I first met Bir Giri Ji at the 1971 Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me. He was at the edge of the Giri’s 13 marhi (lineages) and as such commanded the Bohemian section. If there was a suggestion of arrogant hipness, of what the Frech called “baba cool” – it was his. We became best friends for life, even though he was a Giri and I am a Puri, we founded Hari Puri Ashram together in 1984, and it was there he took his samadhi in 2003. He was a mountain of a sadhu, unshakable, well loved and highly respected by all. He became a sadhu at the age of 3, in an arrangement with his parents by a Naga Baba, so that they may have more children, by his charms, vibhuti, & ashirvad.

I first met Shankar Giri Ji around 1972 at Amarnath Cave in Kashmir, where he spent every summer & monsoon. He would be the first person to reach the cave when the snows melted in June about a month before Guru Purnima when the sadhus would come in a julus and the public would start to arrive. He would make his dhuni right inside the cave not far from the Ice Shivling. I would spend a month or more with him (and others), & made a number of yatras over the years to be there with him. We became close brothers and spent time at my ashram in Haridwar as well as at all the Kumbh Melas. He spent his entire life naked, a true tapasvi.