Becoming Shiva
This sadhu was meditatiing, in divine bliss, at the corner of Prayag ghat along the Ganges in Varanais (Benaras).
He is a daśnāmī sannyāsin, an Hindu Śaiva ascetic who belongs to one of the 10 orders (daśnāmī, “ten names”) established by the philosopher Śaṅkara in the 8th century ad and still flourishing in India today.
Paying particular allegiance to Lord Shiva, this man is trying to resemble the God, the Master of Yogis, as he is known through ancient myths and popular legends.
He wears a mark (tilaka), made with ash from a cremation fire, consisting of three horizontal bands across the forehead and on other parts of their body, and a necklace-rosary consisting of 108 rudrākṣa seeds.
In emulation of Lord Shiva, he has extremely long strands of hair (jata), regarded as the ‘seat’ of his supernatural powers.
Those hair are tied in a topknot with a snake which I realized much later was alive and moving.
In the evening I was with my friend Varun who took pictures with me that day and we saw on the computer screen that the snake took several positions from a picture to another.
This is a link to Varun’s version:
www.flickr.com/photos/varunmalhotra/3131360642/in/set-721…
May 28, 2009 at 12:02
I love your photos. The colors, lighting, angles, subjects, fantastic!
Am I correct, the snake in this picture is a cobra?
If you have any shots of Orissa/Jagannath/Puri please leave a comment and let me know. I’ll keep in touch with follow-ups. We have a magazine, “Sri Krishna Kathamrita” which is aimed primarily at a vaishnava audience. I would be interested to put some of your shots in our upcoming issue.