of brandy.It was ice everywhere a few slades zipped past,shadowy skeleton of fur trees were visible at the horizon. Slowly evening was setting in, I was eagerly waiting for the nature’s miracle. Suddenly Yupik shouted and said something in his language, Alexendrov  told me that we were lucky and pointed at the Northern sky. The sky was yellowish green and an inverted cone, which was moving like sea waves in the sky. The green light with occasional  blue and violet was reflected on the ice and was casting a magic spell all around. It was ice all around so the view was magnificent. For me it was like watching a surreal show , produced and directed by some mighty force. The distant fur trees were acting like stage where this magical display was demonstrated ,we stopped the sled to watch the display.

We were mesmerized but our two Eskimo friends were alert when they heard some howling at a distance. They turned the sled for returning, we had to abandon the plan of visiting an Igloo. Now a days of course Eskimos stay in regular concrete houses but some igloos are there for display to the tourists.

The hungry pack of wolves were chasing us, the dogs also increased their speed,  the sled was moving at 30 km/h speed, the icy wind was buffeting our faces. The magic moment of sighting the Northern light became a nightmare. I took the rifle and pulled the trigger, it was a Remington repeater bolt action old style rifle. Insupiat was driving the sled, we three were firing at the wolves. Yupik was in cool frame of mind, our rifle shots had discouraged those wolves, Yupik pulled out a sack from the tarp covering our belongings and unbound it, pulled out some dry reindeer meat  which he kept as emergency food, started throwing the meat pieces at those wolves. Those wolves slowed down, started sniffing at the thrown meat pieces. I was terrified but then I could see the silhouette of those wolves in the multi color three dimensional light of Aurora Borealis in the northern sky. I will never forget that experience in my life.

The Aurora is an incredible light show caused by collisions between electrically charged particles released from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere and collide with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. The lights are seen around the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres.

I was sitting on my favourite chair in the drawing room, the bottle of pill given by the sadhu to enhance my virtual travel ability was on the table. I reread Jack London's White Fang and watched Ice Station Zebra to ferret out information on the polar region before popping the pill. I had the above experience as the pill triggered the capsules in my memory wall, the story which my subconscious mind was building came alive, it appeared as though i was watching a 3 D movie where i was one of the casts.