Kumaon – the cradle of saints

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Kumaon – the cradle of saints

The famed Neem or Neeb Karoli Baba sitting outside his Kainchi Dhaam ashram

There are three famous saints, whose glory is spread far and wide, who trudged this part of the holy land that is known as Kumaon of Uttarakhand.  The trio of saints comprised of Neeb (also Neem) Karoli Baba, Hairakhan Baba and Sombari Baba.  The lives of these holy saints appear to be intertwined mysteriously in this siddha bhoomi (pious land) of Kumaon.  All the three holy saints are Siddhas and one who is fully accomplished and self-realized beings and in consonance with the Gods.  Out of these three, only Shri Shri Sombari Baba does not enjoy much of international fame, but the remaining two i.e. Hairakhan or Haidakhan Baba and Neem Karoli Baba have a substantial following in the Western hemisphere as well.

Sombari Baba

The ashram of Sombari Baba in Padampuri

Sombari Baba does not enjoy any substantial following in the West and the main reason for the same is that he had passed on to his heavenly abode in 1919 and very few westerners had the opportunity to meet him.  This famed saint got his name from the day of a week i.e. Sombar or Monday, as he used to organize a langar (community lunch or dinner) on Mondays for all those who visited him on this day.  An anecdote is associated with this act of his.  It is said that the saint was a great healer and used to give medicine in form of various plants and their by-products to the locals, who had started thronging his Ashram for the same.  This affected the business of Doctors doing business in Almora and they started a vilification campaign against him and due to regular interference by the Britishers, on behest of these doctors, he abandoned his practice of providing medicines.  But he came up with the innovative way of providing food to the visitors that acted as medicine and for this act of providing the free food on Mondays, he came to be known about as Sombari Baba.  It is said that through one of his miracles, food never ran short even if the number of visitors were in great numbers and no one knows as to from where he got the resources for running the said community food kitchen.

Sombari Baba

             No one knows for sure as to where this great Saint was born, but assumption is that he was born in between 1815-1827, in a small town called Pind Dadankhan.  The holy saint had no belongings except for a small cloth bag, a tiger skin and a chillum.  He was a very simple person, never seeking anything from anyone nor took to preach anyone.  He resided at two places namely Karkarighat during summers and in Padampuri during winters.  The other saints who roamed the region during his period or afterwards regarded him in high esteem and Neem Karoli Baba even built the Ashrams at the two destinations that the Sombari Baba lived in.  About his divinity, it is said that all those who visited this holy saint from far and wide were never ever attacked by any wild animals (that roamed this region in large numbers, especially tigers) or any bodily harm came upon them while traversing the treacherous hilly terrain to meet him. 

Another photograph of  Sombari Baba

             From the sources in internet, it appears that Sombari Baba was a ‘haat yogi’ and practiced a kind of ‘fire ritual’ as way to appropriating the Gods.  It is said that he used to get up very early in the mornings and prepare four wood ‘homa kunds’ (Fire ritual pyre) along the four geographical directions and used to sit in the middle of it meditating for hours.  It appeared as if he had been engulfed by the fires raging all around and it is said that every ‘homa kund’ emanated a different color of flame.  It is said that he told one of his followers that ‘Agni’ (Fire) is the vehicle on which life sustains within the entire universe and to be one with the all-encompassing God, one has to propitiate him appropriately.  It is also said that this holy saint always had the premonition about the person who was about to visit him or for what purpose the person had come.  It is sad that none of this teachings or preaching’s or methods of ‘Yagna’ (lighting of holy fire pyre) could be preserved for posterity, as he did not have any well versed follower at that point of time who could record the same.

Sombari Baba with his chillum

            At present the ashrams where Sombari Baba spent most of his time i.e. Karkarighat on Almora highway and one at Padampuri are functional and may be visited by those desirous of experiencing the places venerated by this great soul.

Hairakhan or Haidakhan Baba

Temple and ashram dedicated of Hairakhan Baba in Chinyalisaur, Ranikhet

The Kumaon region of the present Uttarakhand State was a place endowed with rich flora and fauna in the past and small townships and villages were scattered all along the hills, especially near streams and other water sources.  One of such small hamlets was called Hairakhan village that was situated on the south side of the Hairakhan jungle.  During the late nineteenth century, the villagers were intrigued and beguiled by a strange bright light that appeared on a hill top in the mountain in the jungles during the evenings.  After a few days, this strange light started appearing near the village as well.  The people started gathering around the place from where the light was emanating and they found a saint with a radiant glow all around him.  Since he had emerged from the forest of Hariakhan, the villagers started calling him Hairakhan Baba.  The villagers wanted this saintly person to stay with them and after detailed discussions, it was decided to house him in the room of the forest guard named Dham Singh, who used to stay alone.  Afraid that the Baba would wonder out by himself in the forest or will be taken away by persons of other nearby villages, he used to lock up the Baba in his room, whenever he went out for his daily duties.   However, one day some other folks from nearby villagers wanted to visit Hairakhan Baba during the day time, during absence of Dhan Singh and reached his shack.  The villagers found the doors locked and all windows properly barred, so they broke open the lock but could not find Babaji inside.  Thereafter, Hairakhan Baba appeared in a cave in the Hairakhan jungle.  It is believed that Hairkahan Baba was another form of the famed Maha avtar Babaji, who is believed to be a form assumed by Lord Shiva himself to visit the Earth plane and Babaji’s appearance was sudden in the year 1890 and was interspersed with sudden disappearances and re-appearances in the Northern region of India till his final disappearance in a ball of light before his devotees in 1924.  He is said to have traversed back to holy Kailash to meditate.

