Faces of a Sðd+U
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)$&(62)$6Ð'+8 (QFRXQWHUVZLWK+LQGX5HQRXQFHUV LQ1RUWKHUQ,QGLD Dr. polit. thesis 2002 Department of Social Anthropology Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim by Lise Bjerkan URN:NBN:no-2121 ISBN: 82-471-5095-6 URN:NBN:no-2121 Plate 1 There can be no great and complete culture without some element of asceticism in it; for asceticism means the self-denial and self-conquest by which man represses his lower impulses and rises to greater heights of his nature. (Sri Aurbindo [Ghose] 1953:85) iii URN:NBN:no-2121 &217(176 $&12:/('*(0(176YLL 127(2175$16/,7(5$7,21L[ ,//8675$7,216[ (1&2817(5,1*7+(+2/<– an extended preface IN THE DOMAIN OF THE SAFFRON 3 SPEAKING ONE’S OWN MIND 5 HANDLING THE FIELD 8 To be one and to know one ... 8 The forgotten past 12 THE ART OF COMMUNICATION 18 Perceptions and descriptions of a reality 21 THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS 23 7+(),*85(,16$))521 INDIVIDUALS AND OTHERS 26 LABELS OF SAFFRON 32 ‘... AS THERE ARE STARS IN THE SKY’ 35 ON THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY 37 INTERDEPENDENT WORLDS APART 40 BEYOND CASTE? 43 %(<21''+$50$ FOUR STAGES IN LIFE 48 RITES OF PASSAGE 52 The art of dying 52 Liminality 53 The making of a Nngn 63 THE FOURTH STAGE 65 Freedom from sasnr and mnyn 67 Freedom and eternal happiness 71 Mahnmnyn 76 Karma 78 )2853$7+62)/,)( IN SERVICE FOR THE MISSION 82 ‘NOW I AM FREE’ 88 IN SEARCH OF PERMANENCY 92 A SÐDHU IN SAªSÐR 101 Peak of perfection 108 Serving his guru 111 Young boy – mature thoughts 115 A married man 117 iv URN:NBN:no-2121 0808¿8%+$9$1 THE DAÑÁÉ SVÐMÉS IN MUMUK¿U BHAVAN 122 DaØ Svnms 122 Mumuku Bhavan 123 The first meeting 125 ‘Rnm, Rnm, Rnm’ 127 ‘... the soul, ntmn, is always free’ 129 In the mandir 135 Tea with Svnm Évarnnand Trth 138 ‘... like the lines in the palm of your hand’ 144 Svnm Jxnnevarnnand Trth 146 A disciple and his guru 152 COMMON DENOMINATORS 158 Inter-human relations 158 Eternal peace and happiness 159 µ7+,6:25/',6127+,1*¶ REASONS WHY 164 Matters of family 165 Matters of spirituality 168 Matters of escape and survival 171 GA¾GÐ MÐ ASHRAM 173 ÌRÉ ÌRÉ BHOLÐGIRI ASHRAM 176 A year after 178 The next day 180 The last visit 182 THE MOTHER WHO FAINTED 184 SELECTED AS A SAINT 188 A HUMBLE MAHANT 190 A BIG BLISTER ON THE NOSE 192 MULTIPLE REASONS 193 THE STORIES PEOPLE TELL 196 Break and continuity 197 %(<21','($/6 DEVIATING FROM THE ‘IDEAL’ 202 The saffron wave in politics 206 Crimes disguised 213 The case of Ayodhya 218 BELIEFS AND BIASES 222 Power 223 Discouraged 227 BLACK ON WHITE AND GLOSSY PRINT 231 A piece of news 231 Saffron in fiction and film 237 v URN:NBN:no-2121 6$&5,),&( ‘A BODY IS JUST A BODY’ 248 Body and soul 248 ‘Are you asking this body or are you asking me?’ 253 ‘This body is mnyn’ 255 REPRESSING DESIRES 258 Celibacy 258 Tapas 260 Penance and self-discipline 266 The disciplined body 267 SURRENDER 269 INTERNAL FIRE 274 )$&(6 INDIVIDUAL-OUTSIDE-THE-WORLD? 278 THE WEST AND THE REST 282 The Other 284 A CHARACTER WITH MANY FACES 288 (3,/2*8(±7KHXPEK0HOn ‘A CELEBRATION OF DIVINE MADNESS’ 294 IMMORTALITY 299 THE GREATEST SPECTACLE OF FAITH 300 17,000 TOILETS, 15,000 STREET LIGHTS, 7,000 SWEEPERS 309 VIRTUAL RELIGION 310 ‘KUMBH POLITICS HOTS UP’ 313 VIPs AND OTHERS 316 CLEANSING THE SOUL 323 SALVATION 324 $SSHQGL[:+2,6:+2" %,%/,2*5$3+< */266$5< vi URN:NBN:no-2121 $&12:/('*(0(176 My first and immediate feeling of gratitude goes to the sndhus that blessed me with their presence, their time and patience – and not least, their knowledge. Further, I have to express my heartfelt thanks to my field assistant and translator Vinita and her family who were always there for me when I needed them. Of great importance to my work has also been Cecilie Glomseth who has studied Hindi at the University of Oslo and at the Banaras Hindu University. Cecilie assisted me with translations, both in India and in Norway, and also guided me through matters within Hinduism and gave useful remarks to my writing as it progressed. In India, I also owe my regards to Govind Bnbn, a former Canadian with more than twenty-five years’ experience of living as a sndhu in India. Not only did he introduce me to sndhus, ashrams and temples, he also read and discussed with me drafts of my chapters. Varanasi hides more human jewels. One of these is Hanne, a Danish friend settled in Varanasi with her husband Santosh and their daughter Astha. Hanne assisted me in different and valuable ways. For instance, during my stays in Norway she gathered relevant articles from newspapers and newsmagazines for me, and she and her family have otherwise been of great support in good and bad times, during periods of illness and