Indian court asked to rule
on whether Hindu guru dead or meditatingBy
Dean Nelson, New Delhi 7:39PM BST 28 May
2014
The family and
followers of one of India's wealthiest Hindu spiritual leaders are
fighting a legal battle over whether he is dead or simply in a deep
state of meditation.
His Holiness Shri
Ashutosh Maharaj, the founder of the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan
religious order with a property estate worth an estimated £100
million, died in January, according to his wife and son.
However, his
disciples at his Ashram have refused to let the family take his
body for cremation because they claim he is still alive.
According to his
followers, based in the Punjab city of Jalandhar, he simply went
into a deep Samadhi or meditation and they have frozen his body to
preserve it for when he wakes from it.
His body is
currently contained in a commercial freezer at their
Ashram.
The late – or living
– guru, who was in his seventies, established his sect in 1983 to
promote "self-awakening to global peace" and to create a world
"wherein every individual becomes an embodiment of truth,
fraternity and justice through the eternal science of
self-realisation".
Today the group has
thousands of followers around the world and owns dozens of large
properties throughout India, the United States, South America,
Australia, the Middle East and Europe, including its British
headquarters in Hayes, Middlesex.
While he is thought
to have died from a heart attack, his devotees believe he has
simply drifted into a deeper form of the meditation he promotes as
a pathway to self-realisation.
A statement on the
group's website reads: "His Holiness Shri Ashutosh Maharaj ji has
been in deep meditative state (Samadhi) since 29th January
2014."
According to one of
his aides, who asked not to be named, "Maharaj has been in deep
meditation. He has spent many years meditating in sub-zero
temperatures in the Himalayas, there is nothing unusual in it. He
will return to life as soon as he feels and we will ensure his body
is preserved until then", he said.
His body is held in
a guarded room in a deep freezer on his 100 acre retreat in
Nurmahal, Jalandhar, where only a few elders and sect doctors are
allowed to enter.
Although Punjab
Police initially confirmed his death, the Punjab High Court later
dismissed its status report and local governmental officials said
it was a spiritual matter and that the guru's followers cannot be
forced to believe he is dead.
Now his wife and son
have filed a court application calling for an investigation into
the circumstances of his death and for his body to be released for
cremation.
His son Dilip Jha,
40, claims his late father's followers are refusing to release his
body as a means of retaining control of his vast financial
empire.