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SCIENCE OF MAKING OF A
SAADHU
When asked, why one chose to live as a saadhu:
the answer is:
"because it was in my
pRrb`DH kARm-fl"
pRrb`DH
kARm-fl or fruits or results of
kARm and regarded as
bhaag`y or destiny or future.
pRrb`DH =
kARm-fl are a result of kARm
or actions in all of the past lives of an embodied
aatmaa (soul). pRrb`DH
kARm-fl has to be experienced by each
and every creation in all universes at the time and place and the situation it
is ordained to be experienced by niyti.
niyti means the master plan of the
creator of the universe for the creation, sustenance and cyclic re-creation and
is also known as bhaag`y or destiny
or future .
A saadhu is a person
who has forsaken all the sNsaarik (worldly) daily activities and devotes his/her
life in search of knowledge of the TRUTH OF ONE'S
CREATOR AND THIS CREATION.....the knowledge explained in the study of
veD = SCIENCES OF LIFE AND CREATION....(the
above GNaan = knowledge of creator and creation was compiled by
SRii chmpklaal Daajibhaai miisTRii of Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada as part of veD study at PVAF)
To find out about making of a saaDHu and the life
of a saaDHu from a
saaDHu's point of view please click
on the next line to read a research report by Dr. Ravi
Kapur, a psychiatrist.....
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HINDUISM
TODAY: DELHI, INDIA, December 5, 2003: BY Rajiv Malik
Dr. Ravi Kapur, a psychiatrist, trained in India and UK, is currently the JRD
Tata Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies,
Bangalore. He has been the Deputy Director of the same institute and before that
the Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry at the prestigious National
Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences. He is Fellow of the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, the Indian National Academy of Sciences and the Indian National
Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Ravi Kapur delivered a public lecture entitled-
"The making of a Sadhu:
An enquiry into higher states of mental health,"
jointly organized by National Institute of Science, Technology and
Development Studies and India International Centre under the series-DIMENSIONS
of SCIENCE, on the evening of December 1, 2003. The conference hall was packed
with intellectuals, researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists, media persons,
former bureaucrats and diplomats,
Dr. Kapur said that some of the sadhus wanted to be on their own and did not
want to be disturbed by the people. Someone close to one such sadhu said that he
was not mentally disturbed but did not want to interact with the world. This
person also gave the instance of Saint Totapuri, the guru of Ramakrishna
Paramhans, who used to throw dirt in the face of the people as he did not want
them to come to him.
In his twenty years of research, Dr. Kapur has interviewed sadhus of all
categories. On the one hand he has interviewed sadhus who are globe trotters and
on the other hand he has interacted with the down to earth ones and the ones
undergoing penance on the roads and in the caves of Rishikesh, Badrinath,
Kedarnath and Gangotri areas of Uttaranchal Region.
Out of around 100 sadhus interviewed by him, he spent with them two to four
hours to a few days and also a few weeks, on a case to case basis.
Commenting on his relationship and experiences with the various sadhus, Dr.
Kapur said, "I would like to share with you that almost all the sadhus were
extremely co-operative and were very generous in extending hospitality to me.
Not even one of them asked me for money, though I myself offered dakshina to
many of them."
Giving some interesting details of the sadhus interviewed by him, he said,
- "Out of the 100 hundred sadhus interviewed by me in the past twenty
years, it would be around 40 of them that I had a detailed interaction.
- Out of these 40, 12 had become sadhus due to some problems faced by
them in their social and married lives.
- As becoming a sadhu solves their problems of food and shelter, this life
had an appeal for many people.
- But these 12 people still carried the baggage of their past lives with
them and kept cribbing and complaining about their past.
- The rest of the 28 sadhus I interviewed had no reason to escape their home
and material world.
- They had opted for becoming a sadhu out of free will and had been
attracted to the life as a sadhu since their childhood days.
- They were absolutely normal people and showed no signs of any
psychological problems or illness.
- Many of these had abandoned their successful careers and social lives,
- They were happy people and had a good social network to support them as
normal human beings.
- When asked, they said that they had chosen to live as a sadhu: The
answer:
- because it was in their prarabdha karma (destiny as a result of
actions in a past life) and
- there was no way to scientifically deal with this phenomenon.
- However most of these 28 people had a religious bent of mind since their
childhood."
- Many of the sadhus:
- survived on a meagre diet of cereals and fruits.
- were mostly not bothered as to wherefrom their next meal is going to
come. When asked this question to one of them, he told me- 'I challenge God
not to give me food.'
- were total availability to the service of needy and sick,
- had cheerful temperament and high level of energy,
- They pursued their goal -- moksha with boundless energy.
- In India the young people are told since childhood that they should not
waste their semen or tejas which is very precious. "When I asked the sadhus,
how they fulfill their desire for sex, most of them told me that when they are
immersed in meditation and bhakti, the joy and ecstasy they experience gives
them much more satisfaction than they would get from any sexual indulgence. In
fact sex was nothing as compared to the ecstasy they experienced when they
were in communion with the God. To describe this feeling of ecstasy, they said
that they felt a flow of energy rushing from the back of their spine to the
top of their head."
- A Sadhu who lived at a height of 15,000 feet without wearing much clothes,
said: "When I asked him how he coped with the loneliness at such a
height, his answer was, "I have ladoos [sweets] in both my hands. When someone
comes here, I feed him and feel absolutely blissful. And when there is nobody
here for six months, I am in total communion with God and am again completely
blissful. So both my hands are full of ladoos."
- Almost all the sadhus I met, I asked if they possessed any special powers.
One of the sadhus to who I addressed this question responded by saying- 'Yes I
have special powers. I can make very good rasam (a spicy soup),' "
During this two hour meeting, people listened to Dr. Kapur's lecture with
rapt attention. An interesting question answer session also followed after the
lecture was delivered.
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