Abstract
In India and Nepal, the traveler will sooner or later encounter ostentatious-looking Hindu (to a lesser extent also Jainist) ascetics called sadhu (साधु) - literally "one who practices sadhana," a strict spiritual path. The word sadhu is often freely translated as a holy man, while the original meaning of the Sanskrit word is direct, true, correct.
A sadhu is a wandering or solitary ascetic based on Hindu orthodoxy (most often Shivaism and Vishnuism), who has renounced worldly life, that is, sensual pleasure (kama), wealth and physical strength (artha) and all external religious laws and duties (dharma), he devoted himself to ortho-practice without interruption and aimed at achieving liberation (moksha), through meditation and contemplation often amplified by the ritual smoking of strong marijuana and hand-prepared hashish. The use of cannabinoids in the practical spirituality of sadhus is not just an epiphenomenon; for many, on the other hand, it is an elementary tool for achieving mystical unification (conscious experience of the atman-brahma unity) and spiritual growth.
Thus, in the spiritual endeavors of sadhus, marijuana is not a path, but an instrument that intensifies spiritual endeavors on the path to ultimate liberation from the cycle of reincarnations.