A video of Chakratirtha Baba (recorded on 2 June, 2006), chanting Hare Krishna maha mantra next to his dhuni (sacred fire). At the time of this recording he was 85 years old (now he is 105 years old, and still present at this ashram).

In those days every night he would hold kirtan from sunset up till the night. There was no electricity, so we would light old style kerosene lanterns and then be surrounded by the darkness of the forest while he chanted Hare Krishna and various Odia bhajans throughout the night.

He stayed mostly alone, or at most with one other sadhu from time to time. From 2003 we tried to spend as much time as possible staying with him, and in those early years it was the most amazing mystical experience one could imagine. In the night, with no one else around, he would tell us all sorts of amazing things which he had seen or experienced over the decades of his residing in the forest and associating with sadhus.

Back then there were no proper roads to the ashram and people rarely visited, especially in the night. But sadhus would always show up from all sorts of backgrounds and sampradayas, to visit baba or to perform some sadhana at the holy tirtha. Chakratirtha is a siddhisthana and sadhus have come there from time immemorial to complete their sadhana and attain perfection. Baba had told us many times, “This pathway leading into Chakratirtha has existed in all the four yugas.” Baba’s main sadhana was to serve and take care of other sadhus who would arrive at this ashram for performing sadhana.

Every day we would watch him sweep the road leading into the ashram twice (in the morning and in the afternoon), cleaning far down the path perhaps 100 meters outside the ashram gate. When we asked him why he was cleaning the dirt road so far outside the ashram he replied, “Today if Lord Rama comes on this road and sees it covered in leaves, how would that be? We have to keep this road clean at all times because at any moment Lord Rama may come again on this road.”

In the ancient times Lord Krishna had visited this place, as well as Garuda and other divine personalities. Valmiki Muni once had his ashram located on top of the waterfall a little further up the mountain, and mother Sita resided in a cave there with her children Lava and Kusha. Because of these divine connections, sadhus have always come to perform sadhana at this holy place in every yuga.

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