Asaram Bapu has never either condemned or advocated matters of personal choice in worship which may be considered as faith, fad, superstition or even as black magic by different sections. The hypnotic TV evangelist has a huge following.
AT THE Asaram Bapu Ashram in Chandkeda area in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Guru Purnima is celebrated as a grand affair. Lakhs of followers of a religious icon, born as Aasumal Sirumalani and popular as Sant Sri Asaram Bapu, congregate from far and wide. The globe-trotting TV evangelist usually returns to the ashram, which has been in existence on the banks of Sabarmati river since 30 years, in time to give a discourse and real-life ‘darshan’ to these devotees. The occasion is their way of expressing gratitude for what they believe they learnt from this ‘Guru’.
This year, the day that fell on July 18 was rather gloomy. A shutdown had been called in the city by disgruntled followers of the Bapu. Even though Asaram landed the previous day, most of the over a lakh followers were stranded and could not reach the destination of the spiritual visit. The ‘bandh’ was ostensibly to protest against the tragic death of two young inmates of the ashram earlier in the month. The media looking for juicy news drummed up a hysteria about alleged diabolic practices of sorcery at the Ashram. Local Congress leaders, looking desperately for any issue to embarrass the Narendra Modi government readily obliged them by inciting violence. In this context, Modi is against bandhs that disrupt peoples’ welfare to press demands. He had the guts to dissociate Gujarat from a bandh to protest against Amarnath shrine land imbroglio, by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) recently.
The two cousins, Dipesh Vaghela and Abhishek Vaghela, in their pre-teens, had been enrolled as ’shishyas’ (students) in 5th and 6th classes at the Gurukul (residential school) in June. On July 3, in the night roll call after dinner they were missing. The boys were keen, according to other boys, to go to enjoy fun at ’rath yatra’ the next day. So, after the parents denied their having returned home, teams were sent to search for them in the city. The police advised them to wait for a day to lodge missing persons’ complaint as such children usually return on their own. Two days later, their bodies were sighted in disfigured condition deep on the river bed. Ashram authorities called the police and the post mortem report indicated death by accidental drowning – not a rare occurrence in the river.
Praful Vaghela, Dipesh’s father, did not accept it as accident. He said, “we suspect foul play. How come they (the boys) could go out in the night despite strict security in the ashram? Our children had no bad habits. Police told us they found Rs1,100 in their pockets. Where did the money come from? We never gave them the money. The claims of Gurukul authorities are patently false.” He added that the children were murdered as part of an esoteric ritual and went ahead with giving details of such black magic. Praful said, “my son was killed by someone from the ashram who used black magic.... The bodies of the two boys had several injury marks at different places. Dipesh’s head had been shaved off. He was completely bald before being killed.” It was true that some portions of the decomposed body were not recognisable. Authorities had considered that scavenger animals and birds might have preyed upon the corpses – again, not a rare occurrence in the river.
Uday Sanghani, Asaram Gurukul spokesperson stated, “we have been looking for them. When some of their friends told us that the two boys were very keen to see the ’rath yatra’, we searched for them in the ’yatra’ too…. They (police) refused to register a case immediately when we reported about the two boys who went missing from the Gurukul. They told us to wait for a day.” He denied that black magic of any sort was practiced at the Gurukul.
The other parent, Shantilal Vaghela, Abhishek’s father, was not that sure about the black magic theory and said, “someone from the ashram might have persuaded the boys to venture out of the ashram.” Interestingly, the Vaghelas live in Nirnay Nagar, a shoddy township predominantly inhabited by lower middle class, hardly five kilometres from the Gurukul premises. It is not known why the boys had to be sent off to live in the hostel, when most children commute to far-off schools. From the way Praful vividly explained things, he is apparently well versed in black magic tactics. If such skullduggery was indeed practiced, it is a little far-fetched that he was not aware of facilities/life obtaining at a place so nearby. Obviously, the family needs to be investigated thoroughly to solve the mystery. Even before probing certain as-yet-unanswered questions about the mystery, Praful Vaghela went on a ’fast unto death’ demanding closing down of the ashram, possibly to ward off interrogation.
