Let's Fire Up Those Neurons!

Atop, the pole star.

 

New Life Masts.

 

Maybe you're right, but I don't follow the train of thought for your 'clue'!!

 

Solution please.

 

Yes, will do, in a bit. Most of the former neurites seem to have sloughed off!

 

Clues weren’t too obvious for me. I tried though. Is it about a spiritual cult ?

 

Puzzle Post #8532
The quick answer is "Pillar" + "Saint" -> St. Simeon or Simeon Stylites.

"In order to get away from the ever-increasing number of people who came to him for prayers and advice, leaving him little if any time for his private austerities, Simeon discovered a pillar which had survived among ruins in nearby Telanissa (modern-day Taladah in Syria), and formed a small platform at the top. He determined to live out his life on this platform."

He lived on it for 37 years, never coming down!

Solving the puzzle: You need only two clue words, as above. There are no fewer than 4 towers/pillars in the clues. That should tell you that it's important!

Clue-1: Rishi/sage/saint performing tapas - various austerities, bodily mortification.

Clue-2a: Um er-Rasas in Jordan. This is a confirmatory clue. Unlikely that you can tell what it is if you don't know it already. It is important as a historical monument because it is the only extant stylite tower, mostly intact, from around the 4th century - Byzantine times!

Clue-2b: That's me making it easier for you - the Qutub Minar (tower) and the Iron Pillar. To drive home the "pillar" clue-word.

Clue-3: This is a stone relief depiction of a later stylite, presumably Simeon the Younger, in the 6th century. It shows the stylite atop his pillar and a young devotee climbing a ladder presumably bringing food to the sage. A dove (an ancient symbol in Christianity) flies overhead. I like this carving a lot. It has a certain simple beauty that is very affecting. This one is at the Museum of Byzantine Art in Berlin, one of the most extensive collections of ancient art anywhere.

"For sustenance small boys from the nearby village would climb up the pillar and pass him parcels of flat bread and goats' milk. He may also have pulled up food in buckets via a pulley."

Clue-4: The Basilica of St. Simeon the Elder in Syria. This is a confirmatory clue, but if you're sharp, you can recognize the architecture as possibly Byzantine, pointing to the period.

Clue-5: I'm sort of fooling around here. People who do not know Hindi were expected to find a translation of the lyrics.

Na tuu zameen ke liye hai na aasmaan ke liye
You belong to neither the earth nor the sky
Teraa wajuud hai ab sirf dastaan ke liye
Your existence belongs to legend alone ...

Clue-6: Obviously a cross, but if you research styles a bit you would have found that it is a Byzantine cross. Pointing to the geography and period.

Et, vòila!

More later.

 

@sokanasanah,

I took the Saint+Pillar clue as you just described and reached Meher Baba. He is also known as Qutub (Sufism). In his later life, he spent most time in the western world as an indication of the Cross in your clues. He called his movement within India with his followers after a car accident mysteriously as "New Life" and the followers as "Masts".

Note: I blame the professor for giving the clue Qutub Minar in addition to the pillar sending me in a wrong track. Therefore, I expect him to curve my grade.