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Thanks for the reply. There is only one direct source I know for the idea that Bengali Baba (Sw. Rama's guru) is the same person as Dharam Das, one of the Udasis that was instrumental in rescuing the Bhawal Kumar from the funeral pyre that fateful night in 1909; this source is Pandit Tigunait, who was a student of Swami Rama who also wrote a biography about him. In this biography, Tigunait lays it on pretty thick that Dharam Das is the same person as Bengali Baba, but I wonder if Swami Rama ever actually said that this was one of Bengali Baba's aliases, or if Tigunait is merely making these connections himself. I think there may very well be a connection between the 4 Udasi sadhus who saved the Bhawal Kumar in 1909 and the tradition from which Swami Rama hails. What Tigunait doesn't appear to know is a reference to a 'Bangali Baba' made by the Bhawal Kumar himself in court. He actually uses the words 'Bangali Baba' and said he was a great sadhu he met in 1920 at Pashupatinath. But at this time he was with the 4 sadhus that rescued him in 1909, which includes Dharam Das -- a fact he mentions several times. So the conclusion that must necessarily follow is that this great sadhu he met in Nepal, whom he named 'Bangali Baba', was NOT the same person as Dharam Das. Tigunait further relates the story of Swami Rama being at Tagore's Shantiniketan, and that while there he got a telegram from his master Bengali Baba, saying he needed to come to Darjeeling. Tigunait goes on to say that the Bhawal Kumar also visited Tagore just before that, and Swami Rama met him there at Tagore's. Tigunait further says that Swami Rama then left Tagore's with 10 friends, planning to visit his grandmaster in Tibet. He then makes it to Darjeeling with his friends and visits with Bengali Baba privately, who told him something to the effect that the Bhawal Kumar had emerged victorious. Tigunait then relates how the Kumar went to a temple in Calcutta (where he lived) after getting in the final verdict in the famous court case, establishing his identity as the Kumar beyond all appeals. The problem is, Tagore died in 1941, so Swami Rama could not have been with him later than some time in 1941 (he talked to Swami Rama so must have still been alive). But the Bhawal Kumar got the final verdict to his court case in 1946, and died in 1946. So there is a huge 5 year gap that Tigunait's story fails to address. It is as though he is not even aware of this fact. So again, what Tigunait relates about the Bhawal Kumar and the connections to the tradition of Swami Rama are at best very loose hearsay stories, and I personally think he is just putting stuff together based on very small snippets he has been able to glean from Swami Rama during his days. One of the other sadhus involved in the rescue of the Kumar in 1909 was an Udasi named 'Darshan Das' (also went by 'Gopal Das'). He was a witness for the Kumar in the court case. He confirms being an Udasi. So when I saw the photo of Swami Rama as being connected to someone in the Sikh realm I thought this might be a connection to the notion of Dharam Das being Bengali Baba, etc. At this point in time, given the Kumar's own testimony mentioning a sadhu named 'Bangali Baba' in Nepal, and Tigunait's rather loose interpretations, I tend to think that the identification of Bengali Baba as being Dharam Das is hard to maintain. It is possible, but I think it unlikely at this point. This Darshan Das mentions he went back to Punjab in 1935 to consult his guru Harnam Das about something, and he mentions going to Nankana Sahib, at Bhadra. Is 'Bhadra' a town or region associated with Nankana Sahib? I tried to find information about it but I couldn't find any. I noticed in the old book I read that 'Bhadra' also means 'September' so perhaps he was just saying he visited Nankana Sahib in September, and that it was therefore not a location, as the book made it appear. Also, is any Udasi by the name of Harnam Das known to have lived at Nankana Sahib around the 1930's?

