Sadhus

I've often wondered what was going on with all the different holy men so conspicuous in India. I'd like to start a thread about them.
what encounters and experiences have members had with different sadhus?

this link has started me off, just idendtifying their sects to start with.

http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/dolfhart/

:-)

This guy has done a lot of research on sadhus. I have one of his books, which is pretty interesting. I can honestly say I have probably met only a few real spiritual sadhus, though I've encountered hundreds of 'drop out sadhus'. I knew a guy who spent about year living and travelling with some - he barely got out alive. Between smoking tons of ganja, trying to meditate, hardly eating, and getting sick all the time he was a mess when he left India. The head of Parmarth Niketan in Rishikesh, Muniji, was a sadhu for a number of years before returning to the ashram and taking it over on the death of his teacher. He's an interesting guy, though not real approachable. I have been fascinated with sadhus for many years, though I cringe whenever I see a young western girl sitting around smoking with what she thinks is a group of real sadhus - I've known of a few getting into real trouble that way.

thanks sadhu and herby,

I've heard that sadhu's often do puja or other spiritual functions for people who pay them with offerings of cash or food.

things like excorcisms, prayers for the dead down to protections from black magic and suchlike 'folk magic' and charms.

some of these I guess would fall into the fakir / scam category wheras others would be more genuine. How to tell the difference?

I wondered how common this is now

anyone got any stories ?
anyone been had by an unscrupulous sadhu?


thanks

no comment

Be careful many of these people are fake Sadhus who diguise themselves in the garb of Sadhus.

I remember someone dressed as a Sadhu coming to our house in India a few years ago, he was selling soorma (lead eye liner) claiming it was magic soorma and how people who had used it had won money on the lottery and cars etc. Beggers the question why he was roaming village to village selling the stuff, why not put all your wares into your own eyes and become mega rich.

I was also told a story where some perosn again dressed as a Sadhu was begging, a shopkeeper offered him a note which the Sadhu put in his pocket but then returned to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper turned into a zombie and left his shop and started to follow the Sadhu. He was bundled into a van and given some sort of injection. When he awoke he found there were other people also drugged in the van. Apparently the people in the van were going to have their body parts sold. The van stopped at some place and this shopkeeper managed to escape, he was chased by the van driver but he managed to hide and then flagged down a trucj driver who took care of him.

Might be an old wives tale but people who told me insisted it was true and even offered to take me to meet the shopkeeper.

So please be careful when it comes to interacting with these people. I am sure there are genuine Sadhus but there are also a lot more fake sadhus.

thanks Shere

!!!? wow- now that's definately the kind of thing I want to avoid.

I guess as tourists most of us are less vulnerable to the more subtle and belief-orientated scams that these guys pull because of the culture/language gap.

I'm wonderring whether the genuine sadhus can or do bridge that gap -for presumably benign reasons ?(hopefully).

for instance healings or prophecies etc...

what stories of suchlike?

is this a celebrated area of culture? or a "don't talk about it with outsiders thing?"

Hey Becker you stole my picture!

Really? If this was truely your picture, I didn't know. I found this picture today in a german magazine illustrating an article about mobile phones.

Was it really your picture before today? haha, this is funny. Sorry, I didn't know :-)

I dont think tourists are less vulnerable. After all you get cases of young women getting high on smoking ganja and then fake Sadhus abusing them. Plus regardless of culture/language gap skilled people can use magical type powers to take over your mindset etc.

I will give you a story about the healing of Sadhus again this is 100% kosher story. A man form England was dying of cancer, doctors told him he only had months to live. The man thought it would be better to die in Punjab as that is where he was born and grew up. Off he went to Punjab. He went to a religious fair where he met a Sadhu. The Sadhu told him that he could cure him. The man thought oh well might as well give it a try. The Sadhu told the man to sit and wait for him as he had to catch a sanke to prepare his medicine. Off the Sadhu goes returns after a few hours with a Snake. He then makes the man eat it. The man goes into some sort of deep sleep. When he wakes up the fair has finished and there is no Sadhu there. After a few weeks the man comes back to England and goes to hospital for a check up. He is told his cancer has dissapeared. The doctors are amazed and he tells them the story. The doctors then flew to India to try and find this Sadhu but never did.

off topic... talking about sadhus and fakirs, just wondering... what do they call in hindi... "bed of nails?" (where fakirs sleep on) ... thanks guys!

reviving this thread now that i am in the land of sadhus...

well, seems a lot of funny stuff going on here with the sadhus and the westerners that they invite into their tents lavishing them with chai, chillum, food, etc. Of course, nothing is for free; they all seem to be looking for more disciples.

i was given a rudraksha bead by a sadhu at which point he said "i am your guru", just like that! well, i don't do the guru trip; and if i did, it would be with someone out in the world doing amazing things to alleviate suffering. i have been spending some time with him and his fellow baba, who is an older crustier sort. and i don't think that they are doing any such things. in fact, they have been talking about needing $$ for a place that they want to buy here in Benares, and yeterday "my guru" told me that he is basically peniless after having his money stolen... yet, he tells newcomers he has an ashram in hardiwar...he may be being completely honest, but with our language and cultural differences, i'll likely never know. and of course, disciples do support their gurus, so them talking money is probably not completely off-base, though i find it unsavory.

me and a guy that i know were sitting with another group of babas, as the chillum was being passed around. a sadhu dressed in black came into the tent, and was visibly agitated by the guy i was with (he can be loud, etc) and shortly thereafter my friend started to freak. he swears he was drugged with something that left him unable to breathe with the feeling that he was detached from his body. it all lasted about 10-15 minutes. needless to say, it was a strange experience.

i watched another baba treating young girls to jewelery, so it's pretty obvious what his trip was.

i find it difficult to know what's real in nearly every encounter that i have here in india; someone is always trying to extract something from me. i don't think that the sadhus are any different...not a judgement, more an observation...

.http://www.adolphus.nl/sadhus/

Lots of information here,,,,,,,,,

Warning: most of the sadhus which you'll encounter especially in the tourist areas are just using the sadhu image to gain from you,,,,,,,, Though of course some of them can still be nice people to be around.

My mother in law was feirce with sadhus. Chased them away worse than if they were beggers. She said they often robbed the gullible of their jewelry..

Real sadhu/sanyasis you'll find in remote countryside.

According to Hindu tradition these are the men that leave worldly possesions and kinship ties. They retreat into the forests, mediatate and survive on alms, public generosity.

The present ganja smoking, stampeding Kumbh Mela lots are a degenerated denizens. This guys convey everything opposite of thats been said of the sadhu/sanyasi traditions. Arrogant prima donnas.

These guys are deservedly losing the respect of the masses. The greater loser is Hinduism.

I found Gita Mehta's Karma Cola a good book to read to try and make sense of sadhu's and the differences between genuine and fake ones.