Amarnath Baba was a beloved teacher and friend whom I met at the 1986 Kumbha Mela in Haridwar, way back in the day.
He was a tantric baba, a lover of the goddess Shakti.
I’d known him awhile when he told me this story of how he learned English.
Amarnath was the son of a Badrinath Himalayan priest family who sent him to boarding school as a kid. He didn’t know English but his roommate at school knew it well.
The School was by the Ganga River. One day his roommate went into the river and somehow drown. At that moment, Amarnath suddenly ‘knew’ English, all at once. Just like that. Everyone was astounded.
In Indian Tantra there is a thing called “Vak Siddhi” or the Spiritual power of Speech, in which the gift of language can manifest in supernatural ways.
Amarnath was a disciple of one of those reputed deathless yogis , Sundarnath Baba, who disappeared into the Himalaya one day (although I didn’t know the reputation at the time, and lived in Sundarnath’s little hut in Badrinath above 10,000 feet in season.
I returned to Badrinath years later after my Father died and hired a priest to help do the traditional rite to bless the departed souls in one’s life.
You make an offering of flowers, milk, and a little flour ball, one for each person to be remembered.
I had one for Amarnath as well and when I said “Amarnath Baba” as the target of one of my offerings the priest said “Amarnath Baba! He was my uncle!”
The picture here is Amarnath at the ghat (bathing steps) on the Alaknanda river in Badrinath, one of the tributaries that flows into the Ganga.
I have a lot of Amarnath Stories. I will tell the larger story of meeting Amarnath elsewhere on this website
