Jasper Newsome, aka Ram Giri Baba - his last recorded exposition of what being a Baba meant to him; told at the heart of it, the Prayag Raj Kumbha Mela 2001.
Recorded at the Maha Maha Kumbha Mela 2001, held every 144 years, at Prayag, Allahabad, India. Sixty million people took part, the largest spiritual gathering in the world. Celebrated at the confluence of three great rivers, only two of which are of this world; the third, the mythical Saraswati, joins the Ganga & the Yamuna at the confluence, Triveni Sangam, a sacred place, at a sacred time.
This video was made by Smiljan Šiška, who wrote, in October 2009:
“I met Jasper first at the Allahabad Kumbha Mela 1977, when I came there on autostop with my wife Milena and one year old daughter Jasna. We stayed in the camp of Ganesh Baba and Paagal Baba.”
“Our next meeting was in the year 1988. He came to Slovenia, from where we continued to journey to India and Nepal. We travelled together with Chaitanya, his wife Ludmilla and their two daughters, & with my wife & my son & daughter & some other friends.”
“Next year 1989, was the Maha Kumbha Mela in Allahabad and there we met again. As I remember we also met in 1998 in the Allahabad Kumbha Mela.”
“The last Mela we were together – it was in the year 2001. During which I also made a documentary video about the rituals, which I am still completing. In my archive I will look for more photo material about Jasper and Kumbha Melas.”
Glossary:
baba – (Hindi: बाबा; Urdu: بابا; father; grandfather; old man; sir) renunciate man, usually Hindu but sometimes used of Muslim spiritual seekers & applied in India to supplicants of any religion; a general term of respect for men who pursue the spiritual life; usually, but not invariably, applied to older men; a respectful term of address to an older man.
naga baba – a type of sadhu, often nude and practising extreme asceticisms; a sadhu who consumes Ganja (marijuana) as part of his daily spiritual rituals; devotees of the God Shiva.
triveni sangam – exact riverine point where the brown waters of the Ganga meet the blue waters of the Yamuna at Prayag (Allahabad), India. The third river is unseen, the mythical Saraswati & the confluence has been considered a holy place for millenia.
dudhnath – (Sanskrit दूध्नाथ literally ‘Lord of Milk’) is both a generic term for a milkman in Hindi and also a personal term of address, “Are Dudhnath, kya Hai? (Hi Dudhnath, what’s up)?”; also a surname in some parts of India.
Links:
* Jasper Newsome – Flower Raj Wiki
* Jasper Newsome – Flower Raj Photos
