By CHRISTO ELIOT

There is a group of Hindu devotees in India called the Khareshwari, or the Standing Babas. A Baba vows to stand, and not sit or lie-down, for a number of years or the rest of his life. Babas will sleep standing up, using a sling that keeps his torso upright. Per a citation-less Wikipedia article, the vow is a form of corporal punishment that strives to bring about spiritual enlightenment, called Tapa in the Hindu religion.

I have never met and never really expect to meet a Standing Baba but was struck by how bizarrely and differently they practice their religion when I first encountered them in a novel Gregory David Roberts called Shantaram over break. Winter Break also provided me with the opportunity to listen to cereal, but I really did not get why putting your ear next to a bowl of Rice Krispies got so hyped up Shantaram was one of the first books I have read for pleasure in a while, and in that time I have not become any more comfortable with how sensual the term pleasure reading sounds and feels. That said, this novel which like any other novel is a unique arrangement of only 26 letters was the first one I have read with any Standing Babas.

There are a couple of stages a Baba will go through when he takes his vow. Likewise, a Cornell student will go through many stages as he or she navigates their academic careers most of them characterized by an overwhelming sense of pain.

For the first five or so years, a Babas legs will swell and bloat unrecognizably as their muscles are exhausted by constantly supporting his weight. After that, his legs atrophy to look like nothing more than popsicle sticks with skin spray-painted on and a withered web of veins. The process ends with the Babas feet becoming horribly disfigured and perpetual podiatric pain.

On the surface, there are not many analogies that can be easily drawn between the progression of the Standing Babas and that of Cornell undergraduates. In reality though, what a Baba goes through and what we go through have some interesting parallels. The most obvious one is the early weight gain. Just as a Babas legs have no choice but to swell up under constant compression, I was among one of many freshmen who didnt want but needed to get soft serve ice cream at every meal. As we move from introductory courses to more and more demanding ones, time becomes more and more precious. Sometimes meals need to be sacrificed and take a backseat to studies or even heading to a bar or a game of Settlers of Catan (ladies). Eventually we all leave Cornell with some battle wounds, like the torn up feet of the Babas, and hopefully achieve some form of spiritual enlightenment.

One of the most unbelievable parts of the Standing Babas is that each of them chooses to become one. Nobody forces any man to take the vows of the Khareshwari, but several dozen Hindus in India are drawn to it by the same force that calls priests, rabbis and imams. Many more choose to become a Baba as preparation for death and their next stage in reincarnation. Although many legacies may feel pressure from their parents to come to school here, students at Cornell all chose to matriculate. No individual was truly forced against their will to become a Cornellian, and most of us are here hoping it will help us throughout the stages in life that follow our time here.

Sometimes life at Cornell can be challenging. Sometimes the biting wind can be pretty painful, and the Mongo at RPCC gets repetitive. The Babas lives are painful, but their conviction that what they are doing is something worth doing helps them honor their vows. The Wall Street cliche is, There is no such thing as a free lunch. I am generally not a fan of cliches or Wall Street and am a pretty big fan of free lunches, but I think the idea that nothing worth having comes easy should resonate with almost all Cornell students. Although the school will test us and at times push us to our limits, even freshmens days here are numbered.

Looking down the barrel of my last semester at this school, I feel like a Baba nearing the end of his commitment. For the past four years, Cornell has been the keystone of my life (no pun intended). Cornell builds its students into impressive people and helps them develop strong characters. It does this not for our time at Cornell but for what comes after. I certainly am not looking forward to closing the chapter on the when I was in college era of my life, but finally sitting down after years of being a Cornell Baba is going to be refreshing.

Christo Eliot is a senior in the College of Engineering. He can be reached at celiot@cornellsun.com.The Tale of the Dingo at Midnightappears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

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ELIOT | Cornells Standing Babas