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“No problems!” said Pancha Das.

“God provides everything,” said Hanuman Baba.

“Solitude is the hardest part to handle,” said Bharati. He looked me straight in the eyes. There was no self-pity there, but also no sugar coating. Perhaps this is enlightenment: the simple ability to just tell the truth about your life to yourself and others.

“And what’s the most beautiful thing about this life?”

Pancha Das replied, “Life itself is wonderful. Even when we are in the mountains, we never go hungry. God provides. God finds someone to support us with food or whatever we need.”

“For example?”

“Tonight God sent the three of you to talk with us!” said Pancha Das (this was a subtle hint that we were expected to make a donation in exchange for this conversation).

Another sadhu named Hanuman Das wandered over to our group. He was barely five feet tall, wearing a big white turban that turned out to be mostly hair. He told us he was over one-hundred years old. To prove it, he took off his turban and displayed his matted hair which fell all the way to the flagstone floor. We expressed admiration for his advanced age.

“It’s because we are vegetarian,” the old man said, “and dedicate our lives praying to God. That prolongs our lives. Watch this!”

He grabbed his right foot and bent it up to touch the back of his ear, balancing neatly on the other foot. He looked around at the group, pleased at our astonished response. Satisfied that he had made his point, he coiled his hair back up into his turban, and wandered off into the night.

I resumed my questioning of the others:

“Why do you choose to stay here, at Pashupati?”

“Because this area belongs to God. He takes care of everybody,” said Pancha Das.

“And it brings people, who make donations. So God takes care of everybody,” added Hanuman, making another broad hint that we visitors had a cosmic duty to fulfill.

Bharati Baba added that Pashupati is one of the twelve Pindas—sacred sites of Siva: “So we come to pray here. It’s also the only site with a five-faced Siva linga in the whole world.”

“Five faced? I thought it was four faced?” I asked my journalist friends. They explained that the lingam has four faces—one on each side. But the faceless top which faced the sky was also considered a face—the highest and most abstract face of them all.

I continued to question the Sadhus.

“In our modern society life seems to move awfully fast. But you Sadhus seem to have stepped out of time. What’s it like for you, not to be part of this modern world?”

Bharati Baba was quick to respond, “Modern people need cell phones to talk and planes to travel. But if you meditate for twelve years, you can go into a trance and see the whole world.”

“When we journalists look at the world, we see problems—political, environmental, and social. What do you see?”

This generated strong discussion among the Sadhus and my friends. Eventually they translated the response: “Politics and economics just don’t exist for us. When we see ‘the world,’ we see sinners, criminals, and greedy people. So it doesn’t take up much of our attention.”

“When you look to the future, what do you see?”

Pancha Das replied enthusiastically: “A lot of joy—joy in the name of Siva.”

Hanuman jumped in: “We have given our lives to the devotion of Siva. Whatever comes, we accept it in the name of Siva.”

Bharati Baba didn’t say anything. I think he was finished with us sinners. I interpreted the look in his eyes to mean, “The future? That’s just a stupid question.”

Tim Ward is the author of What the Buddha Never Taught, Arousing the Goddess: Sex and Love in the Buddhist Ruins of India, Savage Breast: One Man’s Search for the Goddess, and the soon to be released Zombies on Kilimanjaro, an account of the journey he took with his son to the top of Africa. He travels to Nepal on a regular basis as a communications consultant for international development organizations. You can find him online at www.timwardsbooks.com.

AMANDA SUMMER SLAVIN

Into the Underworld

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