"Baba, do you have prasad?" a visitor asks a seated holy man. Sharing the "prasad" – in this case, the weed - shows their love for Shiva, Madhan Lal explains. The marijuana helps stave off worldly desires, they say. As ascetics, they've renounced possessions and survive off stipends from the temples and alms from devotees. The two have traveled with a group of holy men from Benares, India, and said that the Indian government even gave them some money to make the trip. "That makes us forget everything and we communicate with Shiva," 50-year-old Madhan Lal Baba says, sitting next to Radhe. It's a little more like Bonnaroo by the time over a million devotees have arrived for the big day. Indeed a few days before Shiva Ratri, Pashupati had the vibe of a relaxed music festival. It's scenes like this that made Kathmandu famous among hippies. Shiva, it's believed, used marijuana both to relax and to focus better for meditation.
Marijuana smoke mingles with the bonfires. They spend the days before the holiday alternately praying and lounging to prepare to commune with Shiva.Īnd they also smoke hashish. Hundreds of holy men (and some women) have traveled from around Nepal and India for the festival. Groups of dreadlocked Hindu ascetics sit around small smoky fires puffing on clay pipes at Pashupati, one of Nepal's holiest Hindu temples, in the capital city of Kathmandu. The celebration marks the day Shiva saved the universe from darkness and married the goddess Parvati. It's the eve of the festival of Shiva Ratri, or "The Night of Shiva" - March 7 this year. So we come to share Shiva's prasad with everyone else," explains a 60-year-old holy man who gives his name as Radhe Baba. He's one of the three major gods in the Hindu religion. A Hindu holy man in Kathmandu smokes a chillum, a traditional clay pipe, on March 6, the eve of a festival honoring the god Shiva.
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