Maha avtar Babaji

A possible photograph of Mahavtar Babaji

            It is said that the holy Hairakhan Babaji did not communicate frequently and ate only when offered food by his devotees.  He appeared to be a person of slim body with a youthful radiance and had an unusually fast gait.  His appearances and disappearances were always unpredictable.  He was seen with Tibetan Lamas on many occasions and the Buddhist monks and his attire consisted of a Lama Skull cap.  It is said that Baba was proficient in many languages and used to communicate with the persons/devotees in their language and hence it was very difficult to identify his place of origin as well.  He had all the known siddhas (Yogic powers) and occasionally performed miracles in a natural way according to the circumstances at hand. But mostly people were drawn to him because of the bliss they experienced in his presence.  His fame grew after a devotee, named Mahendra Bramhachari, who had a divine vision about him 1949, started collecting information about Hairakhan Babaji and spent thirty five years traversing the places visited by Babaji and collected first had accounts and anecdotes associated with Babbaji.  He penned his collection under the title ‘Punya Smriti’ under the pseudo name of Guru Chanasrit.  The other source of information about the famed Hairakhan Babaji can be accessed through another book written by Baba Hari Dass titled ‘Unknown’ published in USA in 1975 by the Sri Ram Foundation.

The said reincarnation of Hairakhan Baba - Sri Sri 1008 Hairakhan wale Baba

            The present day, so called reincarnation of famed Hairakhan Baba and known as Sri Sri 1008 Hairakhan wale Baba made his appearance in 1970 and left for his heavenly abode on 14^th February, 1984.  At present there is a temple cum ashram dedicated to this holy saint at Chinyalinaula in Ranikhet and another at the place he originally appeared i.e. Hairakhan village.

Neem or Neeb Karoli Baba

The famed ashram of Neem Karoli Baba at Kainchi Dham

The most famous of the trio of Saints was the Neem or Neeb Karoli Baba.  Born to a Brahmin family in the year 1900 as Lakshmi Narayan Sharma in Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh to the family of Durga Prasad Sharma, this great saint left for his heavenly abode in the year 1973.  It is said that he had a vision in his 17^th year of life wherein Lord Hanuman is said to have initiated him on to the way of sainthood.  Fearing loss of his child, he was married off by his father and after the birth of his youngest daughter, he left his home to become a Sadhu.

Neem Karoli Baba during his younger age

          It is said that after a few years of wandering around, one day while travelling on a train, the Ticket Collector sought his ticket and on informing that he did not have any money to buy the same, he was unceremoniously deboarded from the train at a small station called Neem Karoli in Nanital region.  Thereafter, Babaji went and sat under the shade of the tree near the Kosi River and when the train started, despite the engine running, the train failed to budge from its place.  Despite several engineers trying to make it run, the train would not budge, in spite of the fact that there was nothing wrong with the engine.  Finally some passengers pointed out to the Railway authorities that they should approach the Sadhu and seek his forgiveness.  After many attempts, since the train failed to move, the Railway authorities approached Maharaj ji, who agreed to board the train on one condition that a regular station would be built at the village of Neem Karoli and upon his boarding the train, it moved easily.  After this incident, he came to be known as ‘Neem Karoli Baba’, but as the westerners were unable to pronounce the word ‘Neem’ it gradually became ‘Neeb Karoli Baba’. 

Neem Karoli Baba during his mid life

On hearing about this incident, his father immediately rushed to the village of Neem Karori to meet and get his son. There he met Maharajji and ordered him to return home. Maharajji followed his father’s instructions and returned. This was the beginning of two different types of life that Maharajji led. One that of a householder and the other that of a saint. He devoted time towards his responsibility of a householder and at the same time he continued to look after his bigger family i.e. the world at large. However, there was no difference in his life and style of living when discharging duties of a householder or that of a saint. In his family as a householder he has two sons and a daughter.

Neem Karoli Baba in his late life

               Neeb karoli Baba also called ‘Maharaj ji’ by his disciples, preached that all were one – ‘Sab Ek’, he emphasized upon loving all beings, serve everyone, to tell the truth always and to remember God.  He was an ardent worshipper of Lord Hanuman and being deeply devout, followed the ‘bhakti path’ for attaining enlightenment.  He was also known as the miracle baba, as he could manifest himself at two places at the same time or putting his disciples in deep state of trance or Samadhi with touch of his fingers.  There are several anecdotes related with his miraculous ways, one goes as that during a huge community lunch being hosted at his ashram, there was shortage of ghee, upon being informed, he asked the cook to fill one drum of water from the nearby rivulet and he just touched it and the cooking medium poured forth from the container.  Another one goes that one day during hot summer afternoon, one of his ardent devotee visited him, on his way back a patch of cloud continuously moved and shielded the devotee from the rays of the relentless sun till he reached his residence.  Yet another one goes that one of the daughters of his disciple was very sick and on his request he visited his household and cleverly occupied the bed the girl was sleeping on, he suffered pain and fever throughout the night and the girl recovered fully the next day.  It is touted that during their struggling days both Steve Jobs and Kottle had visited his Ashram in India, although Maharaj ji no longer manifested in the worldly form, yet after their brief stay at Ashram, both of them reached the zenith of their business i.e. Apple Inc.  On advice of Steve Jobs, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zukerberg has also admitted regarding his visit to the famed ashram during the period when he was struggling to establish his business.

Baba Neem Karoli during is old age

At present the disciples of Neeb Karoli Baba maintain several ashrams all across India and abroad, but the two that stand out are the one at Vrindavan and other at Kainchi Dham on the Almora Highway in Nainital District of Uttarakhand.

[The information and photographs have been sourced from the internet and books, especially after reading the 'Autobiography of a Yogi' – this article is to provide a short & precise insight into the lives and works of these three famed Babas of Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.  Please feel free to comment, if any inputs are factually incorrect.]