A Green Crusader in Robes

A green crusader in robes gets the ears at Cancun

26 December 2010 - Soham Baba has a few striking similarities with Swami Vivekananda.

Like Vivekananda, the Naga sadhu wears saffron and is on a mission. He has his roots in West Bengal and is an excellent orator. This new age baba may not have made waves like Vivekananda's 1893 Chicago speech, but he left his imprint at the recently concluded United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Cancun.

“We've never come across a spiritual personality attending a global summit on climate change, especially those living in caves at higher reaches of the Himalayas. We're a bit surprised at your presence in Cancun,” a journalist from The Washington Post shot this poser to Soham Baba, a representative of Naga sadhus of India, at the Cancun convention in Mexico. Journalists apart, delegates from 192 nations at the convention were initially taken aback at the presence of a young Indian spiritual leader at such an important international meet on climate. Slowly, the veil of mystery was lifted as the monk began addressing some of the critical yet pertinent queries of the media and assembled delegates.

“Mere meditation, performing pujas and yagnas will all become meaningless if Mother Earth is destroyed and the environment polluted. Being a sadhu, I could hardly keep myself engaged in religious activities when people are faced with a serious problem of global warming,” was the young monk's reply to the journalist. His discourse which followed next at the Cancun meet captivated everyone, as he endeavoured to shed a new light on the whole concept of climate change that was 'never there on sea or land.' {continued}