No, This Photo Does Not Show A Hindu Seer Meditating In The Himalayas

A photo of a Hindu seer sitting in meditation with ash smeared on his entire body, has been digitally altered and shared online to claim that it shows a seer meditating in extreme weather conditions in the Himalayas.

The photo shows the seer sitting in a meditation pose with a white substance covering his entire body. The viral image is being shared claiming it shows the seer meditating despite being covered in snow.

The image has been captioned on Facebook in Hindi as, "We can barely tolerate 7 degrees and this monk is doing his penance in the lap of Himalayas." (Sic)

(Original texts in Hindi: रघुपति राघव राजा राम पतित पावन सीताराम, ईश्वर तुलसी शालीग्राम सत्य सनातन धर्म महान। हम साधारणतः 7 डिग्री में कांपने लगते हैं। ये तपस्वी हिमालय के गोद मे तपस्या करते हुए। कोटि कोटि प्रणाम। ॐ नमः शिवाय)

Two such Facebook posts can be seen here and here.

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BOOM did a reverse image search and found several posts on Facebook sharing a different version of the same photo.

A 2019 post on Facebook page Baba sarbangi shared the picture with a caption reading 'Baba Bhale Giri Ji Maharaj of Juna Akhara'.

Other such posts can be viewed here and here.

The image in the above Facebook posts has been digitally altered to give it a monochrome look and shared with claims of a snow-covered seer meditating in the Himalayas.

Taking cue, BOOM did a Google search with keywords 'Baba Bhale Giri Ji maharaj' and found videos related to him on YouTube channel Baba Sarbangi Vlog. The caption with one of the videos from October 16, 2018 reads 'Parashar Tirath ki kahani -- Shri Shri 1008 meant Baba Bhale Giri Ji Maharaj'.

A voiceover in the video says that seer Bhale Giri Ji maharaj had performed a 31-day-long agni tap (fire penance) at Parashar Rishi ashram in Bahlolpur, Haryana in October 2018.

BOOM found that in several other videos people can be seen smearing what seems to be ash on his body.

BOOM compared the viral image with the photo shared on Facebook and found them to be the same. However, the photo has been altered in such a way that the ash looks like snow.

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No, This Photo Does Not Show A Hindu Seer Meditating In The Himalayas

BOOM found that the viral image is digitally altered and that the real image shows a seer with ash smeared on his body.

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