IndiaDivine

Noon Arati at Our Jagannatha Temple in Odisha

Grinding of sandalwood paste for Sri Varaha Narasimha at Simhachalam temple.

Devotees Play Damaru Drums During the Ambubachi Festival at Kamakhya Shaktipitha in Assam

Very Close Darshana of Lord Vittala Panduranga at Pandharpur.

Nityananda Baba and Dayalu Baba Drinking Tea on Makara Sankranti https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba Sitting at the Dhuni Fire in the Evening on Makara Sankranti

The lotus pond at Dayalu Baba's Ashram which is located on the edge of the Salandi Reserve Forest. We tried for years to get lotuses to grow here. The first few attempts failed, but eventually they took root and now there are thousands of lotus plants, and they come back every year. https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba shows us one of the lotus flowers from the ashram pond, which he picks and offers every morning to the deities at the cave temple. We tried for years to get lotuses to grow here. The first few attempts failed, but eventually they took root and now there are thousands of lotus plants, and they come back every year in season. https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba preparing hot water for devotees to bathe during the makara sankranti festival. This clip is from January of this year.

Village children play in a pile of straw at Dayalu Baba's ashram. https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba sitting with his cows at his ashram in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha.

Dayalu Baba shows us his mud stove at the ashram. He cooks on a mud stove using wood fire. Gas cylinders have not yet come to these areas.

Dayalu Baba making tea for visitors to the ashram. He cooks on a mud stove using wood fire. Gas cylinders have not yet come to these areas. Other than red tea, milk and sugar he also puts cardamom and cloves. Tea is seen as a cheap and quick food, especially among sadhus who don’t have much money. Often they don’t have milk so they drink red tea with salt and ginger, instead of the usual milk and sugar tea. The Britannia Marie Gold biscuit, or a cheaper local version, is often combined with the tea and makes up the breakfast or dinner. These are people who more or less eat one proper meal a day at noon (usually rice, dahl and chutney). For breakfast and dinner they try to make do with things like tea, which are mostly water. They fill their stomach with water, and wait for actual food at noon. They also work physically a lot more than city people like myself. They are always digging in the garden, climbing mountains and trees, and doing all sorts of physical labor which I could never do. There is no money in the villages. They eat the rice they grow themselves. Mostly they can’t just buy vegetables at will, because it costs a lot of money. They have to be very frugal with what they buy and what they eat. They have to trade their rice paddy if they want to buy something, and you don’t get a very good deal when you sell your rice paddy. So their eating of tea isn’t for a stimulant or as sense enjoyment. It’s simply part of the hard struggle of life to maintain their bodies with little money. Some of you may have noticed Baba pouring the first spoon of tea into the cooking fire. In Odisha most sadhus worship fire as Bhagavan in elemental form. All fire is considered as a yagya to them, and after cooking they pour the first amount into the fire as an offering to Bhagavan. https://www.bvashram.org

Sitting with 101 year old sadhu Brahma Chaitanya Das during akshaya tritiya festival at Chakratirtha, in Salandi reserve forest. https://www.bvashram.org

The kunda at Dayalu Baba Ashram is over flowing. The ashram is located in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha on the edge of the Salandi Reserve Forest. https://www.bvashram.org

An interesting ant's nest at Chakratirtha ashram in Salandi Reserve Forest.

Sitting with 101 year old sadhu Brahma Chaitanya Das at Chakratirtha, who recently returned after a year in Jharkhand to again reside at this tirtha.

Two sadhus meeting at Chakratirtha in Salandi Reserve Forest. On the left is 101 year old sadhu Brahma Chaitanya Das. I am not sure who the sadhu on the right is, as I had seen him for the first time.

Sadhu Mrityunjaya Baba leading Hare Krishna kirtan during the Akshaya Tritiya festival at Chakratirtha. He is the mahanta of saint Ram Baba's samadhi peetha in Jharkhand. Every year on Akshaya Tritiya the varshika utsava is held to commemorate the installation of Lord Shiva at this place. For seven days they do nonstop 24 hours Hare Krishna mahamantra kirtan and devotees from far away come to worship.

Shambhu the bull is still coming two or three times each day for food. You can hardly notice the scar on his back now.

A short clip of feeding spinach and vegetables to the ashram cows. If you would like to help feed the ashram cows, please call us or whatsapp to 8300181008. Thank you. https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba Carrying a Devi Shila from the Salandi River. Earlier this week I had posted about a Devi Shila that Dayalu Baba was going to collect from the Salandi River. One of his devotees sent me some small video clips of them bringing the shila back to the ashram. The video clips are low quality, but its still nice to see. For those who didn't read about the post, this is what I wrote last week: On March 31st Dayalu Baba took a group of devotees to the Salandi river to locate and bring back a shila. In this sacred river there are living stones called shivashakti that contain divine presence, much like the shalagramas of the Gandaki river or the banalingas of the Narmada river. After locating and worshiping the shila they returned to their ashram and made plans how to extract it. Yesterday they returned to the Salandi river with a group of devotees to carry the shila back to the ashram. They will stay the night on the river bed and perform a yagya in the night, and then in the morning, using long bamboos and ropes, they will carry the giant shila with the help of 30 devotees back to the ashram. https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba preparing parboiled rice. After boiling the rice paddy it is dried in the sun and then taken to a mill to remove the husk. The mill takes around 10% of your rice as milling charge. The exact charge is a bit peculiar. It's 20 rs. to process an old oil can filled of paddy (maybe its about a 15 litres oil can). Roughly it ends up coming to 10% of your total crop, which is a lot for just removing the husk. The entire agricultural system is designed to keep the farmers in poverty and push people to the city where the system can control them. Considering that the rice they grow and eat is only 20 rs. a kilo, the charge for milling is quite steep. They are taking 1 kg for every 10 kgs processed, and thats just for removing the husk. There are so many other stages of labor in growing and harvesting rice, but just for this one stage they take 10% of your crop. Parboiled rice is supposed to be more resistant to weevil infestation. Personally I don't like the taste and I only eat what they call "raw rice", which is not parboiled. Villagers tend to eat what we would consider the lowest grade rice. Very thick, dense and chewy rice. I guess the yield is higher for that than for basmati rice. Villagers always say they cant digest basmati rice, and most dont like the taste. This thick rice sells for around 20 rs. a kilo. Basmati is two or three times the cost, but the yield is less, and the processing more difficult. https://www.bvashram.org

Cows Grazing on Grass at Dayalu Baba's Ashram https://www.bvashram.org

Dayalu Baba shows me one of the pumpkins (boitalu) he grew.