homesickness as well as in cheerful moments of pure happiness. I am grateful to Richard, or Nehru-j (now also known as ‘El Tropical’, the Salsa King of Amager), manager of Amar Bhavan where I was staying during my research. In Varanasi, I also owe my thanks to Mrs. Kumar who gave me Hindi-lessons during the first months of field work. Last, but not least, I have to express my deep respect, admiration and gratitude to my dear friend Farooq, his beautiful daughters, his wife and the rest of his family. Ever since our meeting during my first field work in Varanasi in 1993 Farooq has been a close and dear friend, without whom Varanasi would have appeared in a quite different light. At the different stages of thinking, planning, fieldworking, analysing and writing, I have benefited greatly from guidance and advice from my supervisors – Solrun Williksen, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the Norwegian University of vii URN:NBN:no-2121 Science and Technology (NTNU), and Harald Tambs-Lyche, Professor of Ethnology at the University of Picardie, Amiens, France. Without their constructive guidance and support, it would have taken me a lot more time and effort to complete this dissertation. I would also like to thank Head of Department of Social Anthropology at NTNU, Associate Professor Harald Aspen, for his kind cooperation. There are also others who have provided valuable and useful remarks that in different respects have contributed to the dissertation’s progression. I will especially express my gratitude to Knut Movik, who read a draft of the dissertation with great enthusiasm, and to my colleagues Linda Dyrlid, Anne-Sigfrid Grønseth, Hans Hadders and Malin Noem. I am also grateful to Bodil Fremstad who let me use some of her brilliant photographs, and to Nancy Frank for careful editing of my language. It should also be mentioned that this dissertation would never have materialised without grants from the Norwegian Research Council and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Finally, I want to thank Erik – who in every imaginable way has been of invaluable support to me while working on this project. Without his company, assistance, advice, suggestions, corrections, admiration, and gentle massage of tense shoulders, it would not only have taken me a lot more time and effort to complete this dissertation, but it would hardly have been half the fun to do so. viii URN:NBN:no-2121 127(2175$16/,7(5$7,21 In transliterating Hindi words and sentences, I have, because most of my informants spoke Hindi, generally applied Hindi forms rather than Sanskrit – which means that I have dropped the final ‘a’ in, for example, ‘Ìiv(a)’, ‘Rnm(a)’, and ‘Kumbh(a)’. I have mainly applied the pattern of transliteration given by R.S. McGregor’s +LQGL(QJOLVK 'LFWLRQDU\ (1997). However, I have made exceptions as to Sanskrit words which today have become part of the common English language as, for example, ‘dharma’, ‘karma’, and ‘yoga’. I transliterate the names of my informants, but I have chosen not to transliterate geographic names like Varanasi, Allahabad, etc.; I have chosen to transliterate the names of more mythological places as, for instance, the name of the most sacred part of Varanasi, Kn – the city of light. The various methods of transliteration practised by different authors have produced a great variety of spellings of what is, in fact, one word carrying a determined meaning. For instance, while I write ‘svnm’ (master, lord, king – one of the titles used to address Hindu ascetics), others spell it as ‘swami’; where I write ‘sanyns’ others write ‘sannyasi’ or even ‘sannyasin’, and ‘daran’ is by some written ‘darsan’, etc. Diacritical marks are applied both in the text and in the glossary, although I have chosen not to use italics to mark out transliterated words. Indian, transliterated words are pluralised in the text in the English manner by adding an ‘s’. The glossary is primarily meant as an aid to the reader not familiar with all the Hindi words in the text, and it offers a general explanation, often that given by McGregor (1997). ix URN:NBN:no-2121 ,//8675$7,216 If not otherwise stated, both text and photo are by Lise Bjerkan. 3KRWRJUDSKV Cover page: From top left: Smoking sndhu in Pashupatinaht, Nepal; Svnm Rnmnnand, Mumuku Bhavan; Mahnknl on his throne during the Kumbh Meln in Allahabad; a sndhu contemplating in the old quarters of Varanasi; another sndhu enjoying a quiet moment during the hot mid-day hours in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu; Ìr Digambar Ìiv NnrnyaØ Giri (Mahnrnj) doing yoga; a colourful sndhu in Pashupatinath, Nepal; Svnm Vidynnand Trth, Mumuku Bhavan; sndhu at Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal.