NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 1, 2005: Many people in the United States dropped out and turned on in the 1960s as the country became involved in the Vietnam war and major cities became engulfed by race riots. Rampuri went a big step further — he disappeared into rural India and became a naked sadhu. For 21 years he wandered holy outposts, learned the rituals of sadhus — Hindu devotees covered in sacred ashes and sporting dreadlocks — from a guru and along the way abandoned his Western name and cut most contact with his family in Beverly Hills. Rampuri (54) says he is a rare Western witness to a demise of the ancient sadhu culture in India. The perch led him to realize that as a foreigner he could never fully understand the ways of the vast country, but equally he could never rejoin Western culture back in the US.
The traditions of sadhus in story telling, ayurvedic medicine, yoga and in giving aashirvad played an important role in India’s ability to withstand 20th century commercial trends as many people found the holy men a potent reminder against middle-class desire, Rampuri says. “But the sadhus who were plugged into that — that’s coming to an end. This is what really impressed me. These were people who could basically wander the country with no clothes, no money — nothing between you and the Earth. That is now in a tremendously rapid decline,” he says, dressed in an embroidered kurta pajama in an interview at a luxury hotel in New Delhi.
“The financial pressures on the sadhus now are just enormous — many people shoo them away. I am one of the few people to see that from both sides and I feel other things that bind me to the sadhus — but I still feel outside. I also feel an outsider to my own country. It’s an epiphany. I see that I have come to play a very unique position.”
As India liberalized its economy to imports and became a hub for outsourcing, Rampuri says he noticed that people chasing the new affluence increasingly ignored the holy men and found their practices out of touch. “I’ve seen it as devastating. We used to walk into a village trailed by kids waiting to hear our stories. Now there’s no one waiting,” Rampuri says. “They are not listening to the stories. TV now replaces the living babas. The smarter ones are now running businesses. They have learned to buy and sell. The ones who have understood all this change are the ones that have prospered. The ones that did not understand have been impoverished and their ancient knowledge is on the decline.”
Rampuri says the melas used to be sacred events but the last few have witnessed billboards for soft drinks and seen luxury tents erected for curious onlookers including newly affluent Indians. “The perception of India has changed in the last few years — many Indians don’t understand what’s happened,” Rampuri says. “But they embrace Coke and Pepsi. The idiot box has replaced word of mouth. It’s a pivotal moment. People have money now. It was never really needed before — a little income was enough. I see myself now as a witness to this.”
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