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Like every other Kapoor of the Raj Kapoor family, Shammi Kapoor was also fond of drinking alcohol and cigarettes. Kapoor, who appeared cheerful and versatile on screen, was a person of short temper. However, a mysterious person changed his life and got him connected to spirituality in the true sense.
He considered this person as his Guru and talked about this change himself in several interviews. This Guru was none other than Haidakhan Baba, the mysterious Yogi of Uttarakhand, who made Shammi Kapoor revise his idea of life and living. In 1974, the family of the wife of famous film actor Shammi Kapoor invited Haidakhaan Baba to their home.
Shammi Kapoor had no interest in meeting him. Those days he had many films and was busy shooting. On the insistence of the family, he also attended the meeting and sat in a corner and started clicking Haidakhaan Baba's photo.
Meanwhile, his attention went to Baba and he realized that Haidakhaan Baba's eyes were on him. Shammi had never experienced such a thing before. This meeting brought a change inside Shammi.
After this, he felt that he should go to Baba's ashram in Nainital. This first meeting changed a lot inside Shammi Kapoor. He once again went to Baba's ashram in Nainital to meet him.
He also took along bottles of alcohol, meat and musical instruments. He was fond of all this and he could not spend a single day without it. He felt that he would not be able to live without it in his ashram.
On reaching there, Baba smiled and said to him, 'Mahatma ji' you have come. He stayed in the ashram for 12 days and neither drank alcohol nor ate non-veg. Later on, he kept calling him by this name.
Even after going there, his influence remained on the actor and gradually he got rid of his drinking habit and started living in deep meditation. In his last days, Shammi Kapoor was completely immersed in spirituality. He also created a website dedicated to Haidakhan Baba and he also used to tell stories of Baba in the show Sammi Kapoor Unplugged.
In an interview, Shammi Kapoor's wife Neela Devi said, 'Yes, he was short-tempered. He could not tolerate some things. I will put it this way, if someone stepped on his toes, he would react immediately.
So such things used to happen at parties. He used to drink a lot in those days, but it was a good thing for him that the next day, he would want to know from me what happened. Slowly, he changed.
He did not listen to anyone when it came to alcohol and cigarettes. He just did not drink alcohol from January 1 to January 21 in the whole year.' Geeta Bali (first wife) fell ill on January 1 and died on January 21.
After Geeta Bali's demise, he followed this every year for the rest of his life. Neela Devi said that her in-laws, i.e.
Shammi's parents started falling ill and were very busy with Raj Kapoor. In such a situation, Shammi Kapoor stopped his films for two years and was taking full care of his parents. She says, 'That period brought us very close to Shammi ji's parents and they blessed us a lot.
It was not easy for Shammi ji to stay away from work for 2 years. After my in-laws passed away, they moved to Mauritius and then we met our Guru ji Haidakhaan Wale Baba. I believed in Haidakhaan Wale Baba for a long time, who was known as Bhole Baba.
They had never believed in any Guru ji before Bhole Baba, but gradually they started believing in him. This changed our life. Our son Aditya's marriage also took place in our Guru ji's ashram.
' Shammi Kapoor also said that Baba did not ask him to follow anything, he decided to change naturally on his own. Neela Devi also talked about this and said, 'And note that our Guru Ji never forced anything on Shammi Ji. Still, Shammi got so attached to our new path that he started going on tours with our Guru Ji.
After that, he started doing character roles, which he did not want to do earlier. He was in a dilemma before accepting a character role. This happened because his first character role was in 'Zameer' in which Saira Banu was the heroine.
Now you see Saira was his first heroine, but I told him that he is an artist and he should never think about such things.' Further Neela Devi says that all the changes in him came because of Baba. She also said that earlier he used to smoke 100 cigarettes every day.
One morning in June 1970, a young sanyasi was seen by people in a rocky cave in Haidakhaan village situated on the banks of the Ganga in Uttarakhand. The age of that person was 27-28 years. There was a glow on his face when he sat in Samadhi, he woke up after 45 days.
No one knew the name of this person. People started calling him Haidakhaan Baba. People said that he was the same 'Mahavtar Baba' who lived in the Himalayas for ages.
By the way, the thing to note was that there was a Haidakhaan Baba in that area earlier also between the years 1860 to 1922. In the month of September 1971, this person went to court and claimed that he was the same Haidakhaan Baba and had returned to a new body. He presented many proofs in the court and convinced the people that he was the same.
His popularity kept increasing and he kept giving the message of harmony among all religions..
