Bliss in Kumbh

ALLAHABAD: It was 38 years ago that Baba Rampuri, as this former 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 every Kumbh and Ardh Kumbh since 1971.

The saffron clad 56-year-old - the son of a dental surgeon who refuses to give his original American name - says "the English dictionary does not have a word to describe the bliss I experience each time I am here".

His first halt when he arrived as a youth was an ashram in Rajasthan, from where his guru took him to Haridwar, where he found his new home. By the time he was 20, he made up his mind to give up worldly pleasures and embrace abstinence.

He is now camping on the banks of the Ganga here, taking part in the 42-day-long Ardh Kumbh. "A dip at the Sangam during the Kumbh Mela gives me more pleasure that one could get in a football match," Baba Rampuri says, 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 with just $20 in my pocket."

Baba Rampuri was initiated into the 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 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 become secondary and immaterial," he explains.

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.