The one with the Sadu's of Haridwar... explicit material alert!

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From the bright bustling lights of Delhi we worked our way up to Haridwar, a holy town in Utterakhand.
In Hindi, Haridwar stands for' Dwar of Hari' or ' Gateway to God' and is regarded as one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. According to Hindu scriptures, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the "elixir of immortality, Amrit, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher, in which it was being carried away by the celestial bird Garuda, after the Samudra manthan". The place itself... a bit of a hole to be honest, it's like stepping back in time and then you take 10 steps back in Indian time, that is where Haridwar operates from. There is about two computers in the whole town and the internet is slower then most of the old mules here! The reason for us coming here - Kumbh Mela festival! A festival that takes place every 12 years - "when the planet Jupiter (Brihaspati) comes into the sign Aquarius (Kumbha)", in 1998 80 million pilgrims passed through the town, visiting the temples and taking dips in the Ganges river that flows through. We happened to be thee on one of the main festival days and the town was alive with flowers, chanting, bells, dreadlocks and holy men.... above the chanting came that ever frequent orchestra of men and women hacking up their lungs, most of them after enjoying a few tokes on the ole Charris!

We spent our first afternoon trying to ignore the ever aching gut of the Delhi belly beast and walked along the canal taking in the various baba's, holy men, sadu's and such like.... the complete difference between them all I'm not too sure, other than that the Sadu's are crazy! Their clothes, their practice, their general being is a little bit over my head... for example; we're strolling along, both a little phased by the long train journey, the early start, the bad bellies and we stumble upon a crowd. The crowd is gathering around a sadu... a naked sadu, a naked sadu covered in ash powder, dreadlocks to the floor and then some and a dreaded beard to match.... he stands with his hand up blessing those who are watching, he then takes his great long.... golden trident (sadus apparently have tridents, something to do with being a devotee to Shiva) and proceeds in wrapping his flacid genitalia around the shaft of the trident. I would love to see a photo of our faces at this point, both a little too delicate for such viewing and when he proceeds to bend the.... 'trident' back behind his legs, well we quickly move on! We spent the next few hours at the bathing ghats trying to comprehend what we had just witnessed whilst watching the locals and pilgrims bath away modestly in the water. When the staring and the giggling behind hands gets too much we return back to the sanctuary of our room!

The next day we visit the Mansa Devi temple up on the hill, taking the cable car up... the queue was slightly off putting but the atmosphere from those around us kept us keen, it was like waiting for a ride at alton towers! Unfortunatley, not as exciting and at the top of Bilwa Parwat we followed the crowds and got pulled out back on to the road down again... only after 5 minutes or so of walking back DOWN the hill, minus our shoes (which were in the cloakroom at the top, for holy reasons) did we question the logic behind our direction, a few games of charades later with the non-speaking Indians we realised we'd played sheep for no reason and were actually following those who had been to the temple are were just 'going home'. So back up we went and actually made it into the temple.... the temple of the Goddess Mansa Devi (the Goddess who fills desires!) We followed the chanting and singing through the zig-zag cattle grid, the atmosphere wired... inside the temple we followed the river of people around paying our blessings to various statues of Gods (the ones who we could afford before our change ran out) for every few rupee's we gave we received a coloured dot on our heads, a bindi, a blessing. No sooner had we entered did we get pushed out the other side and were back in the queue for the cable car down... even though we were in a queue, that moved every few seconds the large paunched indian lady behind me insisted on pushing me forward (into Anna), I told her there was no where for me to go, but she insisted on either pressing on my back with her hands or delightfully with her large curry filled paunch... after half an hour and back in the cable car, we put it down to one of three things; 1. she had no feeling in her paunch and thus unaware of pushing me 2. some god had planted magnets in both her paunch and my back thus drawing us together or 3. she loved her paunch so much she wanted to share it with me and be annoying. I have to say number two is a winner with me!

Back down in to the hustle and bustle of the town we went back down to the canal, me with my camera ready to get a glimpse of 'Don'... I aptly named the naked willy tugging Sadu 'Don' as he was abit of a 'Don' and also 'Donald where's ya troosers?".... on our way we managed to pick up an entourage of Indian male admirers who literally stood a few feet away gawping until we either lost our patience and shouted, or until a lovely Frenchman, Benoit, came to our aid as a white male guard... both together proved an almost winning combination and we were soon left alone... just in time to stumble across 'Don', who was still naked but this time his Trident left alone (for a while). He was quick to beckon the three of us over to sit with him, and gave us all blessings in return for our time and conversation. We then were invited to watch him bathe in the Ganges canal, reapply the white ash over his body, give blessings to Shiva and have chai with him back on his blanket along with his followers... thankfully the cold from the bathing meant that he covered up during his chai! We chatted with him as best we could through the language boundaries, learnt that he has a house in Varanasi, that he spends his time between the holy landmarks of Haridwar and the Himalaya's and that the soul is made up of 5 elements... although writing that the only one I can remember right now is soil! Good education there, glad I was listening! We politely refused his offer of dinner and continued on our way to the bathing ghats, where the festivities were in full swing. the ghats covered in a rainbow of people... sari's and lanterns, flowers and sweets dominated the scene, the people overflowed from the steps into the water. The buildings alive with fairy lights, the air alive with music and the spiritual atmosphere being created. It was a wonderful sight, unfortunately my tummy had had enough and so dictated my return to the hotel early... we said goodbye to Benoit and made our way back through the busy streets.... being made to take a detour onto the train tracks by security (health and safety gone mad!). there we our in the pitch black walking along the train tracks, little make shift homes are dotted along the side and god knows what littered along the floor. Back on the safety of the road we're met with garish floats holding various Holy men and their top students, other floats just stacks of speakers all blasting some Indian beat for the brass band stood next to it to tootle along too. Float after float after float, the only difference between them the people involved, otherwise an exact replica of the last... the crowds formed along the road went wild for it, throwing flowers and rice at their favorite Holy men, dancing sporadically to the trumpeting of horns, the lights illuminating the excited faces. The parade went right outside our window which was great for viewing and photos, but not so great when trying to talk to the parents over the drone! Thankfully it all ended well before bedtime!

We left Haridwar on the Sunday, completely ready to leave the prehistoric and overly spiritual town.... where no one knew English and with us knowing no Hindi, where the men constantly stare and the women constantly giggle and comment behind their un-sly hands... I was grateful to also leave the Delhi belly behind! Our first stop on our spiritual journey up north complete.... and what an awakening stop!

Love to one and all, hope you're enjoying the rapid release of blogs... with my lax behavior of late and still with so many stories to tell it's a mission to get them all out before we leave (tomorrow) So apologies if they read rushed!

Lessons Learnt:
Ha.... err... well i never knew a man could.... well yeah, eye opener to say the least!
To see inside a temple when the blessing were dished out was an experience more than a lesson, we both wished for a guide to explain exactly what was going on as both of us still remain clueless!
Indians definitely created the festival!

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Comments

[Carol Freeland]

My Haridwar experience
Needless to say, you got a bit more than I did at the Sadu-fest. I have Indian friends that I am travelling with, so I did get some explanations although there is still a bit of the language barrier. I am travelling with a woman and a man, so most of the time I am not harrassed, just gawked at. I did receive hearty welcomes from some Punjabi people there speaking great English (I seem to attrack people who want to talk to me in English). Your blog was hilarious and I included your link in my blog to my family - I hope that's ok.