MAHARASHTRA V/S SADHUS

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"HOW DEEPLY YOU TOUCH ANOTHER LIFE IS HOW RICH YOUR LIFE IS."

 -SADHGURU

              Someone who practices "sadhana" or keenly follows a spiritual discipline is referred to as a sadhu. The sadhus are also been known as Jogi, Vairagi, and Sannyasi. Sadhu is also spelled as saddhu. Any religious ascetic, mendicant, or any other holy person in Hinduism and Jainism are considered as sadhus. The female mendicants in the Hinduism and Jainism are often referred to as Sadhvi, or in some texts as aryika.

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              A sadhu is someone who is solely dedicated to achieving moksha, the fourth and final stage of life, through meditation and contemplation of brahmans. Sadhus often wear simple clothing, such as saffron-color in Hinduism whereas white-color in Jainism, symbolizing their sannyasa. 

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              The word sadhu appears in Rigveda and Atharveda where it means "straight, right leading to the goal." Unlike skilled and professionals, there is no certification of sadhus. According to various assumptions, there are around 4 to 5 million sadhus in India today. Sadhus are widely worshipped for their holiness. And it's done from way past. 

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              Okay, so now many of you reading this must be thinking why this? Why I am telling you about sadhus. So the reason is that we are living in a society where common people like us worship GOD and devotees of GOD. We worship people named as saints, sadhus, fakirs, priest, etc. But in the past few weeks, there were some heartbreaking news from our very own land of an Indian state Maharashtra. A couple of weeks ago two sadhus and their driver were lynched at Palghar and now recently the assassination news of a sadhu in Nanded is heating up the whole environment. 

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              The Palghar incident once again took up because of some "SOCIAL MEDIA GRADUATES" who without even investigating forwarded some rumors on Whatsapp. On 16 April 2020, a vigilante group lynched two Hindu Sadhus and their driver in Gadchinchale Village, Palghar District, Maharashtra, India. It all happened on the night of 16 April when two ascetics, 70-year-old Mahant Kalpavruksha Giri and 35-year-old Sushilgiri Maharaj, who stayed in an ashram in Kandivali decided to attend a funeral in Surat The two subsequently hired a car driven by Nilesh Yelgade a 30-year-old guy to travel from Kandivali to Surat.

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              In an attempt of avoiding being stopped in their journey, the three appeared to have taken the backroads of the Palghar district to enter Gujrat rather than the Mumbai-Gujrat highway. The three were however stopped by a sentry of the forest department close to Gadchinchale Village. While they were talking to the sentry, the three were accosted by a vigilant group and assaulted. 

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              Over the past few days, there were reports of the local villagers forming vigilante groups after some of the Whatsapp rumors of thieves, organ-harvesting gangs, and child lifters were operating in that area were in trend. These rumors have lead to two such cases a team of Dr. Vishwas Valvi was attacked when they went to a nearby village of Sarni dominated by the tribals to supply provisions while this hard time of lockdown. A contingent of Police that went to rescue the team were also stone pelted. 

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              Moving back to the main headline of the Palghar lynching. It's revealed that a team of 4 policemen have reached the spot and tried to pacify the mob. By the time the mob had already overturned the car in which three were traveling and also have threatened the police officers. Videos, shot by bystanders, show the three men cowering in the overturned car, which was being pelted with stones, wooden logs, and axes.

              Subsequently, another police contingent reached the spot. The 12 policemen managed to rescue the three men and made them sit in two separate police vehicles. “However, the frenzied mob of around 400 people attacked the police vehicles. Some policemen were injured as well,” Palghar Collector Kailas Shinde had said on Friday. The mob managed to pull out the three from the police vehicle and they were subsequently lynched. Two policemen suffered minor injuries. However, videos that have subsequently emerged from the lynching show police standing mutely even as the crowd attacks the three. In one particular clip, alone policemen can be seen escorting a cowering victim to a police vehicle. In the background, several lathi-wielding cops can be seen. As the two move towards the vehicle around five to six individuals attack the accused in front of the cop. The man is then seen trying to hold on to the policeman who subsequently pushes him away. The victim is then attacked by the mob.

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              The police arrested 101 people and 9 minors. The adults were currently in 12-day police custody while the minors were been sent to a children’s home. The state had also said that an inquiry will be held to examine the conduct of the policemen as well. “We will investigate the decisions taken by the officers and inquiry will be conducted into their behavior during the incident,” Palghar District Collector Kailas Shinde said.

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              Now, about the latest incident of a sadhu who was assassinated in Nanded. Two persons, including a sadhu, were found murdered in the Nanded district. Officers revealed that a sadhu, Swami Shivacharya Rudra age 33 of Pashupati Math in Nanded was found murdered in the mutt and Bhagwan Shindy age 50 a prime suspected associate of the murderer was found in the nearby Zila Parishad school.

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              The prime reason of the murder was told to be robbery by the officers. The officers claim that a local villager and a follower of sadhu was behind both murders. The local villager is named as Sainath Langote age 25. Langote had a molestation case and murder case registered against him in the past too.

              Nanded SP told that the incident took place around 3:00 A.M. He added that Langote entered the mutt with the intent to rob him. The main door was open and the sadhu was resting in his private room which was only having a plywood as a separation from the main room. 

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              “We suspect Langote had jumped over the barrier to gain entry, due to which the sadhu must have woken up. We have found chili powder in the room, so he must have thrown it in the sadhu’s eyes. The room was completely ransacked and there are marks on the walls indicating that the deceased resisted the attack. Eventually, Langote throttled him to death with a rope,” Magar said.

              “Langote then took a laptop, Rs 71,000 in cash and other valuables from the room. He also dragged the sadhu’s body to the latter’s four-wheeler to dispose of it. However, the vehicle crashed into the gate of the ashram and some of the sadhu’s followers saw this. They suspected that Langote was stealing the four-wheeler,” Magar said.

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              “As the car was locked, the followers broke its windows and saw the body, along with the laptop and other valuables,” he added. By then, Langote had fled from the spot in a stolen motorbike. “Langote was later apprehended from the Telangana border,” the officer said.  

 

              Within some time, the police came to know about the body of another person, Bhagwan Shinde, being found in the bathroom of a Zilla Parishad school near the Math.

              “Shinde had been seen moving around with Langote since Saturday morning. We suspect that Langote wanted Shinde to accompany him to rob the sadhu. However, when Shinde refused, he was murdered. Prima facie the motive behind the two murders is robbery,” Magar said.

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              He added that nearly 10 years ago, Langote and his father had been apprehended in connection with a murder case. “Even 15 days ago, there was a case of molestation registered against Langote,” Magar said, adding that Shinde did not have any prior criminal record.

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             Now as you have read the whole article now so what do you think was there any connection between the two incidents or it's just me who is feeling some sort of connection between the two incidents. I may be wrong but I somewhere feel that both the incident in which sadhus were attacked is just not a coincident. I strongly feel that it's somewhere the same as the Chinese Ideology of 1962 war against India. It's just an attempt to divert the minds of the people from the main problem of COVID-19 and the failure of the government and to ignite a fire of Hindu-Musalman again in the place for the political benefits. And if it's so then no is safe not the fakirs, maulanas, or any other person who is somehow related to the worship of GOD. As there was news that the Maharashtra government is in no mood to let CBI handle these cases. It's very well said that: "a criminal doesn't have a cast or a religion". What you feel about it please let me know in the comments sections. The comments section is all yours. And these are my personal views about the topic I might be wrong.

THANK YOU!!