Truemors
The phenomenally influential religious Indian saint Asaram, at the centre of controversy surrounding death of four children in his commune, on Sunday said there was a "deep rooted conspiracy" to defame him internationally, even as Canada became yet another domain abroad for his religious activities.
The entire four decade-long spiritual journey of Asaram has been full of thorns and the mysterious deaths of four children in July at two of his communes in India are only the latest that he hopes to shrug off.
"All these allegations are false and frivolous aimed at hurting my image internationally as part of a deep rooted conspiracy," he told this journalist, adding that he was "shocked" over the loss of innocent lives, which was a matter of enquiry. He alleged that a section of the Indian media was also in collusion with "certain vested interests that were bent upon brining down his clean image all over the world."
Bapu's spiritual domain is spread across hundreds of centres throughout the world, including the US, with lakhs of his followers likening the 67-year-old saint with God. Just over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of disciples congregated at Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario in Canada, reposing their faith in the Indian saint.
Kailash Sharma, a big businessman and a disciple associated with the Brampton chapter, said on telephone that his conviction in Asaram has "further solidified" and no one can ever think of any wrong being done in the institutions run by the saint. "Bapu is our God," he said.
In the Indian capital, New Delhi, where the saint is holding dissertations of late, is joined by the father of one of the deceased children, who gave a clean chit to Asaram. "Where is the question of Asaram Bapu's involvement in the death of my son?" he wondered, adding: "Bapu is innocent, he is our guru. You cannot level such heinous charges at him."
The Pakistan-born saint had migrated to the western Indian state of Gujarat when India became independent in 1947. Presently, he is under immense media scrutiny over the deaths of the children in quick succession in his otherwise incident-free institutions. Police is probing the deaths and has also interrogated some of the inmates of the commune.
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