Thank you, N30 S!NGH, that is indeed a very rare photo of Sw. Rama and one I had never seen before. Firstly, I wish no disrespect by writing on this forum as I am not a Sikh personally, but my interest in spiritual matters often takes me to Sikh-related content. My main interest has been in the yogic traditions. There appears to be a very strong link between Sw. Rama’s lineage and Sikh traditions. As you may know, Sw. Rama's master has often been called Bengali Baba. He is also known by various monastic names in different places. Otherwise, there is very little known about him. There appear to exist no photographs of him and he traveled to many places all over India, Nepal, Tibet, etc. Among many traditions he is very highly esteemed, yet very little is known about him by the public. My research has led me to believe that Sw. Rama's master was actually known as Dharamdas, an Udasi ascetic with long matted hair. Some of you might have heard the story of the prince of Bhawal and how he was saved by a group of naga ascetics. If interested, more about this can be found in the book about the Bhawal case by Partha Chatterjee. Sw. Rama has on numerous occasions stated that his guru was one of the sadhus who saved the prince from the cremation grounds. From the court testimony it is found that all the sadhus involved had the name 'Das' attached and the assumption is that they were Udasi. From the records it would appear that a Dharamdas, Darshandas, Harnamdas, and perhaps one or two more ascetics were involved. The prince from that day became known to the other sadhus as Sundardas as the sadhus thought it was a beautiful thing indeed that a man was saved from death that day. It went like this: In 1909 a storm occurred in Darjeeling when the -- by all appearances -- dead body of the Bhawal prince was about to be cremated. The consensus is that the Kumar was poisoned by his brother-in-law Satyendra Banerjee and most probably his cohort Dr. Ashutosh whilst they were on vacation in Darjeeling. The storm drove the funeral attendants away to seek shelter at a slaughter house a mile or so away from the cremation grounds. The storm lasted about an hour. When the funeral attendants returned, they discovered that the body of the prince was no longer situated on the kot. They started looking frantically but could not find the body. According to one of the ascetics that testified in court years later, they heard a moaning sound come from the cremation grounds. So they went to check on it and found the man on the kot to still be alive (perhaps the storm revived him from a dorment state). They removed the body of the prince from the kot and took him to their shelter. The prince, being poisoned until he was at death's door, suffered catastrophic memory loss. The sadhus nursed him back to acceptable health during a 2 week period, after which they departed the area and started traveling around for the next 12 years. The person who testified in court on behalf of the prince was an ascetic by the name of Darshandas (also known as Gopaldas). According to him he was originally from the Punjab and his master was Harnamdas. He said that Harnamdas was his teacher, and that Harnamdas was also the teacher of Dharamdas, who was the teacher of the prince (as well as Sw. Rama). If indeed Dharamdas was Bengali Baba, this would mean that Harnamdas is actually Sw. Rama's grandmaster. According to Sw. Rama his grandmaster spent most of his time (or perhaps later in life, when Sw. Rama visited him) in Tibet. Long story short is that from 1909 until 1921, the prince was living as a sadhu with his teacher Dharamdas and several other sadhus. He was initiated into the guru mantra in Amarnath, Kashmir, by Dharamdas. After this, Sundardas would slowly start reliving memories, until, in 1921, it became clear to him where he came from. He then traveled to Dhaka and set up his dhuni along the bank of the Buriganga. People started recognizing him as the second kumar of Bhawal, even though he had long, matter hair. He himself also started recognizing people and places. After several months he was taken to the Bhawal estate where he met his relations and other familiar people and they recognized him to be the long lost prince. After years and years of court proceedings and appeals, finally in 1946 the final ruling came that indeed he was the prince of Bhawal. It is known that during all this time, he remained in contact with his teacher Dharamdas. There are several stories that link Bengali Baba with Tota Puri. According to Sw. Rama, he met Tota Puri at his master's behest. At that time, Tota Puri was staying in a certain place where people referred to him as Kankaria Baba (father of pebbles) because he kept being visited by people of the vicinity and one day he told them if they loved him, they would bring only a pebble. A further story made clear that Bengali Baba had also been with Tota Puri in a temple in Bihar. Tota Puri (as can be seen from the existing photographs of him) also appears to have the same appearance as the group of sadhus have that saved the prince of Bhawal so it seems clear that he was Udasi as well. I say the latter with a bit of a lack of confidence, as I am not sure I fully understand the differences between some of the ascetic lines of Udasi, Nagas, and Dasanami. [by the way, there is another person named Tota Puri in a certain tradition (see this link, for example: https://plus.google.com/105813829524769844330/posts ) but he is not the Tota Puri known by the Ramakrishna movement, nor the one known by Bengali Baba.] The photographs that exist of the Tota Puri with the long matted hair and him being naked, they are easy to recognize. The Ramakrishna order uses one of these also, traditionally. The main reason for this Tota Puri being easily recognized is that, besides the long matted hair and nakedness, his face and eyes are very distinct. If you will notice, his eyes have an outward angle (opposite of cross-eyed). In the 4 photographs of Tota Puri that I have seen, it is clearly the same person. Please look here for these pictures in a post by a person named “hong-sau (HS)”: http://forum.yogananda.net/index.php?/topic/19153-places-of-spiritual-interest-in-puri-orissa/ The Ramakrishna movement talks about Tota Puri hailing from the Punjab and being (or having been) a mahant. He evidently traveled with Bengali Baba. He spent considerable time in Bihar at several temples. One appears to have been a Chinnamasta temple. Tota Puri stayed the last part of his life in Puri, where he took mahasamadhi. There is a small book about him called “Sree Sree Digambara Baba” written by a person who used to visit him in his ashram in Puri. Purportedly this saint lived much longer than most humans, a feat shown by several saints like Devraha Baba and others. I had been suspecting a link between Bengali Baba, Sw. Rama, etc., and the Sikh tradition because of the aforementioned research but until now had not been able to find much evidence. So when I saw the above photograph it was very interesting to me. Could anyone tell me what the text on the plaque/monument reads that is shown in the photograph? Any additional information about Sw. Rama or his lineage being connected to Sikh or Udasi life would be very appreciated, as well as any additional information about Tota Puri. I don’t live in India nor have I mastered the various languages so I cannot read books in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, etc. Thank you.