BABA RAMPURI
INTERVIEW VIA SKYPE • JULY 2010
Baba Rampuri talks about initiation, modern society &
the Kumbha Mela
ROBERT MOSES
Photographs taken at Haridwar, North India April 2009
by Govinda Kai and Robert Moses

BABA: The hero journeys to that space where worlds meet, where magic happens, and desires to “cross-over.” To do so, he must approach a mentor and guide, who has already crossed over, to lead him to the threshold. There, the guru becomes the door guardian, himself, and in front of authority, in front of witnesses, he tests and questions the quest and commitment of the hero, and then leads him through the door. We call the initiation into Sannyas, the virja havan, the hero-birthing sacrifice. Many in Indian tradition consider this the ultimate rite of passage.
Yes, Robert, this is very much about taking responsibility. Perhaps this is what is missing in our secular society today— people in power don’t really want to, or they can’t, take responsibility for what they are doing. One of the major aspects of initiation, and especially the initiation I performed in Haridwar that you viewed on the video, is asking the person in transition to make a commitment to take responsibility for something right now. In this case the commitment is to renounce the Ordinary and enter into the Extraordinary World, renounce the small for the big, obtain the knowledge of the self, enter a family and maintain a lineage of knowledge.

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