The Poignant Story of the Jai Sitaram Gosais

ANY PERSON WHO IS FAMILIAR with the barest outlines of the spiritual history of Bharatavarsha will instantly spot a glaring incongruence: what is taught as India’s political history is a fuliginous mix of colonial propaganda, Congress pamphleteering and Marxist travesty. 

There are reasonable grounds to claim that the accurate history of Bharatavarsha is the history of its awe-inspiring spiritual diversity expressed in the various sampradayas, matas, margas, and panthas. Each of these schools have carefully preserved their antecedents dating back to their founding days. They’ve meticulously documented the pious and hallowed biographies of their founders and their Guru-Parampara; they’ve given concrete details of the geographical spread of their sect, their interactions with other sects and in general, with the overall society. As a result, we have a continuous narrative of the socio-economic and political conditions of Bharatavarsha dating roughly back to about 1500 years. 

But how much space is given to this firsthand, real history of Bharatavarsha in our so-called mainstream textbooks? And how is this history depicted in these textbooks? The depressing answer is too well-known to be repeated here. 

Panthas and Sampradayas apart, there is a profound and inseparable element of this spiritual history of Bharatavarsha. This is the living national spiritual institution known as the Tirtha-Yatra. Every major and minor Purana invariably has a thick section dedicated to the glory of Tirtha-Yatra and some, like the Skanda Purana contain an impossibly elaborate list of Tirtha-Kshetras spread across Bharatavarsha.

Among other things, Tirtha-Yatra is perhaps the most visible and real-life marker testifying to the cultural unity and civilisational indivisibility of Bharatavarsha. This inimitable spiritual institution shatters the colonial myth that various parts of Bharatavarsha lived in isolation until the British introduced the railway and postal services. The opposite is actually true and there are countless examples from history to prove it. In the interest of brevity, we can only cite Jadunath Sarkar’s brilliant observation in this regard. 

Till date, the most sacred Tirtha-Yatra is undoubtedly the one undertaken from Kashi to Rameshwaram. A study of its traditional route yields interesting and ennobling insights about Bharatavarsha’s sacred geography and the evolution of the Hindu society over the ages. It also reveals the harmonious interaction among Hindus hailing from diverse places, belonging to all classes of the society and speaking different languages. 

There’s also another practical side to this history of Tirtha-Yatras. 

Since the ancient times — and it holds true even today — it was a practice to undertake a Tirtha-Yatra in groups. Dharmasastra texts unequivocally state that rules governing Varna are null and void during a Tirtha-Yatra. Thus, these groups could be people hailing from the same community or a group from the same village comprising members of different communities or Yatris who belonged to specific Sampradayas or individual Sadhus, Santas, and Parivrajakas — wandering monks. 

ONE SUCH GROUP of Parivrajakas was known as the Jai Sitaram Gosais. Its members only spoke Hindi. This sect was scattered throughout Uttarapatha in the general region of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The Jai Sitaram Gosais constantly undertook Yatras in small and large groups, each group headed by a leader. All Gosais were Brahmacharins. They smeared Vibhuti — the sacred ash — all over their body and had radiant eyes. They sported matted locks and wore the Rudrakshamaala and Tulasi garland around their neck. They carried a Danda (a sacred wooden staff)  and a Kamandala (an oblong copper pot) in their hand and incessantly chanted Jai Sitaram and Har har Mahadeva as they walked. Anyone who beheld their face even once was struck by how tranquil it was.

When they halted their journey late in the evening, they constructed an Agni-Kunda (a sacred fire pit), sat around it and began singing bhajans. This would be followed by a Parayana of some sacred text like the Ramayana or Bhagavad Gita and a discussion on philosophical topics and nuances of Dharmasastra.   

On other occasions, the Jai Sitarama Gosais would construct temporary Mantapas and consecrate a Shiva Linga or place the Murtis of some deities that they had brought with them and offer Puja.

If they halted at a place that had a Chhatram, they would ask as Bhiksha the following items: a quarter kilo of rice or a kilo of wheat flour and half an Anna for each person. Some groups of these Gosais didn’t even want this. They would arrive at mealtime and eat a modest fare. It did not matter to them who cooked the food. 

The Jai Sitaram Gosais were renowned throughout Bharatavarsha as Sadhus of the highest order. They awoke at the auspicious Brahmi Muhurtam (about an hour or two before sunrise), took a sacred bath in a lake or pond or stream, smeared their bodies with Vibhuti and sat for intense penance. After this, they sang the devotional compositions of Mira Bai or Jayadeva Goswami (author of the renowned Gita Govinda). 

When this was finished, they set out for Bhiksha. This was how their pre-lunch preparation went. First, they would collect scores of large, dried cowdung. If their halting place had a Chhatram, its manager would arrange for the aforementioned provisions. Else, the Gosais would go door to door to procure provisions. Because they were from Uttarapatha, they typically asked for wheat flour and Toor Dal. If it was not available, they settled for jowar flour. After this, they prepared a small fire from the dried cowdung, cooked thick rotis and dal and offered a small Naivedyam to Agni and then ate the food to their heart’s content.

The Jai Sitaram Gosais were treated with immense reverence by every village or town they visited. The whole village would throng and sit in pious attention to listen to their Bhajans and spiritual discourses. They would enliven and ennoble the lives of villagers by narrating the sacred stories of Kashi, Prayaga, Gaya, Ayodhya, Mathura and other Tirtha-Kshetras that they had visited. Several families would invite them home and offer hospitality. As a rule, these Gosais did not reside in any home. 

In my researches so far, this is just about the only details of the Jai Sitaram Gosais that I could discover. Sri T.S. Shama Rao’s brilliant Kannada work titled Mooru Talemaru (Three Generations) contains some brief but evocative descriptions of these Gosais who visited the Mysore Kingdom in the early part of the 19^th century. My dogged searches on the Internet yielded…nothing. I am not sure whether this remarkable sect even exists today. 

Like so many such things, this non-availability of information about the Jai Sitaram Gosais is yet another sad reflection of our cultural amnesia that has culminated in large scale spiritual impoverishment in our own time. 

|| Jai Sitaram ||