FUTURE WORRY

The Ardh Kumbh Mela is attracting hundreds of sadhus. But what draws them to the holy event?

A sanyasi for the past 60 years, Mahant Rameshwar Tyagi does not believe in it anymore. He has realised that being a sadhu has not taken him anywhere.

He wants to give up his sadhuhood and now Tyagi is running after astrologers at the Kumbh Mela to know his future.

“I do not wish to be a sadhu in my next birth. It is not worth it,” says Tyagi.

Head covered with a white cloth, and sporting a beard, sadhu Brahmacharya Das is very open about the questions he's asking his astrologer.

“I want to know when I will be able to establish my math,” asks Das.

Yogis visiting the Kumbh Mela feel that there is an increase in the number of sadhus who give greater priority to their personal needs and wants.

“Everyone whether a sadhu or not is worried about his future,” says an astrologer, Rameshji Maharaj.

Considering the future is not only the concern of you and me but also of those who renounce the world and talk about worldly detachment, it's perhaps time we change our views about the saffron clad and matted hair mystics.