When 21-year-old Sankar Datt Panaru boarded a general compartment in a Kerala-bound train from Haridwar in the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand in 2014, he knew nothing about Kerala, except the tantric tradition followed in the southernmost State. A follower of Kashmiri tantric tradition, Mr. Panaru had his tantric education at Gita Kutir Vishwavidyalaya at Ludhiana in Punjab, which was followed by a year-long higher Vedic education at Haridwar.
Though Mr. Panaru started making a living at a very young age by doing odd jobs at small temples in Haridwar, a steady income continued to elude him even after his education. It was a sage at Haridwar who told Mr. Panaru about a priest from Kerala, who used to visit Haridwar at regular intervals. The only detail available was that the priest hailed from Thriprayar in Thrissur.
“When I boarded the train, I did not even know how much time it would take to get to Kerala. The train reached Thrissur after three days. I had not eaten anything all those days as I had hardly ₹400 with me. I just wanted to meet the priest. Though I caught a bus to Thriprayar from Thrissur, the conductor dropped me off at Puzhuvil, around 10 km away from my destination,” says Mr. Panaru.
