If there is one thing that we can associate with Naga Sadhus, it’s the clay pipes used for smoking, popularly known as ‘chillums’. However, the cone-like structure which is being used by Hindu monks since the eighteenth century is now falling out of favor among the Sadhus.
Reason? Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev and his appeal to the Sadhus on parting ways with smoking.
According to Hindustan Times, the iconic spiritual leader gave the example of Hindu deities who stayed away from intoxication and smoking when they were born on the earth as humans, urging the Sadhus at the Kumbh Mela 2019, to quit smoking.
“We follow Ram and Krishna who never smoked in their life then why should we? We must take a pledge to quit smoking.”
“We sadhus have left everything including our home, mother and father for a greater cause, then why we cannot leave smoking?”
Ramdev was attending the ordination ceremony of Shree Panchayati Akhada Niranjani in the presence of Swami Narendragiri, secretary of Niranjani Akhada and president of Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP).
In a bid to prove his point, Ramdev, who gave yoga lessons at the Kumbh, asked the Nagas if they have ever read about deities smoking chillums in books or scriptures. The 53-year-old then went on to ask the aspiring Sadhus for their chillums as ‘Guru Dakshina’. Speaking about the same, Ramdev said,
“Several sadhus also took a pledge to quit the chillum when I asked them if they had ever seen or read in any scripture or holy book that Hindu deities indulged in any of these unhealthy habits.”
Ramdev added that he will display the chillums in the museum he intends to build.
Astonishingly, the Naga Sadhus found logic in Ramdev’s explanation and understood that smoking is deteriorating their health. As a result, several Sadhus have pledged to never smoke again!