Spiritual Pull of the Hinduism

Eventhough world, especially English speaking literate class taked pride in deriding Hindu ethos. But the Hindu tradition and spirituality continues to overhelm people all over the world. This fact is corborated by a story that I chanced upon recenly. I reproduce the story as it is.

Allahabad : It was 38 years ago that Baba Rampuri, as this once 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 each Kumbh and Ardh Kumbh since 1971, and the son of an American dental surgeon turned Hindu ascetic says the English dictionary 'does not have a word to describe the bliss I experience each time I am here'.
His first halt was an ashram in Rajasthan, from where his guru took him to Haridwar, one of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage centres on the bank of the Ganga, where he found his new home. By the time he was 20, he made up his mind to give up all worldly pleasures, including the company of the rich and the famous, to step into a contrasting world where abstinence was the buzzword.
The saffron clad 56-year-old - who refuses to give his original American name - is now camping on the banks of the holy river here, taking part in the 42-day-long Ardh Kumbh - the every six-year religious cornucopia during which millions take dip in the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers sacred to Hindus, in the hope of gaining salvation from what the faithful believe the unending cycle of births and deaths.
'A dip at the Sangam during the Kumbh Mela gives me more pleasure that one could get in a football match,' Baba Rampuri told IANS, 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 ... and that too with just $20 in my pocket.'
Baba Rampuri was formally initiated into the world of Hindu 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.
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 reasonably good 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 becomes secondary and immaterial,' explains Puri to IANS.
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 after stepping out of the water in which an estimated ten million took a hallowed dip that day.
Hindu spirituality continues to attract youth from various countries. Verena, 25, is a first-time visitor to the Kumbh from Germany and is so overwhelmed by the spiritual rituals here that she wouldn't mind settling down as a disciple in the Juna Akhara. And 24-year-old Dase, another Kumbh first-timer from Latvia, is only too keen to give her company. Susan, who has come from the US, is still debating whether she should abandon her filmmaking career in California and settle down to a saffron life of Hindu renunciates.
'I will go back at the end of the Kumbh Mela but I might be back soon. The divinity I have tasted here has been an unparalleled experience, which I cannot describe in words,' said Susan. The list is endless. Besides the over 450 foreigners in the Maheshwaranand camp, the Juna and Maha Nirvani Akharas too boast of nearly 250 people belonging from 17 countries who have chosen to embrace the Hindu spiritual path.
By Sharat Pradhan/Indo-Asian News Service