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.

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.