Meantime, Sunil Banerjee, the person who had sighted the bodies, had left Ahmedabad. Sanghani could not say where he could have gone and told the police, “he just came for a short visit and left in due course.” A big din was raised in the media and a police party was dispatched to search for him at his native place in Orissa. Banerjee, however, surfaced on July 14 and declared that he had gone to Dabhoi, about 130km away. He returned after hearing about the hell being let loose. Since he had turned as ’main eye witness in suspected sorcery and murder case’ instead of a witness who sighted corpses of drowning victims, he was made to undergo lie detection test, which ruled out any foul play.
It is of note that Asaram Ashram is situated just four kilometres upstream of Sabarmati river from another famous Ashram. Although this one, established by MK Gandhi in pre-independence days, enjoys huge budget from the government exchequer, it attracts a tiny fraction of the number of visitors thronging to Asaram Ashram. The Congress, which has been treating Gandhi Ashram and such other public-funded institutions as its own private estate, has never been comfortable with this. The call for the ’bandh’ on Guru Purnima Day emanated essentially from satellite outfits aligned to the Congress, which surface only during riots and strikes.
Gujarat merchant chamber president Prakashbhai Kapadia, owing allegiance to the Union textiles minister, said that the closure would be observed “without any compulsion and its effect will be felt all over Gujarat!” This claim can have no takers as Ahmedabad bandh was supported by Gujarat auto-rickshaw drivers’ action committee – a move obviously intended to harass and provoke the milling crowds visiting the city and incite violence. One more point is, both Narendra Modi and LK Advani of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are admirers, if not devotees, of Asaram. The de facto Congress boss in the state is their arch rival Shankarsinh Vaghela, a former Gujarat chief minister. He ditched BJP after being a Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) cadre for 30 years, when he grew too greedy and power-hungry, and later defected to Congress. Shankarsinh is known as ‘Bapu’ in his community. He is still reportedly maintaining relations with hawkish elements in Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), known for performing cheap religious stunts.
Interestingly, a grand rehearsal of the ’Guru Purnima’ shutdown was organised on July 16. The rally started in Nirnay Nagar and culminated at the Gandhi Ashram. Participants, mostly belonging to the Kshatriya community and Vaghela clan, raised provocative slogans and carried placards demanding the CM’s resignation! One Ajit Gohil, vice-president of the community body was reported as declaring, “we have no faith in the government investigation agency. Our demand is that the case should be investigated by the CBI, as Asaram Bapu can easily manipulate the state police.” It was clearly a turf war and an anti-Modi show.
Except taking out a silent rally on July 13 to mourn the 10th day of the tragedy and allegations heaped on their Guru, followers of the godman had refused to be provoked. On July 18, Asaram addressed the huge gathering at the Ashram, which had braved violent mobs unleashed by Vaghela’s men. He refused to be a hypocrite like the patriarch of the other ashram and told his audience that even Guru Gobind Singh and Prophet Mohammed had urged their following not to take blasphemous insults lying down.
For the record, there are about 225 ashrams and more than 1500 Yoga Vedanta Seva Samitis across the world run by Asaram followers. They aim to uplift the society morally and spiritually so that all experience the blessings of God by the means of Karma (action), Gyan (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion) Yoga. Asaram has a hypnotic personality and his down-to-earth sermons appeal to millions of devotees, transcending social barriers. He has never either condemned or advocated matters of personal choice in worship – burning agarbattis (incense sticks) or lighting candles or diyas, performing pujas or yagnas, chanting paslms, mantras etc. These may be considered as just matters of faith, or fads, or superstitions or even as black magic by different sections. The fact is an overwhelming majority of people – Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others – do honestly believe in these things to some extent.
Guru Purnima is the day when obeisance is paid to the guru-shishya parampara (mentor-protégé lineage). Its importance in Vedanta, the ancient science of self-management with the help of a mentor, is very high. Though the ’modern’ way of thinking may have devalued the teacher’s role, there are vast sections not yet swayed into this school. It is celebrated with fervour by numerous other students.Tragically, that spirit was sabotaged this Guru Purnima Day by hooligans, terrorising people with ’bandh’ call.
The Vaghelas may be privy to any information about the death of the children that they have not shared with the authorities yet. But, unless they come clean, it does look like a case of accidental drowning – transformed into a very dangerous political game at enormous cost to the public. It may be noted that recently a dentist father of a victim of murder in Noida had to spend over a month in jail as a suspect. Only because his claim of having slept through the gory murder in an adjacent room was rather abnormal. The Vaghela parents may have to explain a lot more than the dentist parents.
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aapki sewa ko sadhowad hai. Narayan Hari
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