INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

as a powerful remedy for diseases and problems caused by spirits or ghosts lies at the
core of Kuku ji’s practice and the healing tradition of Vadbhag Singh.
Treatments of spirit possession usually need the assistance of longer compositions
in the Guru Granth Sahib. Kuku ji may prescribe a forty-days-long recitation of
Sukhmani Sahib, which the close relatives of the patient can conduct at the house.
During the same period the family of the afflicted is requested to observe a high level
of purity in the house by controlling social interactions, keeping a vegetarian diet,
and avoiding all sorts of intoxicants. The afflicted patient should remain at home for
forty days, sleep on the ground, stay away from all pollutions acquired from being in
a crowd, and not accept food prepared by others outside the household. The temporary
lifestyle is a measure to protect the patient, since ghosts and spirits are in general
attracted to impure places and things. It is also an attempt to remove all forms of
contagions that generally afflict human conditions in order to make the treatment of
gurbani more efficacious.
In a study of popular cultures in the Punjab, Bhatti has argued that folk religion
functions as an anti-structure to the more defined and dominant religious system and
is characterized by pragmatic attitudes since the primary aim is to alleviate immediate
problems or needs. 711 In critical situations, people seek references and help outside
their own religious boundaries. But in the lived reality the scholarly distinction between
“folk” religion and dominant “elite” religion is not necessarily as watertight as
it appears to be, especially in consideration of the practices people observe. Although
the local healing practice at Paharia is frequently submitted to debates, and is by
some considered fraudulent, the fact remains that many Sikhs have consulted Kuku ji
(or his mother) when they have been in desperate life situations and suspected the
involvement of supernatural forces. Why they went to Kuku ji and not to other local
healers in Varanasi was because he belongs to a Sikh healing tradition and only uses
gurbani as the primary source of power and working instrument. Some informants
who openly criticized Kuku ji’s practice still gave him credit for making people take
interest in the Guru Granth Sahib by prescribing recitations of gurbani verses and
regularly organizing Akhand path and kirtan programs. What is contested and negotiated
is these discourses are not so much the methods of his healing but the doubts
and disbeliefs in the causes of afflictions. Other Sikhs more sympathetic to Kuku ji’s
practice will perceive him as a knowledgable guide. The significant point of reference
between the healer and his clients is gurbani: Kuku ji receives healing power from
immersions in gurbani; he operates within a tradition which uses gurbani as the primary
means of healing and he encourages people to engage in gurbani. Both the tradition
of Vadbhag Singh and Kuku ji’s healing practice rest on a presupposition of the
Guru’s agentive power whenever the verses of the Guru Granth Sahib are evoked in
recitations. From this perspective, the Sikh healing practice presents a different context,
but otherwise merely clarifies perceptions and practices that already exist in the
normative Sikhism.
711
Bhatti 2000, and personal conversation with author at Chandigarh, 2004-07-27.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008