Shri Maharaj Macchendar Puri Ji’s samadhi was perhaps the most consequential for Juna Akhara in living memory. Everyone knew his raw power and charisma, but few realized its full extent. He was a lion among Naga Babas. He grew up surviving on the streets of Shahdara, on the outskirts of Delhi, a young gang leader who found his true empowerment at the feet of Shri Mahant Laksman Puri Ji, who guided him through the arduous tapas of “kadeshri”, standing, without sitting or lying down for 1 year. That’s when the shakti came to him. I had known him for a number of years, but in 1998, at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela, when my Guru Ji, Kapil Puri Ji made him Shri Mahant, against may objections, we became brothers for life.

Shri Mahant Arjun Puri Ji Maharaj – although not formally among my Five Gurus, was made my “Siddh” guru, and as such I always honored him exactly the same as Shri Maharaj Kapil Puri Ji, as he was Shri Maharaj’s guru.

Arjun Puri Maharaj was understood to be well over 100 years old (some claim he was 150) when he attained Samadhi following the Ujjain Kumbh Mela in 2004. It was at that very same Kumbh Mela, that Arjun Puri Ji Maharaj put me in Shri Maharaj’s seat in Ujjain. He was also well known for his powerful chanting of Shivamahimna Stotra on Monday evenings.