Ascetic Games: Sadhus, Akharas and the Making of the Hindu Vote by K Jha Dhirendra

Author:K Jha, Dhirendra [K Jha, Dhirendra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Context
Published: 2019-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

IV

Around ten that night, as calm started to return following the frenzy of the first shahi snan, and the crowd began to thin rapidly, I hurried towards my guest house, wondering how the actual naga sanyasis—not the pretenders but the real ones, those who might have come here not to participate in the show, but out of sheer devotion—would feel about this. As I was passing through a pontoon bridge on one of the streams of the Ganga, I noticed three naga sanyasis getting ready for a quick ganja session on the river bank. I walked closer to them and sat down uttering, ‘Om Namo Narayan.’

I did not get a response. The group seemed focused on the chillum that had started passing around.

‘From the smell I can tell, Maharaj, it’s pure stuff,’ I tried again.

Silence continued, but this time one of them smiled, and after his hit, passed the chillum to me. The chillum went around twice, and as one of them paused to refill it, I asked, ‘Maharaj, I would like to understand something.’

The one who had subtly welcomed me into the group with his smile looked up but said nothing.

‘Are all who were part of the shahi julus real nagas like you?’ I shot my question straight at him.

‘Maharaj,’ he said, holding the earthen chillum in his hand. ‘You want to know who fake nagas are? What do you expect a naga of Juna akhara to tell you? You noticed them today, I noticed them three years back,’ he said, passing the chillum to the sadhu sitting next to him. He was lost in thought for a while, and then said, ‘In the very first shahi julus at Haridwar, I noticed that the murti [as ordinary nagas call each other] by my side was so aroused that he was not able to walk properly. I was shocked. A sanyasi who has been initiated as a naga can not get an erection.’

This was a rather strange way of identifying fake nagas and certainly the most powerful statement I had heard about the phenomenon. Secret Dasanami rules prescribe a set of mandatory esoteric initiation rituals to become a naga. The last of these, held in complete secrecy, is notable for the mark it leaves on the man. 5

At a later point, I asked a Haridwar-based naga sanyasi of Awahan akhara, called Shivraj Giri, about this ritual. He seemed shaken by the mere memory of it. ‘It was so painful that I almost fainted. It took me hours to regain my feet, and only after that could the remaining rites be completed. Had I known about this part of the ritual, I might not have gone for it.’

‘But you could have refused when you felt the pain or you could have simply run away in the midst of those rites, couldn’t you have?’ I probed.

‘When they grab your penis, your mind stops functioning,’ he said, his eyes reddish from cannabis. ‘When I got up and the initiation rites resumed, I told myself I would pretend to be an observer rather than a participant.

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