I met baba Hariom, a sâdhu or holy man, when I made my first walk around the holy lake of Pushkar in Rajasthan State, India. He invited me to drink tea with him and to smoke a shilom, a hash pipe (which I kindly declined). The next two days I visited him again and it started to feel as if I was visiting a friend.Baba Hariom in his ‘house’, one of the arches of a pedestrian bridge. Another sâdhu, living in an arch next to his, wasn’t there at that moment.Using his toes to hold the shilom while taking matches …Baba Hariom enjoys his shilom. For him and his sâdhu friends the shilom is a token of conviviality and hospitality. Unfortunately his guest-photographer didn’t dare to smoke hash.Reading about the meeting of American president Trump with India’s PM Narendra Modi the day before. To him “Mr. Tromp” is clearly a joke.I don’t know enough about Hinduism to understand what he was doing with these objects in preparation for his prayer.When the sun starts to set, baba Hariom honors his preferred Hindu gods: Brahma, Ganesha, Durga,… The statues of his gods are visible at the back of the alcove.
In my perception baba Hariom is in harmony with his inner self, very much like a renunciant monk who chooses a spiritual life over wordly trivialities.
