Jensen 'Prabhu' Martin is the smiling American sadhu. And I'm glad he made certain radical life choices.
We have known each other for many years. I met him first at the Kumbh Mela in Prayag Raj. A white tall sadhu with golden dreadlocks stood out in the sea of humanity. We had a conversation over a cup of tea, and he informed me that he was “searching for something” and I added, “You’d know what that something is when you find it.” Despite the existential issues that may get challenging for an American, India also energises him.
We had a video chat after a long time, it was a heartfelt conversation. Jensen reminds me that I facilitated a meeting with Pilot Baba–who has a big following and had a separate camp for his entourage though he’s a mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara–that makes him a Naga sadhu. Jensen met Pilot Baba for 30 seconds, and he supported Jensen’s quest and that he has the energy to make the arduous spiritual journey. “Keep trying, have faith,” he had told him. That did a world of good to him, and he remembers it vividly to this day.
Jensen lost a lot of weight during his stay in India because he drank Ganga-jal. He was thoroughly cleansed. In worldly terms, it’s called dysentery.
He stayed back in India for three more months in search of something. “I didn’t know what to do with my life,” Jensen says, referring to the quest that took him to various parts of the country. Finally to Mata Amritanandamayi’s ashram in Kerala. Something powerful and special happened to him, an experience at the level of energy, which was strongly felt, beyond the senses. It’s difficult to describe this otherworldly phenomenon, but there was, as he puts it, “transmission, a certain vision.”
Jensen was initiated into chanting, his aaradhya (or divine reference) was Narasimha–the half lion half human incarnation of Vishnu who saved Prahlad from his own demonic father Hiranyakashyap. Jensen’s life will never be the same.
I requested him to chant the mantra. And he did it with his eyes closed, without taking a pause, and to my ears, sounded deep whistling as if the wind was gushing through the woods.
After going back to the US, Jensen pursued his search for the unknown. He finished his masters in Yoga Sciences from Loyola Marymount University in the US. His quest for the unknown continued unabated. And chanting helped him focus on the oblivious.
Perhaps, he needs to step out of societal existence and be alone in the woods for things to happen. Tapasya. Jensen decided to live alone for three months and purchased 100 nutritional bars that he was to consume one a day and lead a subsistence life in the womb of seraphic nature.
He couldn’t continue more than a couple of weeks and described the experience as “humbling”. It was not easy, to say the least. It was cold, and the landscape was covered with snow. There were wild animals, bears roaming freely. For some strange reason, his mind and spirit conjured ghastly images. Perhaps was not ready for penance, and suffered many panic attacks.
To him, it was a great learning experience, and important too. Good vision, the divine interventions, a sort of spiritual transmission that he experienced in India cannot be conjured at will. It happens when it has to, at most innocuous places, when is least expected. It was a setback and caused him a bit of disillusionment.
When a door closes, many windows open. Jensen lives in the city of Weaverville. There was a Buddhist retreat nearby. He felt a deep connection and liked the Buddhism focus on “kindness and compassion,” and that helped him to get some “balance”. Narasimha gave way to Tibetan Buddhism. He joined the retreat. And like everyone else there made his contribution to the running of the place. He was a chef who specialises in Mexican cuisine— “red rice, beans, avocados, pasta, soup. All vegetarian,” he lists.
After a month of practising compassion and fasting under the able presence of a spiritual teacher, Jensen was ready for more. His mind was free and clear. He consumed nature’s bounties that helped him align with his own energy and that of the cosmos.
“You need a plant for the vision,” Jensen says. Ayahuasca it’s a special plant found in the jungles of Amazon. It’s a psychoactive and entheogenic brew, has medicinal properties, and has been used for centuries for shamanic spiritual practices by tribes of the Amazon basin. He was connected to the shamanic tradition of the South. And I envy him, his exploratory zeal.
Ayahuasca did him good. His visions changed, no more nightmares that caused him panic attacks instead blissful visions, soothing to his soul, joyous, luminous self. Jensen had some profound realisations about his own self that doesn’t lend themselves to words.
And one of the spectacular things that happened to him was that Narasimha resurfaced from the depth of his consciousness. Jensen had chanted Narasimha mantras for months and the vibrations were stored in his subconscious that came to the fore when he experienced his being in its distilled form. “Narasimha came back into my life in a big way. The seed of the mantra germinated into a big green tree,” as he puts it.
Jensen has lived with a tribe Huni Kuin and assimilated their practice into his rich spiritual existence. They use soma or the intoxicant to ease the grip of ego manifested as a rational mind that’s self-seeking, and experienced various manifestations of true bliss.
Tobacco is one such plant. It has been misunderstood by the West. “It is good for you if it is not mixed with chemicals,” explains Jensen. He has a hollow bark of a tobacco tree that he uses as a funnel to take in “ha-peh”--the shamanic snuff that contains Nicotiana Rustica, which is a variety of tobacco but not the kind used in cigarettes, which is Nicotiana Tabacum. Ha-peh or hapé contains other medicinal and sacred plants in addition to tobacco, including parts from tree bark, leaves, seeds, and more. The mixture is pulverised with a pestle and sieved through a mesh. Different combinations of plants have varied uses and outcomes, and the exact recipe is a shaman's secret. Hapé is not smoked, instead is snuffed in via the nostril.
He has the ambition or perhaps a calling. He knows what he was searching for and he now understands the objective of his life: to connect the South with the East. Many people have connected the East with the West, but not the South.
There’s a rich Śramaṇic tradition in South America and vibrant spiritual life in India. He wants to be the bridge of spiritual practices between the two parts of the world, the seven seas in between. He wants to travel to India with his Sherman. And wants to bring his Indian guru to Brazil.
I suggest he establish an ashram based on the traditions and spiritual practices of the South in India and a traditional Indian gurukul ashram in Latin America.
He’s now a lone forest ranger. That’s a demanding job. He is out in the forest for four days at a time. And he’s chanting all the time while attending to the job at hand. Today was a day off, he had to do many chores, including “fixing my car”.
He was constantly smiling, dimples on his cheek cheerfully grew big and small as he spoke. He was sitting in his car alone, but I could not help but have the feeling that he was not alone, he felt more than one.
I ask him: “What’s your state of mind? Without the slightest hesitation, he says, “constant state of peace at all times while following normal human endeavours.” His constant state of peace at the point of our interaction seemed ecstatic. And I feel that same energy writing about him.
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