Sadhus : Un Voyage Initiatique by Patrick Levy

Saints hommes, adorateurs de Shiva, fumeurs de haschich, ascetes mystiques, les sadhus parcourent lInde depuis des millenaires. Ils etaient enfants, fonctionnaires, paysans ou voleurs, ils ont abandonne nom, travail, famille, pour devenir renonçants, moines mendiants, philosophes errants. Pendant plusieurs mois, le Français Patrick Levy a adopte cette existence nomade et frugale dans les pas de son guru. Il en a ramene un temoignage hors du commun, a la fois quete spirituelle, reportage ethnologique et errance au cœur de lInde populaire. Et a travers les concepts du non-agir ou du darshan, il nous invite aussi a nous interroger sur notre societe et ses valeurs.

Sadhus est un roman en forme de road-movie qui trace un voyage initiatique.

(English) There are millions of them-these wandering Indian renunciants, begging monks, mystical walkers, roaming philosophers, miracle-workers, hashish smokers, holy men… but little is known about them. They are often photographed yet their words are seldom heard.

Some began this way of life from childhood, others were civil servants, shopkeepers, real estate agents, thieves… they left their families and jobs to become renunciants, sadhus. They refuse to work; and vow not to accept any wages. They pursue the path of liberation.

A few accomplish rigorous austerities, but most of them dedicate themselves to non-action. In a world verging on its short term ecological doom and demographic tsunami, the sadhus are the messengers of a kind of freedom and moderation that our commercial civilization has forgotten, with its preaching of labour, consumption, economic growth and competition.

Patrick Levy recounts their everyday lives, the respect they are given and how they make use of it, their teachings, their philosophy and the way they transform it into a lifestyle.

Sadhus-going beyond the dreadlocks is a novel written in the form of a road movie. It is a spiritual journey into the world of sadhus.