Word: sadhu
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...last week, two local Moslem farmers passing through Mokhimpur were seized by villagers and beaten with sticks until, weak and bleeding at the feet of the sadhu, they consented to cry, "All Hail to the Hindu God Ramachandra." Released at last, they staggered away and called the police. Next day, five policemen on bicycles and an officer on horseback rode into Mokhimpur to interrupt a scene of nightmare revelry. The men dressed only in loin cloths, the women with their saris tucked up high above their knees, the Baghbhans were doing a wild dance around their sadhu, who himself...
...Baghbhans of Mokhimpur had little to sustain them but their faith in the Hindus' God of Preservation, Vishnu. Some day-the Baghbhans have told each other for generations-Vishnu himself, in his reincarnation as Lord Ramachandra. would turn up in their village in the guise of a sadhu, or holy man, and from then on. all would be well. This faith has long made their village a favorite target for the hordes of self-appointed holy men (estimated total: 8,000,000) who roam all over India like carnival medicine men in the frontier U.S., wandering the face...
...generously in private audiences to the village women when their husbands were off at work in the cane fields. He even went so far as to honor the village by singling out one robustious young virgin as worthy of sharing a god's bed. But if the godly sadhu could be generous with his favors, he could also be terrible in vengeance. When one old villager dared doubt his authenticity. Raghubaranand simply ordered the man's own family to drive him out of the village. The ugly job done, the villagers of Mokhimpur returned to the pleasanter task...
...Because he knows the religious project will destroy the living creatures on the islands, he declares war on the interlopers. But in the course of three assaults, in which he enlists the help of an army of snakes and plunders a temple of its god, the sadhu only succeeds in strengthening his enemies and losing his otherworldliness. For two weeks he does penance, crouched in a cold stone cell where he can neither stand up nor lie down. There, "light and clear and unimpeded," he finds again the mystic way to bliss. When he emerges from his cell...
...trustees of the Kaliaboda math, had persuaded him to appeal the sentence. He gave in, on the ground that the "high court is a little nearer God's justice than the lower court." But the people of Cuttack wanted no more of the mad monk. Said one: "Any sadhu who comes through here runs the risk of being stoned to death...