Paramadvaiti Maharaja visits SRSG

Paramadvaiti Swami, founding father of the Vaishnava Vrinda Mission came to visit SRSG yesterday. He had come to the Kumbha Mela and wanted to visit Swami Veda.

You can find his biography on the Vrinda website. He has so many interesting projects going on around the world, of which I will only mention two: the World Vaishnava Association, and the Eco Truly Ashram in Peru. A five minute video in Spanish here.

He is a humanitarian bursting with ideas and nearly always tries to get them transposed into reality. He said to me, "I consider it my job to give work to others." So literally thousands of people are engaging in these projects, mostly in South America, but also in Europe and India. There are several hundred Vrinda Mission centers around the world. And too many websites to list here, but if you know Spanish, you will find surfing through all those given above interesting.


He came with a group of 15 devotees, mostly a group from Colombia that was touring India.

Swamiji singing on his patented ukelele in the meditation hall. I think the devotees here would have gladly listened to him for an hour. He surprised me as I did not know he was that good.

He spoke on spiritual education in the modern materialistic world, in accordance with his latest project, the Oida therapy program, which he freely admits is related to the 12-step AA project, but is intended to cultivate faith and a sense of meaning in life.


Afterwards we went up and had a very enjoyable dinner conversation with Swami Veda. Here is the de rigueur group photo.

Radhe Radhe.

Vijaya Ramaswamy and Sethu Ramaswamy

I met Vijaya Ramaswamy, professor of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) a couple of months ago, through Joseph O'Connell. She asked me to present a paper at a conference on devotion and dissent in Indian history. So that is where I was last week, March 11-13.

She was very hospitable and I especially enjoyed meeting her mother, Sethu, and so I thought I would just write a short blog about them.



Vijaya's mother, Sethu Ramaswamy, seen here with her nine-year-old grandson, Vijay Krishna, is a pretty amazing woman. She wrote a memoir called Bride at Ten, Mother at Fifteen which I just finished reading this morning.

What I like about Sethu Ramaswamy is her energy. At the age of 86, she has just published her third book in the last ten years, on the life of Raman Maharshi. In fact, she got her M.A. in history when she was 80.

She was born into an elite Tamil brahmin family with royal connections in the Travancore kingdom, spent the first part of her life in Ceylon, then in Trivandrum and finally the major part of it after marriage in Delhi. Despite being a member of the privileged elite, education was not a part of a woman’s destiny in those times, and when she was married at the age of ten, her formal schooling was stopped. Her memoir, though I wish at times that it were a little more detailed, gives a fair account of the changing face of India in the 20th century, both the good and the bad, particularly where attitudes to women, etc., were concerned.

One interesting anecdote, which she told me in person, was that at one point, she decided to open a bank account to deposit the money that came from selling all the newspapers that accumulated in their house. Her husband was a journalist and received six different papers each day. When he found out that his wife had opened a bank account, he was furious and made her close it immediately.

The turning point comes when, upon reading Pearl Buck’s Pavilion of Women at the age of 40, she decided to strike out independently. She stood up on her birthday and announced to her husband and six daughters that she had decided to take control of her own life. And it was then that she began her education in earnest, even while she continued to carry out her responsibilities as a wife and mother.

Vijaya Ramaswamy has also written several books of a very high standard of scholarship. As her mother writes, “Vijaya, my youngest, is the scholar of the family. Apart from being a university teacher, she has authored three books. Though by profession a historian, she has, because of her deep religious faith, done her research on spiritual movements, especially women saints. She is also into Women’s Studies. Her marriage to Krishnan, who like my husband is a freelance journalist and research consultant, has given me the greatest happiness in my life.” There is, a big story behind that, as they were married when she was 44, and they still were able to have this marvelous son.

Vijaya’s book on south Indian women saints, Walking Naked, is an impressive piece of scholarship with a great deal of analysis about the expectations of women in society and the renunciation of these roles by these brave sadhvis.

Her book is a delight to read. She is a good story teller, but the real value of her narration lies in the fact that she is sharing a remarkable personal insight into the subject, and not simply a scholarly one. It reminds me of Karen Armstrong's style in The Case for God, simultaneously a scholarly and devotional approach, which is somewhat controversial in academic circles, in that she does not simply accept the kind of feminist critique that sees religion itself as a patriarchal institution, without admitting of a true transcendence beyond gender.

In almost every one of Vijaya's observations I found confirmation of my own view that women's saintliness has always been coupled with dissent, a protest against prevalent gender roles. Like Elizabeth Abbott in A History of Celibacy, she shows that the female experience of spirituality is different from that of men, and that this is directly related to their differing attitudes to and experiences of gender roles and sexuality.


