The concept of the Sadhu traces its origin to the earliest imges of Shiva himself/herself, with matted hair and the body covered with ash. A Sadhu does not have any caste and is free to attach him or her self to any strata of the social structure. He (I will refer to the sadhus with in the masculine athough there are many woman sadhus know as sadhinnis. wear on his forehead the three lines Shiva's trident drawn in ash or sandalwood paste which may be vertical or horizontal depending on which sect he belongs to.
Shaivite Sadus, are followers of Shiva and were divided by Sankaracarya (see below for a more detailed description of Sankaracarya.) into variouus sects. The Dasanami (ten names - see below) have 13 branches scattered all over India. They each have a formerly armed military branch called Nagas set up by Shankaracarya to protect all Sadhus from. Though they still perform this function, they have been transformed into spiritual warrior and practice Ahinsa (non-violence) except when a life is at stake.
[Adi Shankara (IAST: Ādi Śaṅkara pronounced [aːd̪i ɕaŋkərə], Malayalam: ആദി ശങ്കരന് Ādi Śaṅkaran ) (788 CE - 820 CE[1]), also known as Śaṅkara Bhagavatpādācārya and Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, was an Indian philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a sub-school of Vedanta. His teachings are based on the unity of the soul and Brahman - non-dual Brahman, in which Brahman is viewed as without attributes. He hailed from Kalady of present day Kerala.
His works in Sanskrit concern themselves with establishing the doctrine of Advaita (Nondualism). He also established the importance of monastic life as sanctioned in the Upanishads and Brahma Sutra, in a time when the Mimamsa school established strict ritualism and ridiculed monasticism. Shankara represented his works as elaborating on ideas found in the Upanishads, and he wrote copious commentaries on the Vedic Canon (Brahma Sutra, Principal Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita) in support of his thesis. The main opponent in his work is the Mimamsa school of thought, though he also offers some arguments against the views of some other schools like Samkhya and certain schools of Buddhism that he was partly familiar with. He however held firmly that only Brahmin caste males are eligible to attain the knowledge of Brahman. - see wikepedia for a full biography of Sankaracarya] ]
My Dasanami name come is Giri. My full name is Shanti giri, (peace of the mountains but also refers to Shiva's arms as a sign of strength. The Giri's have thier own mantras or mahavakya (sacred formula) , sacred weapons: tirsul (trident) staff, spear, bow and arrow, sword, knife and so on. They are used for pujas (prayer) except in cases where another sadhu is threatened or their is a problem with other sadhus or people. Then the ritual objects become lethal weapons. Naga Sadhus, like Samurai, have no fear of death and are reputed to be the most fierce of warriors. A British regiments with guns and cannons fought a naga regiment, armed only with ritual weapons. The British were horribly defeated. Only a few nagas were killed and many sustained dozens of bullet wounds but did not die.
Stay tuned to this blog for more information or email me at sadhurabbi1@yahoo.com
