THE FIRST ALL WOMEN GROUP OF INDIAN NAGA SADHVIS

(Will India’s spiritual domain be taken over by women as nude female sadhus form an all women akhada for the first time?)

It was a small dark room beside the famous Radhu Babu’s tea stall in the Lake Market area of Kolkata. A couple of years back I was called over by a famous city artist to meet the head of Juna Akhada. I couldn’t resist the temptation to go. Juna Akahada is the order of the famous Naga Sadhus of India (nude hermits) who are said to have overcome all the attachments of human life including lajja or shame and hence can go around without clothes. Had read long back in Samaresh Basu’s Amrita Kumbher Shandhane that these sadhus are also known for their violent attitude, they don’t mix with the general crowd and they are given  priority to take the first dip in the Holy Ganges during Kumbh Mela, in fear of the violent ruckus they might throw in if they are not allowed.

Needless to say I was well prepared to view some ash-smeared naked hermit with a rough and violent gaze. Waiting and talking to the artist over a cup of tea I jumped from my seat as the door opened and in came two secret service agent-looking bodyguards just like the ones I had seen in White House Down. And yes, they had walkie-talkies in hand, head shaven, handsome and muscular, typically encapsulated in a Nordic face. In the mayhem that followed in that tiny room, I was left dazed as after them entered a towering man clad in long colourful robes and a smiling face looking around as I was introduced to Soham Baba, the 1008 Mahamandeleshwara of Juna Akhada.

Typically I closed my hands in a namaste style, when to my utter dismay I realised the head of the Naga Sadhus has indeed embraced my hands in an atypical handshake. And was it my imagination? He held my hands a bit too long! I was obviously speechless not because I was viewing right infront of me a demi-god styled Naga Sadhu but because I had some other perception of sadhus.

With an Apple Macbook opened infront, the next few hours he went on to explain how he left home in Nadia of West Bengal and finally landed up in the Juna Akahada and how he now heads the whole clan of the one of the most famous order of Hindu spirituality. He was accompanied by an extremely pretty woman younger to me who I realised was from Holland and working on the Macbook showing us several photographs and texts on how Soham Baba and his clan has left a mark in other countries.

The feminist that I am, I asked him point blank: “Is she your Naga Sadhvi?” Baba was taken aback. He looked at me with that deep penetrating, and well should I say somewhat mischievous and sexy look and said she is like his daughter and clarified that Naga Sadhus are unique. Women can never form or join such order. I was quite angry at this typical male chauvinistic remark and then remembered how the Vedic scriptures also speak of Brahmins forming their own rules in the society to typically keep away the females from leading any religious ceremonies. May be Soham Baba also suffered from that Vedic dilemma!

I gulped my own protest, I realised it would not be apt for such a forum and how could I say much when he outright singled me out and sent an invite to meet him at his Dehradun abode where he said he retired at times. I of course never accepted the invite, I had no intention of acquainting myself with mystic gurus, but all these years have waited for the news of an all-female akhada. How can spiritualism be only a man’s domain?

And well, such an order has been formed at last.

  

Hindu women have broken away from tradition and formed a new all-female sadhvi akhada in India that they hope will end male domination of spiritual practices. In the northern city of Allahabad a group of women sadhus formally established their group or akhada, holding ceremonies on the banks of River Ganges which is considered sacred by Hindus.

Their leader Mahant Trikal Bhavanta, spoke to the media this Friday. It is believed that her akhada is the first of its kind in the history of Hinduism in India.

An akhada is a group of sadhus, reclusive ascetics or wandering monks who renounce normal life and are often widely respected for their holiness. India has more than a dozen such groups, all male dominated.

According to some Hindu lore, it is believed that the first akhada was formed by Hindu philosopher Adi Shankaracharya in the eighth century with the aim of safeguarding the religion’s interests.

Bhavanta said the all-women group was facing criticism from male sadhus, who claim the move goes against age-old customs. But nowhere in the Hindu scriptures is it mentioned that women cannot have an akhada of their own. The women are facing criticism from men because the move ensures that women sadhus or sanyasins as they are popularly known as will also rise in the seers’ hierarchy and the subjugation of women in the akhada system run by men will end.

So long the trend was of widows turning sanyasins in quest for enlightenment renouncing their worldly pleasures. But now any female can join this all women akhada without any fear of getting bullied or taunted by their male counterparts or even be sexually targeted at times.

And what more, Bhavanta said her akhada will participate with its own flag in the Maha Kumbh Mela to be held in Nasik next year putting an end to age-old customs for sure.