This is a picture of me talking to her. She was very busy organizing the conference and playing the host. I will try to give a short summary of the papers and presenters, if I get a chance. That is a big job and doubtful. I will publish my own paper on the other blog.


Vijaya Ramaswamy with her husband Krishnan.

Conference at Panjabi University, Patiala

As already intimated on the Jagat blog, I have been in Patiala at the Punjabi University for the past few days, participating in a conference. Here are a few pictures of the place and the participants.

Punjabi University has a beautiful modern campus, with well-laid out roads, many parks and gardens, including a botanical garden. I did not include many of my pictures of the campus as they do not show much that is really unique, but this photo of the Guru Gobind Singh research library gives a general impression of the way that it has been designed. This library has 40,000 books on religion and philosophy and houses the Encyclopedia of Sikhism project, which is headed by Prof. Jodh Singh. This is the department that hosted the conference, along with Swami Veda's Institute of Meditation and Interfaith Studies.

Since I represented one of the hosting organizations, I got top billing! I did not realize it until I saw this on one of my walks around the campus. If you are interested in what I had to say, look here and here.

I don't have photos of everyone who participated. This photo shows, left to right, Sirajul Islam, professor of philosophy and Sufism at Rabindra Bharati University, Shantiniketan. I had the fortune of meeting him at the Kolkata conference a couple of months ago, so it was a bit of a surprise to meet him again.

To his right is Balkar Singh, head of department for Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies, who was president of the last session in Punjabi. I could not understand him except for the English and Hindi words he used, but like many of the senior Sikh scholars, he showed a great deal of gravitas and learning, equally adept in using Western and Eastern concepts.

Kazi Nurul Islam is the head of one of the most liberal educational institutes in Bangladesh, the Department of World Religions and Culture at Dhaka University. This is the only institution teaching comparative religion in Bangladesh, he told me. Interestingly, my old friend and mentor Joseph O'Connell from the University of Toronto has been affiliated with this department for several years, and from what I gather is making an incredibly valuable contribution to the school, and by extension, to Bangladesh. He has been participating there more actively since his retirement at UofT. Prof. Islam has a Ph.D. in Vedanta from Benares Hindu University, which is where he first met Jodh Singh, which shows a bit how these things work.

After me, there is Gurnam Singh Sanghera, who lives in Burnaby, B.C. Missed the winter Olympics to come to this, I guess. He spoke on "Religion for Peace, a Sikh Perspective." Unfortunately, he tried to condense too much into a short time frame and so many of his very interesting ideas on the causes of bigotry, etc., were not developed.

Dr. D.N. Gangadhar from the Philosophy and Religions Department of BHU is a scholar of philosophy and has done a lot of work on Radhakrishnan, specifically.

Last is Hardev Singh from Jammu University. He spoke in Punjabi, so I did not fully understand it, but we had some good talks together.

This is D.A. Gangadhar with Paramvir Singh, one of our hosts. He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Sikhism and had just come out with a book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib: Chintan ate Vichara-dhara.

Dr. Bhuvan Chandel, Secretary of the Center for Studies in Civilization, Science and Culture, New Delhi. She gave the keynote address, mostly speaking on Islamic philosophy.

Dr. Charanjit Kaur, from Bhopal, who spoke on the essence of all religions, and Dr. Deepali Bhanot. Dr. Bhanot is a Sanskrit professor at Delhi University, but is an activist with wide interests, working with the Interfaith Coalition for Peace, and against child sexual exploitation, and in women's issues. Moreover, she has been involved for some time with Unifem in helping widows in the Braj area, helping to open a successful hostel for them there in recent years. See Spirituality, Poverty, Charity Bring Widows to Vrindavan. She is contributor to a recent volume, Gender Concerns in South Asia (University of Delhi, 2008)

Fatihgarh Gurudwar

On the last day of the conference, we went to Fatehgarh Sahib, a major pilgrimage center for Sikhs about 35 kilometers from Patiala.

Once again, I am only showing a few photos, but let it be said that this a very beautifully maintained house of worship.

This photo is taking in the basement of the building. This gurudwara commemorates the assassination of Guru Gobind Singh's two young sons who were walled in alive while being told to convert to Islam or die. On either side of the sanctum sanctorum one can see there is akhanda path of Guru Granth Sahib. In the entire complex, there are a total of six such constant readings of the Sikh holy book. There was also a very mellow kirtan going on upstairs, with the names of Govinda and Gopal being sung. Sikhs don't think of Govinda and Gopala quite in the way we do, but it is nice to hear them sing these names.

This is the altar on the main floor of the building. Spotless white marble and the entire building and grounds are kept impeccably clean.


