Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

His disciples are like missionaries who preach and
distribute his messages while conducting social welfare
work in society. The Mohantas attained a position
similar to that of the Jews, the chosen people, and even
Brahmans and high-caste people recognise the “former”
untouchables as a special group since Jagadbandhu
himself favoured and chose them.
The life of Jagadbandhu has made a sacred topography,
a physical setting which defines the religious world of
Jagadbandhu’s followers. The devotional practices and
the penance life are structured around the different
places where Jagadbandhu lived, worked, and prayed in
his life. Most of these places are in the close vicinity of
the Ashram, except the Jagadbandhu Ashram in Calcutta
where the human remains of Jagadbandhu are
safeguarded. The bones were removed from Faridpur
during the Liberation War and carried in a box of
sandalwood. Even though the Ashram in Faridpur is the
most central pilgrimage site in the cult of Jagadbandhu,
the bone relics are still kept in Calcutta in fear of Muslim
fundamentalists who may take and destroy them.
Jagadbandhu spent his childhood and youth in
Brammankanda, where there has been made a temple in
his name. He planted a jackfruit tree, which bears fruit
throughout the year. When he was fifteen years old,
Jagadbandhu came to Bakchar village, located sixteen
kilometres northwest of Faridpur, and he was requested
by villagers to settle down there. First he lived some
months in a house next to a Kali temple, and he enjoyed
staying in the village so he asked the villagers to build a
temple for him, and they did. Jagadbandhu stayed in the
temple for twelve years (fig. 6.5). Today, parts of the
current temple and its objects are donated and sponsored
by Muslims, because they also respect and are devoted
to him. In Bakchar village there are several memorial
sites and images from the time when the Lord spent
some years of his earthly life there. A snake that passed
Jagadbandhu’s feet, which the villagers later found dead,
was given a burial in a stone sarcophagus in the
courtyard. Similarly, a cow, which Jagadbandhu took
care of, was also buried in a sarcophagus in the same
courtyard of the village. The believers’ perceptions and
worship of the greatness of Jagadbandhu’s spirituality
and divinity are undoubted. Jagadbandhu is the true and
only direct incarnation of the ultimate Godhead.
At the age of 25-26 he married a girl from Bakchar
village, although this marriage was only spiritual and
neither juridical nor carnal. The “religious” bride’s name
was Hemangini, and they did not have any children since
the marriage was purely spiritually. Hemangini and other
young girls used to sing in the early mornings, and
Jagadbandhu enjoyed their singing and the girls gave
him flowers. One morning Hemangini was too late for
the morning singing, and she went to his house
afterwards. She smiled to him passionately, and
Jagadbandhu told her that they had a spiritual bond like
the one husbands and wives have. She was twelve (some
94
say fifteen) years old at that time. Jagadbandhu
requested her parents not to marry her with somebody
else since they had this special relation. The parents,
however, arranged a marriage, but Hemangini’s husband
died of a heart attack the very night of their marriage.
She returned to her father’s house, and was a true
devotee of Jagadbandhu for the rest of her life, until she
died at the age of seventy.
Jagadbandhu spent most of his religious life in the Sri
Angan Ashram where his rooms are preserved. The
disciples of Jagadbandhu follow the orthodox path as
initiated by the master himself. They avoid a luxurious
life, and central in their way of living and philosophy is
celibacy. Crucial in their penances is the achievement of
the Brahmachari state of body and mind. Brahma is the
Lord and Chari is moving around. The bodily part of this
mental stage includes celibacy, which has a religious
significance. The preservation of sperm in their own
body is important. Sperm inherits power, and by the
perseverance they achieve more spiritual power,
capacity, intelligence, and judgement, which in the end
enables them to come nearer to God and find the truth in
God. Achieving the state of Brahmachari is precious and
difficult, and it may take many lives before a person is
able to achieve this spiritual position. The lifestyle is
hard, and it is difficult to maintain the purity, which the
Brahmachari title prescribes. If the sadhus deviate from
the path, then they will lose their position and title as
Brahmacharis; it is easy to lose but difficult to achieve.
There are two paths of worship; one may either follow
Vishnu or Shiva. According to the sadhus in Sri Angan
Ashram, there are two types of holy men, the Vaishnavas
and the Shaivas. This distinction is based on who they
are praying to. The Vaishnavas claim that they pray
directly to God whereas the Shaivas as tantrics pray to
God via Kali as a mediator. Among these two groups
and ways of worship, there are two ways of living, either
as a sadhu or as a sannyasi. The sadhus live permanently
in either ashrams or temples, and the sannyasis are
wandering ascetics living in jungles and forests. In
Faridpur, the sadhus following the Vaishnava path live
in the Sri Angan Ashram and in Ram Krishna Mission,
but there are also Vaishnava sannyasis who wander
around and sleep in forests. The Shaivas sadhus live in
temples, and if they are sannyasis they live as forest
dwellers. According to the Vaishnavas, their approach to
God is the direct approach. There is only one god – the
main god – who is Bhagaban (literally meaning “God”).
The Vaishnavas approach God directly through kirtan
rituals and prayers, and they do not use mantras. The
Shaivas, devotees of Kali and Shiva, use mantras and
magic. The former ascetics never marry, whereas the
latter group most often become ascetics after marriage,
although they may join the spiritual path prior to the
establishment of a social life. From the Vaishnavas’
point of view the main difference between them and the
Shaivas is that they follow the teachings of Jagadbandhu.