Sunday Snippets: The ageless godman
By Venkatesh Raghavan*It was a rainy evening and our discussion was veering around the Godmen of India. I was seated in the lawn of the Mumbai Press Club and was in the company of a veteran RTI activist by the name Manoranjan Roy who told me that unlike the current day Godmen who were in the news for all the wrong reasons, there was a genuine one who never sought any publicity or fame.
His words set me thinking. I asked whether he was among the famed astrologers whom politicians usually consult, when elections are round the corner. Roy shook his head vigorously before giving out the name.
Yes I had read enough about him. He was Devraha Baba (see above photo courtesy Wikipedia) who was believed to have survived for centuries and even some of the pre-independence era politicians were known to have sought his advice.
In a chapter on Devraha Baba, Vincent J. Daczynski writes that the Godman’s family tree records place his age to be at least 250 years when he took mahasamadhi (relinquished his body). However, there were rumours floating that Devraha Baba himself claimed that he had lived for over 700 years. Daczynzki writes that could be possible because Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, once said that he personally attests to Devraha Baba being at least 150 years old. He said that when he was 73 years old, his father took him to see the Godman, who was a very old man, and that his father already had known Baba for many years before that. Daczynski further writes that an Allahabad High Court Barrister had stated that seven generations of his family had sat at the feet of Devraha Baba. Incidentally, the Godman had predicted the time of his death five years in advance.
My curiosity got kindled. I asked Roy to tell more, especially about the role he played in guiding two generations of the Gandhi family.
Roy began his narrative on how after the ‘Operation Blue Star’ during her regime in the early eighties, Indira sought his advice on the recommendation of a senior party functionary. Devraha Baba handed her a Rudraksha mala and said as long as you keep wearing it in all your outdoor ventures, you will be safe.
On 31st October 1984, Mrs Gandhi stepped out of her house to attend a television interview to be held by a foreign media house. Roy mentioned that she did recall that she had forgotten to wear the Rudraksha mala. Alas! it was too late and the rest we all know is history.
In the late eighties, senior politicians helped Rajiv Gandhi get an audience with Devraha Baba. The Godman told Rajiv, lay the foundation stone for the Ram temple at Ayodhya and you will live for a 100 years. Rajiv Gandhi started arguing and was whisked away by the senior politicians. The Baba was aware that a violent death was lying in wait for Rajiv.
However, advice going unheeded in no way could help the situation. Devraha Baba passed away on June 19, 1990. Indeed such people have no desire to be in the limelight and have no care for earthly possessions. Only when someone sought help or guidance, they communicate verbally.
Not surprisingly, little is known about his early life except that in the first half of the 20th century he visited Maiel, a town 20 km south west of Salempur, Uttar Pradesh, where he started living atop a machan, a high platform made of wooden logs. Thereafter, he shifted to Vrindavan, where again he lived atop a machan on the banks of Yamuna river for the rest of his years. He used to bless the devotees with his feet.
There were 100s of such Sadhus who never wanted any publicity or fame. Nor they needed any material possessions, as they lived on very simple life. People used to offer them fruits and food, even that they will eat very few and the rest distributed to the needy ones around. Why, Kachina Maha Periyava was such personality whom I met on few occasions. We just cannot predict their age but they were more advanced than us in many ways, using their telepathy n foreseeing many things in advance.