Sri Vishwanatha Baba Enters Maha Samadhi at Chakratirtha Ashram in Odisha

Yesterday (April 20th) at 2 am, one of the great saints and mahatmas left us and was placed in samadhi. I have known Vishwanatha Baba for around 20 years. He was a brahmachari sadhu his entire life from childhood. He is the younger brother of another sadhu, 101 year old Chakratirtha Baba, and both of them have resided in the forest at Chakratirtha for the last 50 years.

A week ago Vishwanatha Baba came to our temple to give us an invitation for his yearly festival on Akshaya Tritiya. After returning to Chakratirtha he became very sick and his oxygen levels fell to around 65%. We rushed him to the nearby government hospital in Bhadrak, but the doctors said his condition was too serious and he should be shifted to Cuttack.

One of our devotees, Bhagavat Das, admitted Baba into the government hospital in Cuttack, where he was placed in the ICU and put on a respirator to remove mucus from his lungs. He stayed with him for the 7 days helping to clean, wash and dress Baba as he was incapacitated.

The first three days he was completely unconscious, but then he regained his consciousness and for the next 4 days he remained fully conscious and could recognize and communicate with Bhagavat through hand gestures.

On the 7th day Vishwanatha Baba communicated to Bhagavat through hand gestures that we should remove all the machines and let him depart. At the time we still hoped Baba would recover so we did not act on his request, but in the night his blood pressure went very low and he departed at 2am.

Two days before he left I had an ominous dream which woke me up immediately at 3am. In the dream we were sitting in a car driving back to Chakratirtha on a country road. Vishwanatha Baba was sitting in the car with us, wearing his usual orange clothes. As we drove, along the road we saw a sadhu who was walking back to the Chakratirtha ashram in the forest from the same program. As we got closer I could see the sadhu outside was also Vishwanatha Baba, but he was wearing all black clothes. He was walking back to Chakratirtha, the same destination we were driving to, so I asked the Vishwanatha Baba sitting in our car if we can stop to pick up the sadhu walking to Chakratirtha (who is Vishwanatha Baba himself). He replied to me, “No, don’t stop. He wants to go alone on his own path.” At that point I suddenly woke up and saw it was 3am.

Inside I knew it was a sign that Baba would not be staying with us, and would carry on alone on his path higher up in the universe.

Afterwards Nityananda Baba mentioned to me that two days ago he had seen in his meditation a vision of a vimana flying to receive Vishwanatha Baba and take him away.

After Vishwanatha Baba had left, Bhagavat immediately brought his body back to Chakratirtha where around 1,000 devotees waited to place his body in samadhi. The entire time the devotees sang Hare Krishna kirtan throughout the day.

Various local sadhus came to place Vishwanatha Baba’s body into samadhi, and the mahanta of their line, Mrityunjaya Baba, came from Jharkhand to oversee the samadhi ceremony.

As per their tradition, a special yajna and feast will be held on the 16th day (May 4th), along with 3 days of 24 hour Hare Krishna kirtan (May 3rd, 4th and 5th), where all the devotees from nearby villages will come to attend.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or whatsapp Srinath Das on (+91) 8300181008.

For more information on Vishwanatha Baba you can read our past article: Vishwanatha Baba’s Warning from the Assembly of Sadhus

Mrityunjaya Baba (current mahanta of their line), Dayalu Baba, and Krishna Das.

Nityananda Baba visiting the samadhi.

Nityananda Baba arrives and is greeted by the other sadhus.

Nityananda Baba, Chakratirtha Baba, and Mrityunjaya Baba.

Nityananda Baba, Mrityunjaya Baba, Chakratirtha Baba, and Dayalu Baba.

Nityananda Baba, Chakratirtha Baba, Mrityunjaya Baba, Dayalu Baba, and Bhagavat Das sitting on the lower step.

Above: The sadhus discuss what should be done for the 16th day puja. They say charity must be given to sadhus and brahmanas. They decide that the visiting sadhus should all receive items such as wooden shoes (khadau), umbrella, dhoti, etc. A feast should be held for three days to feed all the villagers, and nonstop Hare Krishna kirtan should be chanted for the three days.