He can ‘cure’ ailments by giving the “blessed concoction” to the suffering and he’s living without food and water for more than five years now. And his disciples find no reason not to believe him. Little do these gullible ‘shishyas’ realise that it is their reasoning that is impaired more than anything else. A testimony of their foolhardiness is that the ‘blessed’ ones believe he’s lived without food and water for five years now. “Eight years ago, when Lord Shiva beckoned my guru — Mahananda Sidhar — he had no choice but to comply,” says Raman, a devotee. The guru, as some of his disciples believe, has godly powers. When Sidhar came to Bangalore on Sunday, after an eight-year-long solitary meditation, a couple of children with speech impairment sought his blessings. After consuming the “blessed concoction,” one of the children blabbered ‘Amma’ and ‘Appa.’ The medical history of they being mute or speech impaired has not been established yet. “Sidhar is an incarnation of Lord Shiva,” claims Raman.
Mahananda Sidhar sits on fire and meditates at least thrice a day at the ancient Mahanandaswamy temple at Kanguppam, a village near Katpadi in Tamil Nadu. Sidhar, according to his disciples, has cured more than 40,000 people with various kinds of speech impairments. He is doing all this for humanity, one of his disciples said. “Many miracles have been performed by him. Even Chief Minister Yeddyurappa, visited him last month to seek his blessings,” said Raman.
Sidhar attracts deer, peacock and snakes towards him while meditating, says another disciple. The village near the forest has also seen a lot of improvements, says Raman, who has visited the temple at least 75 times over the last year. “My encounter with Sidhar transformed my life. I have decided to dedicate the rest of my life serving him,” he said.
Point to ponder India has a long tradition of self-proclaimed healers and miraclemen. Recently, Ajay Kumar, national president of Indian Medical Association, called Baba Ramdev - who is popular for healing people through yoga or ‘secret concoctions’ - a quack. According to Kumar, people were dying at the camps conducted by Baba Ramdev as they were being administered ‘wrong medicines.’ ‘Doctors’ who do not belong to any of the four streams of medicine approved by the Government of India are quacks, he said. “Baba Ramdev’s magic concoctions need to be properly tested before being used by human beings. Are the concoctions put on trials before being marketed? The Swami-turned businessman-cum-drug manufacturer has to answer many questions,” Kumar told a journalist earlier this month.