INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

water from Sitala Mandir near river Ganga and applied it on the children. When the
disease abated, the family firstly went to the gurdwara to read an Ardas before Guru
Granth Sahib and then continued to the goddess temple with water and nim leafs to
cool Sitala. The family offered the goddess a small red handkerchief, a coconut and
pleaded with her to leave the afflicted children and return to the temple. Afterwards
my interlocutor told me that all the children of the household had earlier been vaccinated
against small pox and after a medical check up the symptoms of the suspected
goddess possession was diagnosed as an allergy. The woman said: “Even if we are
vaccinated, Mata ji may come on people to give darshan. We will still go to the goddess
temple. This is not in Sikhism, but personally I believe in it.”
A central feature in the folk culture is the conception and identification of powerful
benign and malevolent spirits that inhabit the cosmos. Etiologies of inexplicable
illnesses or disorders often revert to beliefs in evil forces that involuntarily possess a
human body and in various ways exercise negative influences on a person and his or
her social surrounding. The influences can be overcome by different ritual methods
and therapies performed by healers (ojha) who have the power to establish a diagnosis
of the vengeful spirit or force responsible for human suffering and can suggest a
cure with divine assistance. 689
The Sikhs take up quite divergent opinions to the existence of spirits and malevolent
forces, even within a single family. In some conversations the husband and
wife had conflicting views and even started to argue about these matters. A granthi
harshly criticized all beliefs in spirits and said it was “pathetic talk” (bekar bat), but in
the same breath admitted that his own family had another view. The dominant view
among advocates of normative Sikh values is that the belief in ghosts, evil eye and
magic are superstitions contradictory to the Guru’s teaching. 690 In the same breath
they confirmed the power of gurbani to cure various physical and mental problems
and told stories of how the human gurus worked wonders and had the power to
release people from curses and witchcraft. Persons who have faith in the Guru’s
teaching, visit the gurdwara, and regularly recite gurbani will not be affected by these
evil forces as their inner place is filled with devotion to God.
In the world view of other interlocutors the belief in ghosts and spirits is a central
theme that often provides a framework of explanations to misfortunes and suffer-
689
The definition of an ojha is often settled by what the exorcist can actually perform in the local
context, such as curing illness and alleviation of misfortune believed to be caused by spirits
(Coccari 1986).
690
A middle-aged ragi performer in the gurdwara said: “Believing in ghosts is the weakness of
mind/heart (man). When someone has stomach pain he will visit three to four doctors and if he is
not cured he will continue to tantrics, pandits, and babaji and tell them his problem. The healer
will open and close his eyes and then say that something magical was done by the neighbors.
For 5000 rupees he offers the suffering man to perform worship for the problem. This is just
superstitions and gurbani does not believe in this. Gurbani is knowledge of God, how to get
attached with god. For physical problems one should go to a medical doctor.”
431
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008