Shivarathri with Mauni Baba

Shivarathri on the ghats, sans phone, no connectivity with the exteriors. Seeing, living, breathing Benaras. Loading up my memory with blank blue spaces with orange highlights, that meeting with V. Prakash, the Tamil mainstream film industry's fairest son, he also spoke of rounding, likes alcohol, then those hours spent filming Mauni Baba, silent baba who hasn't spoken to anyone in fifteen years, watching him as he makes everyone bend and hit them on their back with love, that superior power of the Naga baba's, talking of which I finally witnessed one baba balancing on a stick that went through another baba's lingum, full power, 30-sec monumental act of super strength, Siddhi, of times spent with Bhootnath in Kshameshwar ghat talking about Siddhi and Yoga, of those moments in Balu's shop, cigarette in hand, looking at Telugu pilgrims fighting their way to Kedareshwar temple, then again at night visited Mauni baba, V. Prakash giving him a leg massage, lots of laughs, fascinating character, of mind and body, only in the now, lives in a cave, son of the Earth, one silver eye, this is the time of Benaras, when the passing world will see only the mirages and illusions, they will see the white light enter the soul and create a sunfull horizon, acting upon the current time, Benaras Standard Time. Hallelujah!