I was wondering whether I was allowed to be taking photographs--a lot of places don't like it so much--but as I was wondering, the manager of the Gurudwara pointed to the ornately decorated ceiling and told me to take a picture of it. "Gold," he said.


Here is an iconographical poster being sold. Bhai Satiram Ji. I don't know the story, but clearly arising from the the Muslim-Sikh wars period.

Another image of Sikh martyrdom. This one says Bhai Mani Singh Ji. Looks like he is about to lose a hand or a finger.

This is a martyr from more recent days. This is Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale. He died in 1984, which was a very eventful year for Sikhs--the Air India bombing, the attack on the Golden Temple and the assassination of Indira Gandhi, followed by the pogroms in Delhi, when Sikhs were massacred by angry Hindus. It seems that the resentments that led to the Khalistan demands are still simmering, and that was the elephant in the room at the Interfaith Dialogue and Peace conference. I talked to one of the participants about it in the train on the way to Delhi and he immediately became very passionate. "How can you forget this history?" he asked.

This colorful gentleman posed for us quite happily. This is not a separate subgroup of Sikhism, but the traditional warrior dress. I only saw elderly men in this garb, though. My Sikh friend said, in defense of Bhindrenwale, that people do not understand how weapons can be considered sacred and this is at least part of the source of the problem...

This is our group (left to right) Dr. Jaspreet Kaur Sandhu, Prof. D.A. Gangadhar, Prof. Kazi Nurul Islam, Dr. Jagat Ram Bhattacharyya, Dr. Deepali Bhanot, Prof. Jodh Singh, Dr. Hardev Singh. The orange siropas were given as a gesture of greeting by the head of the gurudwara, Amrit Singh.

A few more Haridwar pictures

One of the things that I liked in Haridwar are the buildings. There are many graceful homes, ashrams and temples. I did not take many photos of these, unfortunately, and so the two that I have posted are rather a poor sample.

This building is freshly painted for the Kumbha, but I like that traditional balcony. The streets themselves are nicely paved and quite clean, at least in this part of town, which is close to the railroad station and therefore has most of the hotels. But near the Ganga there are many, many ashrams. Maybe next time. As I already said, my battery died and I was unable to go on taking pictures.

The picture above is of a dharma shala (a low-cost hotel for pilgrims) on the main street going by the railway station.

Iskcon has a big pandal right near the main bridge crossing the Ganga to the tent city. They are sending out this ox-cart with a dozen or so brahmacharis to do kirtan through the town. This is just next to the above building.

There are police encampments all over the place. Various different army and reserve police forces are present ensuring the safety of the event. This particular encampment is nicely arranged with even lions at the gate. There is a kind of rock garden at the entrance also holding the flag, etc.

I was joking that the police and soldiers were acting just like sadhus--they are living in tents without women, decorating their camps with the insignia of their platoons and so on. I really got a laugh the next day when I heard one soldier greet another with the expression, namo narayana, which is the standard sannyasi greeting.

A closeup of that lion.

Everyone is getting into the act. Near the new two storey parking lot on the far side of the highway and at the edge of one of the tent cities, I saw these poor children carrying stones. They were building a kind of shrine with a sadhu picture they had found. There are several tent cities for beggers and sweepers as well. This locale is actually a shit-field.

A nice newer part of town, which has been built up since the 50's is the area surrounding the Sapta Rishi Ashram. I did not catch the name of the ashram where these figures of the Pandavas and Draupadi on their way to the Himalayas were housed, but I thought it worth photographing. The dog, as you Mahabharata fiends may recall, was actually Indra.

Some baby donkeys... Even donkeys are cute when they are very young.

This 50-foot Shiva statue standing by the Ganga is one of the tourist attractions of Haridwar. There is a nice walk from here that takes you to Harki Pauri. They are currently painting it in preparation for the main events of the Kumbha which appear to be taking place in March.

I just had to include this underwear model. Some of those Indian mannequins really get to me.

Radhe Radhe!!

Haridwar Sadhu Posters

The Kumbha Mela is really a sadhu convention. And that means lots of advertising. Haridwar is cluttered with hundreds of billboards advertising the coming of various sadhus and sannyasis, whose large pandal tents are dotting the tent city that is the Kumbha Mela. I started to photograph as many of the signs as I could, much in the way that a 10-year-old collects bubble gum cards, trying to get a full set. Unfortunately my battery died and I had no recharger with me.

Here are some of the highlights.

(1) This is a poster for Sri Panchadasa Nam Juna Akhara. Haridwar has a number of Akharas, which are maths or ashrams, or central seats for different sampradayas of sannyasis. I am not quite sure of the relationship of these lineages to the Shankara dasanamis. I talked briefly to one sadhu in the tent city and he explained that this specific line was descended from Dattatreya, the avadhut mentioned in the 11th canto of the Bhagavatam.

