INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

connection with this event Kuku ji in Varanasi organizes a two-week-long pilgrimage
tour for old and new patients in Varanasi. The primary purpose of the journey is to
bring people suffering from malignant spirit afflictions for treatment at Vadbhag
Singh’s place. Kuku ji said that the spirits caught in the bodies will automatically start
to play within a radius of 15 km of the site due to the forceful power within this area.
Another reason for the pilgrimage is to provide those already cured an opportunity to
donate reciprocal gifts to the place from which the healing power has spring forth. 706
The family usually gives a promise to do this when the spirit leaves the afflicted body
and order is restored. For Kuku ji himself a visit to Vadbhag Singh’s place is a means
to “refill” his own healing power.
KUKU JI’S THERAPY
“Repeat Satnam, Satnam, Satnam, Vahiguru, Vahiguru, Vahiguru...” While some fifty
visitors are sitting in rows on the ground to share food distributed from the communal
kitchen Kuku ji strolls between the rows of humans, repeatedly chanting and
encouraging them to join in the singing of the above line. Every portion of vegetables,
rice, and bread is to be accompanied by the name of God and call attention to the
divine giver. Occasionally clients, eager to be given the healing amrit, interrupt Kuku
ji by touching his feet. He prepares the nectar immediately on the spot and continues
the repetitive chanting. It is a full-moon day at Paharia. In the small family gurdwara
installed in the courtyard of Kuku ji’s house all the assembled have performed kirtan
of gurbani hymns for about two hours. A male devotee led the congregation in a reading
of the text Puranmashi Katha with stories about Guru Nanak. The program concluded
with the customary recitation of Arti, while a female attendant waved a dish
with nine oil-lamps before the Guru Granth Sahib, followed by a reading of the Ardas
and distribution of prashad. Since the morning visitors have arrived to receive healing
nectar from Kuku ji. In acts of thanksgiving for wishes that have come true or a treatment
which has cured them from spirit problems, they tie cloths around the three
meter high Nishan Sahib, erected in the courtyard, and promise to sponsor an Akhand
path and arrange for a public distribution of food.
The gurdwara may function as a symbolic representation of the divine agents
invited and active in the ritual healing. The room of approximately ten square metres
has a palpable centre with Guru Granth Sahib seated on a throne. A statue of Shiva –
706
A female informant, who had been on the pilgrimage, told me about the measures taken to
prepare patients for the exorcism. Some of these preparations aim to bring forth the spirit. For
instance, the patients are not allowed to take showers, change dresses, comb or tie the hair during
the journey to Dehra Sahib. Nor should they wear any thread or bracelet with protective
power. Other steps are taken to protect the possessed body. Spirits and ghosts are generally
believed to be attracted to white food and sweets and the patients should avoid all eatables of
this kind. When they return from the pilgrimage they are expected to perform a chilla, that is,
remain in seclusion for a forty day long period during which they sleep on the ground and do
not visit other people’s houses.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008