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Indian guru held by police after siege
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FROM sex scandals to bloody sieges, India’s many self-styled “godmen” — mainly Hindu ascetics with legions of devoted followers — have received a bad rap in recent years.
Spiritual guru Rampal Maharaj was languishing behind bars in the country’s north yesterday after police ended a stand-off with thousands of his followers and a long siege during which six people died.
Rampal, who faces a series of charges including conspiracy to murder, barricaded himself into his ashram guarded by devotees armed with stones and petrol bombs and other weapons after a court issued a warrant for his arrest.
As followers poured out of the ashram and police sifted through the mess, a bizarre picture emerged of life under the guru, who considered himself an incarnation of a 15th-century mystic Indian poet.
Rampal was regularly bathed in milk, which was then used to make kheer — Indian rice pudding. Consuming the kheer could result in miracles such as curing illness, according to followers quoted by local media.
“The milk falls on him, while he sits and meditates. The fruit of his meditation is present in the kheer,” disciple Krishnan, 29, told the Indian Express newspaper.
But Rampal was hardly alone in his dubious activities — with several gurus coming under the spotlight in recent years, including elderly Asaram Bapu, who was charged last year with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl.
A guru was also arrested in New Delhi in 2010 for allegedly running a vice ring involving air hostesses, college students and housewives.
For sceptics, the arrests and scandals show that many godmen, despite their spiritual air are nothing more than confidence tricksters craving cash and power.
But gurus play an integral role in the daily lives of many Indians, who believe their teachings provide a pathway to enlightenment in the deeply spiritual country.
“What is my life now? They have taken away my guru ji (a Hindi honorific), my god,” a wailing woman told the NDTV network following the arrest of Rampal.
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