--- title: Ashutosh Maharaj: Followers Win Case to Keep Guru Frozen description: Disciples of Ashutosh Maharaj — who died in 2014 — have won the right to continue to keep his body in a commercial freezer in Pubjab canonical: https://time.com/4846628/guru-ashutosh-maharaj-freezer/ author: Joseph Hincks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-06T08:14:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:26:57.518Z article:section: World og:title: Indian Guru's Followers Win Case to Keep His Body In Freezer og:description: His followers believe he is not dead, but in a deep state of meditation og:url: https://time.com/4846628/guru-ashutosh-maharaj-freezer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c7da40ab29f268e/6988d49afb4eac4119892c8f/gettyimages-460455940.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: INDIA-RELIGION-GURU-COURT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Indian Guru's Followers Win Case to Keep His Body In Freezer twitter:description: His followers believe he is not dead, but in a deep state of meditation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c7da40ab29f268e/6988d49afb4eac4119892c8f/gettyimages-460455940.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Followers of an Indian Guru Have Won the Right to Keep His Body in a Freezer by [Joseph Hincks](/author/joseph-hincks/) ## Joseph Hincks Jul 6, 2017 8:14 AM CUT  Indian followers of deceased guru Ashutosh Maharaj Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthaan sit front posters bearing his image on Dec. 14, 2014. Indian followers of deceased guru Ashutosh Maharaj Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthaan sit front posters bearing his image on Dec. 14, 2014.STR/AFP/Getty Images by [Joseph Hincks](/author/joseph-hincks/) ## Joseph Hincks Jul 6, 2017 8:14 AM CUT An Indian court has allowed [followers of a spiritual guru](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40509494 "undefined") to preserve his body in a freezer, as they believe he is not dead, but in a deep state of meditation. Ashutosh Maharaj was the founder of the sect Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission) and supposedly died of a cardiac arrest in 2014, the BBC reports. The court’s decision comes after a three-year legal battle between disciples of the sect and Dalip Kumar Jha — who claims to be Maharaj’s son, and is fighting to cremate the body in line with Hindu custom. The body of Maharaj — who founded the multi-million dollar sect in 1983 — is currently being kept in a commercial freezer at his heavily guarded ashram in the northern state of Punjab. His followers believe he is in a deep spiritual state but will one day come back to life. “Medical science does not understand things like yogic science,” a spokesperson for the guru told the BBC in 2014\. “We will wait and watch. We are confident that he will come back.” But Jha has alleged the guru’s followers were keeping his body on ice so that they could maintain control of his estate. Over the years Maharaj had attracted millions of followers and his sect had amassed an estimated $120 million worth of assets. [According](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/05/india-guru-freezer-meditation-court-ruling "undefined") to Agence France-Presse, it was unclear whether the court agreed with the sect’s assertion that Maharaj had never really died. \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40509494 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4846628/guru-ashutosh-maharaj-freezer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4846628/guru-ashutosh-maharaj-freezer/"},"headline":"Followers of an Indian Guru Have Won the Right to Keep His Body in a Freezer","datePublished":"2017-07-06T08:14:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:26:57.518Z","description":"His followers believe he is not dead, but in a deep state of meditation","url":"https://time.com/4846628/guru-ashutosh-maharaj-freezer/","keywords":["India","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c7da40ab29f268e/6988d49afb4eac4119892c8f/gettyimages-460455940.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joseph Hincks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joseph-hincks/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c7da40ab29f268e/6988d49afb4eac4119892c8f/gettyimages-460455940.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"INDIA-RELIGION-GURU-COURT","caption":"INDIA-RELIGION-GURU-COURT","creditText":"STR/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/india/","name":"India"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4846628/guru-ashutosh-maharaj-freezer/","name":"Followers of an Indian Guru Have Won the Right to Keep His Body in a Freezer"}}]}] ```