The New Sadhu

Sadhu is the Sanskrit word for "straight," and the straight-living, ascetic sadhus of India were once the bearers of Hindu holiness. Robed in saffron or stark naked, smeared with ashes or painted vermilion, shaven bald or mat-haired, they wandered through the world with their begging bowls, dispensing sacred teaching, sage advice and examples of the unworldly life. Inevitably another breed of sadhu arose that was anything but straight. Trading on the enormous prestige of the holy men, these daubed wanderers move from village to village dispensing magic charms and quack cure-alls and mulcting the credulous peasants. Today at least 75% of India's 8,000,000-odd sadhus are racketeering fakes. Last week something was being done about it for the first time. At Rishikesh, a Hindu holy place on the Ganges about 140 miles from New Delhi, officials opened the first of a series of training camps for sadhus.

Blood In the Brain. Purpose of the project is twofold: 1) to issue identity cards to all sadhus and thus drive the crooks out of business by denying them cards; 2) to harness sadhu selflessness for the social betterment of India. The pilot plant at Rishikesh, run by the Indian Association of Sadhus, is a complex of one-story concrete-and-brick buildings equipped with such unascetic features as electric lights, telephones, and outboard motor dinghies to ferry sadhus and supplies across the river. Fifty holy men from all over the country are spending a month there studying political philosophy, social service and hygiene, as well as the principles of Hinduism. Yoga exercises are also on the curriculum--not as a means to spiritual perfection but to tone up sagging sadhu physiques (students are reminded that Prime Minister Nehru stands on his head half an hour each morning to get plenty of blood into his brain).

The sadhus-in-training (one is an M.A. in philosophy and psychology, and several are retired government officials) rise at 4 a.m. and go to bed at 9 p.m., spend the day in prayers, lectures, exercises and devotional chants, plus the chorusing of such slogans as "Help Raise India" and "The Way to Godhood Is to Be Good, Do Good and Die."

Double-Edged Sword. The "government sadhus," as old-line holy men already contemptuously call them, are expected to return to their own parts of the country equipped to combat such evils as the caste system, official corruption, adulteration of foodstuffs and the disuniting influence of local dialects. They will also try to debunk the sadhu as an object of superstitious awe by presenting themselves simply as do-gooders, rather than miracle men, and interpreting Hindu scripture in terms of social service.

Explained one new-look sadhu at the training center last week: "We will be a double-edged sword, cutting at conservatism on the one hand, and on the other hand checking the ultramodern tendencies that threaten to destroy the Indian way of life and culture."

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