B&W B&W: Words/No Words

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There is no emoji that fits to my feelings when I look at this photo. It "daws you in" by its dense composition and the intensive meditative absorption of these two. They are not in the quiet of a temple but outside in the middle of the daily bustle. The Sadhu in full concentration touching the third eye to fulfill the (emotional / spiritual) needs of the person with the energies he transfers. Great shot.

Yet my second thought (concerning the Sadhu, not your photo): for a Sadhu who should have overcome his ego (lower self) he is still far too much in his body-ego as can be seen from the effort he makes for his look (hairstyle, head covering and beads).
 
Nigel (I guess?),

Fantastic, mesmerising image. Absolutely love it!
I've taken images of many a stairwell but none on par with this.
Cheers
Thanks QBI - Kind of you to say. It was a few years ago when I visited London.
 
I used to drive about 30k KM a year, but since the pandemic, I rarely have the need to go out and with winter here, keeping the car in the garage is a much cleaner option. But, man, do I missing rowing through the gears...

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The odometer in my car tripped 80,000 miles in April. It now has 80,600. That's crazy. A tank of gas lasts forever since the pandemic. I never had a 6 speed, but that's a beautiful stick.
 
There is no emoji that fits to my feelings when I look at this photo. It "daws you in" by its dense composition and the intensive meditative absorption of these two. They are not in the quiet of a temple but outside in the middle of the daily bustle. The Sadhu in full concentration touching the third eye to fulfill the (emotional / spiritual) needs of the person with the energies he transfers. Great shot.

Yet my second thought (concerning the Sadhu, not your photo): for a Sadhu who should have overcome his ego (lower self) he is still far too much in his body-ego as can be seen from the effort he makes for his look (hairstyle, head covering and beads).
Thanks for you kind comment.

This photo was taken in Varanasi, few days after a Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj (Allahabâd). After Kumbh Mela, many pilgrims and Sadhus came to Varanasi. We spend a week in Varanasi and (like you about my photo) I had mixed feelings about this spiritual place. Except foreign tourists, most people come there for spiritual reasons: some family with dying persons who wanted to be burned there as they beleive that doing so they will finish the reincarnation cycle, others to bath in the Ganga river and visit Holy temples and all of them to participate to the evening ceremony. But, like every place where pligrims and tourists are going, there is much mercantilism.

And about these Naga Sadhus (naked sadhus) most of them seem to stay under their tent, covering their bodies with ashes, meditating and smoking cannabis, except to bath in the Ganga. But few of them (like the one on the photo) stay in the middle of the crowd, giving blessings and asking money for doing so. The one one the photo asked "dollars" to my fiancée... An Indian living there told us that some of these naked sadhus are not realy holy men, being there only for begging money from tourists and pilgrims...

Very strange place...
 
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