Squadron Leader Anil Sehgal
In the late sixties Jammu was still a small city, very small when you compare with Jammu that we see today. Even Karan Nagar was considered out of the city as was Amphala, Talab Tillo and all the areas beyond the solitary iron bridge on the river Tawi.
In that small area, everyone knew everyone. Literally, and practically ! So, it was common knowledge who goes to the temples in morning and evening, which devotee of Mata Vaishno Devi goes for her darshan every Pooranmasi ( full moon night every month ), and who all visit Bawe Wali Ma every Tuesday, or the Peergaah near Satwari airport, every Thursday ! There was even a count of drunkards in every locality !
In such close and traditional society, popularity of a sadhu would naturally be talk of the town . Lot many eyeballs were attracted when scores of women thronged the age old Radha Krishna temple, opposite Rani Ka Talab near Kachchi Chhawni and adjoining the Jain Bhawan, every week

Jammu Jottings

The sadhu named Yadho Ram used to hold the congregation we know as satsang. This was a weekly affair in the temple held in the afternoons.
Every week, the otherwise sleepy temple would come alive with the arrival of nearly 200 women, in their 30 & 40s. Clad mostly in white sarees, the women would gather at the temple to listen to the sermon by the sadhu.
Many of them were young widows who had lost their husbands, some were the elderly who brought their young daughters along.
There were also young women who were desirous of bearing a child but could not become pregnant. This sadhu and his satsang were very popular in the city those days.
I was a young lad in the early years of the college life, fond of writing and indulgent in journalism. Out of sheer curiosity, I attended a session or two of the sermons. I noticed a large pond of white attires spread in the small courtyard of the temple. The lean sadhu sat on a platform in whites, and delivered his sermon in Hindi.
I think he came from the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh, was handsome to look at, spoke rather well and knew the art of getting around with the fair of the sexes.
He continued with his popular presence in the city untill one fine day, when the lid was off from the cauldron of his misdeeds.
The sadhu was apprehended on charges of molestation. We heard he used to sexually exploit the women coming to his weekly sermons. The small, orthodox City of Temples was shocked, to say the least.
As is the practice in our society todate, people forgot about the whole episode, in a short time. Today, the city does not remember the sordid details of the sex maniac in the garb of a sadhu.
This episode was later succeeded by a sadhu, a yog teacher of international reputation, and the scene shifted from Uttar Pradesh to Bihar.
Dhirendra Brahmachari, a Bihari by birth, was a yog guru with a difference. He was a yog teacher to Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India.
Born Dhirendra Chaudhary in Madhubani, Bihar, in 1924, the flying swami ran yog centres in Bhondsi, Haryana, Jammu, Katra, and Mantalai, he was rumored to be a political “fixer”, and enjoyed vast political clout.
His connection with Jammu was two fold. One, he had enjoyed the hospitality of a Sharma family of Link Road when he was a nobody. Two, he had acquired big chunks of land in Mantalai ( 1008 kanals ) , in Udhampur district, built an ashram, a yog center, and subsequently, even an airstrip. He even built a seven storey yog centre in Gandhi Nagar, Jammu that is in disuse since his demise in an air crash, in 1994.
He attracted bad publicity for his alleged sex exploits with politicians of great repute, which need not be discussed here. This Yogi had strong political links right up to the doorsteps of the prime minister of the country.
He owned four aircraft that included a four seater Cessna and a 19 – seater Dornier, three private airstrips, and rode a mercedes. He faced atleast a dozen criminal cases filed against him.
I met Dhirendra Brahamchari only once, sometime in 1973, in the erstwhile Zanana Park. It was winter of Jammu, the month was December, and we all were dressed well to face the severity of the winter.
It was a lunch meet and the yog guru came clad in a simple white cotton dhoti and chappals with no socks ! The thin dhoti was just wrapped on his fair, lean body with no top to cover the chest.
As the gathering was enjoying the sumptuous and piping hot food, the Yogi just had a glass of milk and a fist full of almonds.
After Sadhus from Uttar Pardesh and Bihar, let us get to the home turf of Jammu. However, here, the protagonist is not of criminal nature !
Jammuites are very fond of astrologers. No house construction starts without consulting a holy man or astrologer. Similarly, no marriage alliances are sealed without the approval from astrologers who prepare the janampatrika ( horoscope ) of the boy and the girl and check if the alliance should proceed or not.
In fact, even in the 21st century India, Jammuites don’t start anything new without checking out for an auspicious day and time through an astrologer.
Around the early seventies , the city saw the rise of Krishan Jyotishi who soon attained the status of a VIP astrologer after Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, the melody queen of India was rumored to be consulting him for astrological advice.
Krishan Ji used to give consultation at his small one room “office’, near Raghunath temple. There is a Sai temple on your right as you move towards Residency Road, from the famed Raghunath temple.
Bang opposite this Sai temple, a few shops short of Jai Hind bakery, is the lane where his office was situated on the right side of the lane.
It was said that Krishan Jyotishi was a Siddh Purush, thereby meaning he had attained divine powers through his penance. Some people said he used to visit the Hindu burial ground in Jogi Gate in the nights and perform certain rituals to please the gods who conferred therir powers on him.
The astrologer was considered a holy man by the people. He was famed to produce a flower or holy ash from the thin air, which, many thought, was just a sleight of hand. It was also said that he could read your thoughts and offer solutions.
I once visited him out of sheer curiosity of a young and enquiring mind, along with an elder cousin who believed in the holy man and his powers and was also friendly with him. My cousin told me to write my query on a piece of paper and keep the paper in my pocket.
Could the godman read my mind and what I had scribbled on the paper ? Well, not exactly ! No, I was not disappointed. In the first place, I did not expect much from him.
I never saw Lata Ji visiting Krishan Jyotishi ever, but we used to hear that she even visited his consulting room. But, nobody could vouch for it.
I think Dogri poet Padma Sachdev, who was friendly with Lata Ji, introduced her to the divine Shakti of Krishan Ji. And, may be, he gave her a consultation after reading her horoscope. That could be through a phone call or even a letter. And, of course, it could be through a personal visit too.
For the uninitiated, husband of Padma Sachdev, Sardar Surinder Singh, was an income tax officer in Mumbai and, as we all know, Lata Ji had strong reasons to be close to them.
As you read these lines, the entire country is debating the Dhirendra Shastri issue for the past two weeks. Such holy men exist in all religions. Every now and then, the media catches them as a fodder to attract the eyeballs.
We hear ” blind faith” so often spoken in the television programmes that are taking most of the televised time, as if it is a cuss word. We conveniently forget that faith and belief are essentially blind. There is no reasoning for all kinds of beliefs or faith.
Faith or belief is not religion specific. All religions , some more, others less, expect their practitioners to have faith and follow a set of beliefs.
Next to our housing society in Mumbai lives a healer, a clean shaven Sikh gentleman, and a convert to Christianity. He claims to tap divine powers from the Christ himself to provide healing. Lot many people believe him and his powers.
He was a banker until he realised he had to heal the suffering masses. That was about 15 years ago. I am not aware how many sufferers he has really healed since then. But, I know for sure that he has amassed vast sums of money and property in the process ! He has healed his own poverty at least, so to speak !!

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