young hindu monk sadhu at the kumbha mela festival in Allahabad

It does not happen often but you’ll find from time to time young men taking to the monastic path early on in life. The world no longer holds any fascination to them and they realize the transient nature of life, thus they seek the Self. My guru says the following “The Self: you can’t explain it. You can sense its existence through the refined state of your senses, but you can’t explain it. To know it, you have to experience it. And the best you could say about it is that it is the depth of your Being, it’s the very core of you. It is you.”

This photo was taken at the Kumbha Mela festival. Join us for our grandest spiritual adventure yet, the Kumbha Mela and North India journey, in February 2013. This 13 day spiritual and photographic adventure will take you across the northern part of India visiting some amazing places including the spectacular 2013 Kumbha Mela festival in Allahabad.

 

kumbha-mela-sadhu-covered-in-ashCertain sects of monastics within Hinduism, most notably the naga sadhus, often cover their entire body with ash. Ash symbolizes the transient nature of life and things. The application of ash on their body is a constant reminder that their body will be gone one day but the soul that they are is eternal and unchanging.

 

Sadhvi hindu-woman-monk nunYou don’t see too many women monks, or nuns if you are being pedantic, but there are some. Women generally tend to gravitate towards the householders path therefore you see fewer women renunciates then you do men.

Here’s a photo of a sadhvi, a woman monastic. Men are called sadhus. This photo was taken at the 2010 Kumbha Mela in Haridwar, North India. The three stripes on her forehead means she is of the Saivite sect within the Hindu religion. Saivites worship the supreme God in the form of Siva.

Join us for our grandest spiritual adventure yet, the Kumbha Mela and North India journey, in February 2013. This 13 day spiritual and photographic adventure will take you across the northern part of India visiting some amazing places including the spectacular 2013 Kumbha Mela festival in Allahabad.

 

sadhu-hindu-monk in nepal It’s quite often that I come across blogs where bloggers have the great idea of doing a series of photos or recipes or something but don’t end up completing the series because it simply is a lot of work. And it just doesn’t look good when you have 4 out of a 10 part series only.

Well, there are two ways to resolve this issue. One is use your willpower and just commit to the process and fulfill what you set out to do. The other option is create all the blog posts the day you start the series and then schedule them to automatically publish themselves in sequence on the set day.

That said, here is Day 6 of our 14 day series of images of sadhus. 8 more days to go. And no, these posts have not been scheduled in advance. This images was taken at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal just before our spiritual adventure there in 2010.

 

This photo makes up Day 5 of our 14 day series of photos of sadhus. It’s one of my favorites.

Within certain sects of sadhus in the north of the Indian subcontinent smoking marijuana (not cigarettes) is permitted but the consumption of alcohol is not. In the southern parts of the Indian subcontinent extending into Sri Lanka, within certain monastic sects the consumption of alcohol (naturally fermented drinks not distilled alcohol) is permitted whereas smoking is not. There’s also a mystical reason behind all of this and if someone asks I might just answer…

Join us for our grandest spiritual adventure yet, the Kumbha Mela and North India journey, in February 2013. This 13 day spiritual and photographic adventure will take you across the northern part of India visiting some amazing places including the spectacular 2013 Kumbha Mela festival in Allahabad.

kumbha-mela-sadhu-smoking

 

kumbha-mela-sadhus-allahabad

This photo makes up Day 4 of our gallery of sadhus.

Join us for our grandest spiritual adventure yet, the Kumbha Mela and North India journey, in February 2013.

 

Here’s a video that I came across recently on Vimeo while preparing for our next spiritual adventure to North India and the Kumbha Mela festival in 2013. It captures wonderfully scenes from the last Kumbha Mela in Haridwar, North India in 2010.

PURNA KUMBH MELA from warmeye on Vimeo.