Authorship, Photography and Copyright Notice : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved.
Photograph Credit : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
In the picture, you see a couple of the many Sanyasis that we saw in Rishikesh.
The boat is a ferry service that takes people across the Ganga for a Rs. 10 one way fare or a Rs.15 for 2 way fare. As you can imagine we went up and down as often as possible with our paws touching the freezing water. Though the weather was very hot (40 C), the water was ice cold and it was very hard to stay in it for more than a few minutes at a time.
The ferry service runs close to Ram Jhula, which of course you can cross for free. You can see it in the background.
All manner of sannyasis come to Rishikesh. They dress in orange or white, some dress like Siva with the matted hair and a Trishulam (Trident) as well. They all live and sleep outdoors near a ghat (a place close to the water for bathing etc – accessible by steps and sometimes with chains to prevent you from getting washed away.) Some are very neat and tidy and others are dusty from all the travelling. Some wear as little as possible
Sannyasis originally belong to any of the varnas, but once they become sannyasis, varnas do not apply.
Sannyasam is typically taken to be mean renounciation. I always translate it as Sat+Nyasam or Keeping your mind in the Sat (Reality). Naturally, I think I am right.
At one place we saw a Sannyasi dig a coin out of his small bag and purchase an appadam (appala, papad), roasted over coals on the roadside. Then he carried it carefully back to where his friend was waiting and they ate it together, in simple contentment. That may have been their lunch for the day.
This incident of frugality, sharing and contentment, kind of opened my eyes to the plight of the sannyasis. In an almost completely commercial society, they live, neither earning nor begging, with their entire possessions packed into a little bag. They will accept a gift or a daanam only if it is freely given of the givers own voilition. I saw one sannyasi reading a sankrit textbook, with a small scarf spread next to him for anyone who wished to leave him and offering. He was old and wizened and with a grey bushy beard and he paid no attention to the scarf whatsover.
After that incident, I started observing other Sannyasis. I found one very divine looking Sannyasi and addressing him as Baba (father), asked him if he would accept a daan. He said he would and that he was travelling to Badrinath. We gave him Rs.100 which he accepted in the name of Vishnu (BadriNarayana). We felt very happy to have done something good.
At Haridwar, I noticed a Sannyasi lying on the railway platform. He was breathing fast and probably close to breathing his last. Another kind sannyasi sat next to him for a while and silently removed some spoilt roti from his reach, while speaking words of comfort and compassion. And then he wended his way.
There was another sannyasi sleeping on the floor on a sheet, near the seat where I was waiting for my train. He woke up around 5.30 am and carefully searched his whole bag and retrieved coins of about Rs 20 in value and put them in a steel cup. Into his cloth bag he then stuffed a T shirt, his bedsheet and the blanket he was using.
At that time our train came on to the station. As I got up I found a Rs.20 note in my pocket, and adressing him as baba, I offered it to him. He received it in surprised silence and gratitude and reached out to touch my feet. I drew my feet back for these reasons – he was older and I was wearing shoes and he was a sannyasi. I didn’t think Sannyasis are meant to touch people’s feet and I did not want to incur any sin for my heartfelt but tiny offering. But I don’t know what he thought… for later I saw him with his head between his hands in a gesture of mournful silence. I can’t forget that expression.
Was he mute? Was I wrong in drawing my feet back? Did he see in me some divine person like Annapurna who was trying to help him? Did he have some sorrow unspeakable because of a vow of silence?
Or was he merely a man with a wanderlust who had mistakenly entered Sannyas and now had no means of returning to the main stream? I shall never know! But I know that it is really hard for the sannyasis who must eat and who cannot earn or beg, in a commercial society where no one has even time to give them a fleeting glance.
I also know that I can never be a Sannyasi. I am detached from detachment itself “vairagyena saha vairagyam”.
Authorship, Photography and Copyright Notice : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved
