Chandigarh: A guru declared dead has been in a deep freezer in his ashram for nearly six weeks with followers confident that he will return to life to lead them, his spokesman said.
Devotees placed Ashutosh Maharaj, whom authorities declared clinically dead on January 29, in the freezer and have been watching over his body in his ashram in Nurmahal.
His spokesman Swami Vishalanand insisted that the leader was not dead but was in a state of samadhi, the highest level of meditation, and was, thus, still conscious. “He is sending messages through followers to protect his body till he returns,” Vishalanand had said earlier. A plea filed by the godman’s former driver, challenging the decision, was rejected by a court which said that since the man was clinically dead, it was up to his followers to decide what they wanted to do with the body.
