One of Shimla’s most venerated temples

Raaja Bhasin

The visage of Bhagwan Hanuman at Shimla’s Sankat Mochan Temple is an especially pleasing one. The expression is serene, yet strong; powerful, yet not aggressive. There is an aura that offers solace. Placed in a separate chamber, Hanuman flanks the images of Lord Rama and Devi Sita.

The Sankat Mochan temple is barely 5 kilometres from Shimla and is easily accessible by vehicle, or by foot. This is now one of the town’s most venerated places. And interestingly, unlike many other shrines, this does not trace its origin to mythology, a hoary past or local legend, but was built within the living memory of the older residents of Shimla. In the 1950s, the area just short of town, was relatively sparsely populated and after the thick oak and rhododendron forests of Tara Devi, gave way to a long dip of pine covered slopes along the Shimla – Kalka highway. It was along this spur, that Baba Neeb Karori Ji Maharaj took a sojourn for a mere 10 days but was enamoured by the spot and found its setting conducive to meditation and to thoughts of the Divine. He suggested that a temple dedicated to Hanuman, be built along the spur and his admirers, the Lieutenant-Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Raja Bajrang Bahadur Bhandari (who was well-known for his spiritual bent of mind) and his successor, Shri Bhagwan Sahai initiated building the temple.

The top of a spur was levelled out and a single-storied structure was built of dressed stone and encircled with delightful flowering wisteria. The small temple was dedicated on June 21, 1966.

Like that of many other saintly men, the life of Baba Neeb Karori Maharaj is an enigma. Piecing together his story is like gathering a jigsaw, where bits suddenly go missing. Various stories are told of his younger days. Around the year 1900, he was born in the village of Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh, in a Brahmin family and was named Lakshmi Narayan. He was always inclined to spirituality but was married at the age of 11 by his family. Very soon after, he left home and began moving from place to place as a mendicant. Several years later, someone told his father that he had seen a man, who looked like his son, in the village of Neeb Karori, in the Farrukabad district of UP. His father found him and brought him back home, where he took up his duties as a householder. This, however, did not keep him away from the spiritual world and he continued to teach and travel.

A more dramatic variation of the story says that he was travelling by train and did not have a ticket. When the ticket-checker came to know of this, he had the train stopped and unceremoniously made Baba Ji disembark near the village of Neeb Karori, which did not have a station. Once Baba Ji got off the train, the engine would not start. Someone remarked that the holy man should be brought back on board and perhaps only then the train would begin to move. Baba Ji got on with the condition that greater consideration would be shown to sadhus and a station should be built at the village of Neeb Karori. That is when the train moved on.

Either way, that is how Lakshmi Narayan Sharma received the name ‘Baba Neeb Karori Ji’. He went on to have numerous followers all over the world and the kernel of teachings was simple, “Love all, serve all.”

Speaking worlds for the sanctity this shrine has developed, from what started out as a one-room structure, the temple complex has expanded into a sizable precinct that is thronged by hundreds of devotees every day. Today, the temple cluster has shrines dedicated to Lord Rama Hanuman, Rama and Sita, one to Lord Shiva, there is the Navgrah Temple, the Baba Neeb Karori Maharaj Temple and a beautiful Ganpati Temple, whose architecture reflects that of south India

Baba Ram Dass, who inspired Steve Jobs, no more

Baba Ram Dass, born Richard Alpert on April 6, 1931, was one of Baba Neeb Karori’s leading disciples and founder of several charitable organisations, including the Hanuman Foundation, the Prison Ashram Project and the Seva Foundation. Published in 1971, his seminal book, ‘Be Here Now’ was on meditation, spirituality and yoga. This was one of the first guides on Hinduism and Yoga for those, who were not born Hindus. Steve Jobs is supposed to have been deeply influenced by the book and this also inspired George Harrison’s song, ‘Be Here Now’. After a stroke in 1997, Ram Dass observed, “Death is the biggest change we’ll face, so we need to practice change.”

Baba Ram Dass passed away this week on December 22, 2019.

(The writer is an author, historian and journalist)

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