Juna Akhada recruits new ascetics during initiation ceremony

At the ongoing Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj,  over a thousand Naga sadhus gathered for the ritual to recruit new disciples into its fold on Saturday morning.

From 12-year-old to 80, the new initiates wore white loin cloth (langotis), had their heads tonsured and their beard shaved. All that remained on their head was a small choti (strand of hair) at the back. Their bodies were smeared with bhasma (sacred ashes) and they all chanted “har har Mahadev” in unison.

As a crowd gathered to witness the ritual, seers of Juna Akhada (monastic order),  tried to keep everyone away, stopping cameramen and people from taking videos and photographs of the ceremony. Juna Akhada  is the biggest of the 13 recognised  akhadas of the Naga sadhus.

The other akhadas will soon begin their initiation ceremony to recruit new disciples into their orders. The newly initiated Naga sadhus would lead an ascetic life, cutting themselves off from the world and their own past life. They would follow a life of celibate, wearing no clothes and cutting themselves off from worldly affairs.

The Juna akhada did not reveal the number of those initiated in its order. But according to some estimates, some 600 to 1000 were recruited by the monastic order.

According to one seer, around 800 were initiated in its order. The new recruits, during the ceremony which lasted for 24 hours,  had to undergo a ceremonial fast, having no food and water.

The new recruits were given janeu (sacred thread)  and babhuti (sacred ashes), and they performed pind daan (a ritual for the salvation of the ancestral). The pind daan signifies cutting off of the umbilical cord with the previous life.  At the end of the ceremony, the newly recruited sadhus  left the river bank chanting  Har Har Mahadev on their way to akhara, where the remaining rituals will be performed.

The rituals that follow the initiation ceremony are performed in secrecy at the akharas, where a hawan is performed and guru mantras are chanted and a “tung tod” ceremony is held. The latter signifies cutting off all forms of attachments and it completes the process of the initiation.

The rituals are concluded before the mauni amavasya, a new moon day, which is considered one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar. With mauni amavasya falling on January 29, new Naga sadhus will be visiting Prayagraj for a sacred bath in the river Ganga.

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