In Kerala, a self-styled guru ‘disappears’, a concrete chamber appears, and High Court wades into samadhi debate

While a section of people at Aralamudu in Neyyattinkara have been curious about the whereabouts of Gopan since last Friday, his family claimed that he sat in samadhi — believed to be a state of meditative consciousness — the previous day (Thursday). After local people moved a complaint about the mysterious disappearance of their neighbour, police registered a missing person’s case and began a probe last Saturday. On the assumption that Gopan’s body had been kept in the chamber, erected close to their family temple, the police had made elaborate preparations to exhume the body for postmortem.

On Monday, Gopan’s wife Sulochana, sons Rajasenan and Sanandan objected when the police, armed with an order from the Revenue Divisional Officer, tried to open the tomb to exhume the body. The protest gathered momentum after a Hindu organisation joined the family to argue that if Gopan’s body was shown to others, he “won’t reach God”. The police were forced to retract from the scene after the protest became a law-and-order issue.

On Wednesday, the family filed a writ petition in the High Court, challenging the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) order to open the tomb. Advocate Ranjith Chandran said, “We are against the unilateral move of the RDO to exhume the body. The rituals associated with the samadhi are going on, and it will last for 41 days. During this period, the tomb cannot be opened. We are not against examining the samadhi. But there is a denial of natural justice.”

Local municipal councillor K S Ajitha said the mystery surrounding the death should be cleared.

However, the court refused to entertain the petition as the family could not produce the death certificate.

Neyyattinkara Additional Superintendent of Police S Shaji said: “At present, this is a man missing (missing person’s report). We don’t know whether the body of the person (Gopan) is kept in the chamber. We have only the version of his family. The body has to be exhumed for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death. Now, we don’t see any law-and-order issue.”

His son Sanandan said their father had “attained samadhi”.

“He was against placing the body for public homage as such a step would hinder his journey to God. He had constructed a crypt years ago. Three days before he attained samadhi, father predicted about it. On Thursday around 10.30 am, after the daily rituals at our family temple, he walked into the tomb. We performed pujas and rituals, which lasted the entire day. Early Friday morning, the tomb was covered with a Krishna shila, marking the end of the rituals,” he said.

Local municipal councillor K S Ajitha said the mystery surrounding the death should be cleared.

“People are not against examining the chamber, but let the police serve them a valid notice. Gopan Swami’s family say that his body should not have been shown to anyone. I had seen Gopan walking at the premises of his house last week. For us, the issue is that nobody had seen his body after death. I had visited him many times, and I never felt that there was any family issue between the father and son,” she said.

Gopan, who had constructed a temple at the compound of his house, had been a headload worker associated with the Congress trade union INTUC in the region for several years. “He was a strong devotee of Hindu God Shiva and had constructed a Shiva temple. After quitting as a headload worker, Gopan used to move from one pilgrim centre to another and camped in temples for short periods. A decade ago, he constructed a family temple at the premises of their house. Initially, people used to go to the temple, but these days there aren’t many devotees,” said a local.