WE are in Pattharkot in the Sarlahi district,
at a site that has been prepared for the
Maha Matri World Peace Puja, where
tens of thousands of devotees from all
over Nepal, and the world, have come to
see and receive Guru’s blessing. Not that it is essential to be
in his direct presence; many have claimed profound transformations
even at a distance, purely by association with
him in thought and heart.
Guru’s devotees extend far and wide, with many having
become acquainted with his teachings on his website.
Often, his followers have the dramatic stories to tell. Beside
his broader base of supporters, Guru has his regular core
devotees—made up of Nepalis as well as foreigners—who
say they have been singled out to form his vanguard or
sangha, an entity charged with spreading dharma.
It was at age 15 that Guru first vanished into the jungles
of Nepal, to ensconce himself in the hollow trunk of a
giant peepal tree, to meditate, he said, in penitential atonement
for the sins of the world, and pray for its deliverance
from suffering and ignorance. For six years, and often
before the media’s prying eyes, he’s believed to have gone
on without food or water, evolving thereon from an ordinary
boy into the manifest divinity now able to the touch
the hearts of so many around the world.
He had started out under his ordained name—Palden
Dorje—and subsequently acquired various titles, reflecting
his advance towards Buddhahood. From Om Namo Guru
Buddha Gyani, he was then called Bodhi Shravan Dharma
Sangha, and finally, Maha Sambodhi Dharma Sangha or
‘The Great Dharma Congregation of the Fully
Enlightened’—an extraordinary title for a 21-year-old,
especially one as shy and soft-spoken as he, with only a
fourth-grade education.
Guru’s strengthening powers over the years were dazzling
to hear of. He went underground at one point, purportedly
persisting without air, even undergoing spontaneous
combustion, his robes consumed by fire and hair
singed. For an hour, he’s said to have danced naked in the
flames, holding his ritual bell and vajra. His story was
made particularly famous worldwide by the Discovery
Channel’s documentary The Boy with Divine Powers,
which had begun filming 10 months into his mediation,
partly an effort to test whether the then-Palden Dorje was
really abstaining from food and water. After filming 72
hours from a distance of 150 metres, the team was allowed
to move closer to film for another 96 hours, all throughout
which the meditator did not move one whit. Producers
and researchers consulted doctors and scientists, who all
affirmed that the human body could not bear water deprivation
for more than four days. But there he was, doing
just that, not merely surviving, but thriving, becoming
healthier and more beautiful as his divine attributes
unfolded, and the secrets and understanding of the entire
universe were revealed to him.
But in almost direct proportion to this growing fame
worldwide, local opposition to Guru has been mounting
from influential sectors, with what seems to be an intent to
suppress, if not eradicate, the phenomenon.
But his influence, nevertheless, has continued to soar.
The scale of the puja in Pattharkot—presently the sole
earthly refuge for the Guru and his nascent sangha—
stands as evidence to this. The air here is alive with chanting,
music, and the smell of incense. There aren’t many
facilities for devotees, to be sure, but there is a pervading
sense of peace and serenity that compensate for any lack
of material comforts—it is an undercurrent that binds us
all, locals and outsiders, regardless of where we come
from, the language we speak.
An American devotee with bright blue eyes hidden
behind horn-rimmed glasses, sporting a long mustache
and beard, and clad in a loose dhoti and shirt is sitting on
the ground eating. He is known here for the tasty salads he