The perennial Indian wisdom encased in the hoary scriptures, particularly the Vedanta, lauded as the summit of the spiritual knowledge, has never ceased to beckon those from foreign lands who keep on visiting this ancient land from time immemorial in quest of the ultimate truth of life leading to salvation. And Haridwar is special as the holy Ganga beckons them to have a dip in it as well as to glimpse into the treasure of the spiritual knowledge hidden in the scriptures.
The foreigners come to the holy city in their hordes during the auspicious ‘Chaitra’ month.
The Pioneer spoke to one such hailing from Austria who loves to live the life of a common man despite belonging to a royal family. Besides, he is a regular visitor to the holy city. Himalayas, Ganga and Vedantic philosophy attract him, he says, adding that the influence of his wife who, a Greek, has taken the vow of renunciation as per an Indian school of philosophy, is profound on him.
Seated amongst a group of westerners in the international guest house located in the premises of Anandmayi Ma Ashram, just a few metres away from the fabled temple of Daksh in Kankhal was 74 –year- old leopold Habsburg. Enjoying boiled karelas with pumpkin, lauki vegetable and arhar dal with chapatti and rice, this first cousin of Archduke Otto von Habsburg was unnoticeable until a lady introduced this descendent of the royal family to this correspondent. Archduke Otto (who died in 2011) was the last Crown prince of the multinational Austria-Hungary Empire which had lasted for 650 years and got dissolved in 1919 after World War I, when Otto was a child.
Asked what brings him to Haridwar and how he got interested into spirituality, leopold gestured towards his wife Swamini Muktananda who, clad in saffron, was found guiding some other residents of the guest house on the fundamental question of life, ‘Who am I’. The couple is living like brother and sister, observing strict celibacy as claimed by them. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, 19th century saint from Bengal who worshipped his wife Sarada Devi as his mother, is their source of inspiration, he said.
The place where we had lunch was close to the spot where the consort of Shiva, Parvati immolated herself to become Sati. Overwhelmed by grief, Shiva took her corpse and wandered around India. The different places where the body parts of Sati fell got deified as Shakti Peeths. “Ganga has been flowing through here for thousands of years. She soothes the tiring nerves of the seekers while bestowing them with the coveted peace whenever they approach her with true devotion,” added leopold.
Seventeen years ago, leopold had met his wife in Austria and it is she who brought him to this path of Vedanta, says leopold. “I was always curious about India ever since I read something about Tibetan Buddhism. It is unfortunate that the Catholic Church across the world is indoctrinating children into what they have to believe. Already as a child I rebelled against this,” he said and added, “It is such force being used by Christianity to make the followers to conform to its doctrine that I got repulsive about. By way of contrast, Vedanta asks one to go from experience to experience instead of coercing one into a particular groove in the name of the infallibility,” he said, face beaming with a radiance of realisation.
However, leopold is not the first royal family member to be attracted to Vedanta. The German author Maria Wirth claims that the popular Bavarian king ludwig II who built the famous Neuschwanstein castle had books on Indian Vedanta in his study which is now stacked in the archives of the big Munich library.
When quizzed about her decision to take to renunciation, Swamini Muktananda said, “When I disclosed to leopold that I would be entering the path of renunciation his only reaction was that he would be honoured. I took sanyasa on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti. Two days ago, I observed the fifth anniversary of my sanyas diwas.”
Mountains being a big attraction for leopold, it is the eighth time he has come to the Himalayas and also to the holy city. “I am wondering whether I can help the villagers living in the mountains with the little knowledge I have as a mechanical engineer. I may help them make the well-known Austrian wood stoves with local materials,” he said, eyes twinkling in a resolve that is forming in
him.