Exclusive : Neeb Karauri Baba and the Kainchi Ashram

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Ajay S.Rawat, Nainital ( nainilive.com)- Ensconced at a distance of about 18 km from Nainital is the famous Kainchi Ashram, which has achieved international recognition owing to the wonder mystic of India Neeb Karauri Baba and the temple of Lord Hanuman established by him. It has attracted saints and sages since time immemorial who have undertaken penance here. Kainchi is surrounded by mountain ranges covered with dense forests of pine. The river Uttarvahini flows along its eastern and southern boundaries. To the east of Kainchi, across the river, lies the Gargachal Mountain Range, where the sage Garga undertook penance.

Vinod Joshi the Incharge of Kainchi Ashram informs that “Baba Neeb Karauri was born in an affluent family in village Akbarpur in Agra district. At the tender age of eleven he left home and went to Gujarat and stayed in an ashram of a Vaishnav (worshipper of Lord Vishnu) saint, who initiated him and gave him the name Lakshman Das. He also spent some time arguably in Rama Bai Ashram in Babania, Gujarat. From Babania, Baba set off on a journey around the country. While traveling he arrived in the village Neeb Kaurari in Farrrukhabad district in Uttar Pradesh and sojourned there.” One day while Baba was on his way to the river Ganga with his two companions, he witnessed a train traveling towards Farrukhabad on which he wished to travel, but Neebkarauri was not a stoppage for the train. When the train was about two hundred metres away, it suddenly stopped and could not move forward with the best efforts of the railway authorities until Baba and his companions purchased tickets on the train and boarded it.” As soon as the Baba sat down the train continued its forward journey. To commemorate this miraculous incident at the request of the villagers the British Government in India set up a railway station there, which was known as Baba Laxman Das Puri station.

Dinesh Chandra Tripathi an ascetic who stays permanently in Kainchi Ashram states that “On another occasion Baba boarded the train to Farrukhabad from Neebkarauri in the first class compartment. An Anglo-Indian conductor told him to get down from the train even though he had a first class ticket. Baba alighted from the train and took a seat on the platform. Despite all the efforts of the station staff the train did not budge an inch though there was no mechanical defect in the engine. It was delayed for two hours and while the authorities were deliberating over the problem some railway authority in jest asked Baba to re-board the train and move it. Baba agreed and as soon as he entered the train it started moving. After this incident Baba Laxman Das became famous as Neeb Karauri Baba.”

Baba came to Kumaon for the first time in the 1930s and during his spiritual perambulations visited the environs of Kainchi for the first time in 1942. He visited Kainchi again on 26^th May 1962 and put his sacred feet on the spot where the Kainchi Ashram stands today when he was told about the ‘havan kund’ (sacred fire pit) where Sombar Giri Maharaj, Prem Baba and other realized souls had performed ‘havans’. He visited the site and after clearing the grass foliage, got it covered with a raised platform. The same day he committed Lord Hanuman to construct the temple on the platform and concomitantly through his ‘Sankalp Shakti’, the temple came into existence on a spiritual plane. However, the consecration ceremony of the temple on the physical plane was held on 15^th June 1965 and since that divine occasion, the blissful day is celebrated every year as the Founder’s Day of the temple. It is a very big event now and lacs of pilgrims from India and abroad visit the shrine to pay obeisance to the great saint.

M.P.Singh the Incharge of Hanuman Garh temple in Nainital avers that “Kainchi is known as the treasure trove of spiritualism where the inner self is unfolded at the feet of the Almighty. The ashram embodies all that one yearns for, serenity and a sense of mesmerizing proximity to the immortal. It seems that all sparks of consciousness have emanated here from the one supreme consciousness.” It is heartening to know that people of different faiths and religions participate to make the event successful and a ‘bhandara’ is organized for everyone who becomes a part of the function. The food or ‘prasad’ is prepared by volunteers amongst the devotees with the perennial inspiration of the legendary saint.