The akharas award the title of Mahamandaleshwar, as can be seen on this poster. The Juna Akhara sannyasis all seem to have the Giri title, as with Devananda Giri on the right here.

(2) This poster was in the tent city in the Juna Akhara section, but he does not state that affiliation. Mahamandaleshwar Swami Viyogananda Saraswati of Ishavasyam Ashram at Gangotri, which has a branch at Haridwar.

(3) This is the ubiquitous Pilot Baba. He has literally hundreds of posters. His pandal is up and he is one of the first to really make his presence felt at the Kumbha Mela. I did not go to see him, but I hear that his claim to fame is that he gets buried alive for days at a time. He has a Japanese woman disciple who has learned how to do that as well. A giant billboard was standing at the entrance to his camp. He is also apparently a part of the Juna Akhara.

(4) This poster shows the iconography of the Shanti Kunja or Gayatri Family (Parivar). These people are extremely visible and active. They have a huge property on the Rishikesh-Haridwar Road that extends all the way to the Ganges in the Saptarishi Ashram area. This property has a large number of multi-storey apartment buildings as well as a fairly modern university.

The goddess on the billboard is Gayatri and the Gayatri mantra is around her. They post little stick-its with rather anodyne slogans on them in all the buses and trains. Like the one here, "Man is not a slave of his circumstances, but their controller and master." One fruit juice vendor in town had one of these slogans pasted to his cart. It said something like, "Never forget that you are the most important person in the world." I kidded him about it, but he was pretty juiced up about it. The founder is the rather uncharismatic looking Sri Ram Sharma, who has written numerous books that I have not read.

(5) This nicely touched up photo of Avadheshananda Giri is one of the more common around town. He is a Mahamandaleshwara, but does not advertise his affiliation to an akhara. Avadheshananda has written numerous popular books that are sold at almost every popular outlet for religious books. He appears to be a popular kathaka.

(6) Probably the second most numerous in terms of billboards is the following one of Ramananda sampradaya acharya Swami Narendracharyaji Maharaj. His signs all say "The Hindi Religion is in Danger." All the signs give a different reason for this danger. I am sorry that I only have this one, as it would have been good to catalog all the reasons given. This one says, "Our Hindu brothers do not get religious instruction in childhood." This is followed by the rousing, "Rise up! Step forward! Protect Dharma!"


(7) Ravi Shankar of "Art of Living" fame is one of the top gurus in India. He is from Bangalore I believe. He is here advertising "Maha Rudra Puja" which is shown in the picture.

(8) Hands down winner in the billboard competition is Soham Baba. This poster is in Hindi ("Stop Global Warming"), but he was the only advertiser who was more frequently spreading his message in English. He really touched all bases and seems to really be out to save the world. We got a good laugh out of one poster showing him giving sandesh from a typical Indian sweet box to a docile line of African villagers dressed in their tribal costumes. Another notable billboard shows him walking in Holland past a windmill being followed by a small crowd of Europeans. Yet another shows him in the middle of a crowd being flanked by two very sinister looking white bodyguards. This man is pushing for the top... He has a mission! He is also Juna Akhara.

There are plenty more and maybe I will go back and collect some more.. We still have a couple more months of Mela.

Haridwar Waterfront

I just thought I would post these pictures showing how Haridwar has arranged its Ganga area. It is quite nicely done. This first picture is taken from the gondola lift to Manasa Devi. You can see the old Ganga bed on the far side and the canal segment running next to the town. The main highway runs in between the two waterways, but there is also a nice green park in that space. The main Kumbha Mela tent city is on the far side of the bridge that crosses the Ganga to the upper left of the picture.

This picture is taken from the Hardwar city side looking toward the above mentioned green area between the canal and old Ganges bed. Ghats line both sides of the canal.

This image shows a painted slogan on the ghat wall. It says "India's soul resides in its holy places. The development of the holy places is India's development."


Looking upstream from a bridge, the name of which I forget. There are quite a few bridges crisscrossing the canal portion of the Ganga, which is where most of the bathing goes on. Many were built just for the Kumbha and most are for pedestrian traffic alone. Most come to bathe at Harki Pauri, which is in this direction but cannot be seen on the photo.

Looking downstream from the same bridge. The park is on the left side.

Another view from the same ghat as above.

Here is a scene of the original Ganga bed, with donkeys bringing stones across.

On the whole, I was quite favorably impressed by Haridwar. Clearly a great amount of money has come in for the Kumbha Mela, but the money appears to have been well used. There are still spots that are glaringly unkept, but much of the riverfront is in good condition and is being kept clean.

If only Vrindavan could be kept so nicely.