Photographs of sadhus (holy people) in India. A sadhu is a “holy” person who has renounced the material world in favor of service to god and pursuit of enlightenment. Generally respected and deferred to by Hindus, they run the gamut from rock star religious figureheads to elderly homeless men on skid row. Gandhi is the most famous sadhu. Sadhus can be encountered anywhere in India, but are more prevalent in “holy” cities like Pushkar, Varanasi, etc., and at Hindu religious festivals. I’ve met and photographed a lot of sadhus, and they’re generally a very nice lot, jolly and open-minded, as one would expect. It is an unhealthy social dynamic in my opinion though, that these men are to be deferred to by “lesser” people. I remember once offering a covered seat to a poor woman and her two young children who were stuck out in a heavy thunderstorm, but the sadhu sitting next to me said no, they can’t sit here, it would be demeaning to his stature.
