Swami Ji spent three and a half years in a cave, but now he's filling big venues with his healing roadshow, writes Róisín Ingle.
In a bungalow just outside Naas, Co Kildare, nine teenagers are sprawled on the floor staring up at a small man with shining eyes and a dark beard. Indian spiritual leader Balendu Goswami, affectionately known by followers as Swami Ji, sits on a chair in front of them talking occasionally, smiling frequently. There is a calm, quiet atmosphere in the room broken only by questions from the floor.
"You don't eat meat?" asks one, between silences. "You don't watch television?" asks another.
Balendu answers everything in the gentle, unhurried manner of someone who has all the time in the world.
He has been invited here by a mother of one of the group. A friend of these young people drowned recently, a tragedy which not surprisingly left the secondary school students shaken. In the morning session Balendu (33) gave them a healing, which involves chanting mantras and the laying of hands in an effort to unblock the body's "chakras". He adjusts his orange robes as he shows them a breathing exercise in which the breath is expelled through the nose. As the teenagers tentatively follow his instructions the room is filled with a sound not unlike the buzzing of bees.
They are clearly fascinated by this man who spent three and a half years in a sealed cave in his home, the holy Indian city of Vrindoban, 150km from Delhi. Between 1997 and 2000, he had no contact with the outside world, living first on fruit and milk and then only on buttermilk as part of a Hindu practice of spiritual devotion. While in the cave, he tells them, he was blessed with healing powers. "I believe my god sent me to do this job," he says.
Next weekend Balendu plans to give healing workshops in Dublin. But the "Love Comes to Town" festival is in doubt after it emerged yesterday that there was confusion over visas for the Indian musicians who were to come to Dublin to play an integral role in the event. The Department of Justice says applications for visas were not lodged in time.
Singer Mary Coughlan is also due to take part and organisers are hoping that around 1,000 people will attend the three-day event if it goes ahead as planned.
Their optimism for such a turn-out is well founded. Last November 15,000 people queued in the RDS for a hug from Amma, another Indian spiritual leader who, buoyed by her success last time, is bringing her own brand of spiritual healing to Dublin again later this year.
"I think people here are fed up of the materialistic things in life," says Balendu, sitting on a couch in the Dublin apartment where each night he gives Darshan (healing) to whoever turns up. He travels the world for most of the year taking part in similar events. "They want to experience bliss and peace and joy. I found on my last visit that people here, especially the young, are very open to this kind of experience."
Part of a long line of Indian holy men - his grandfather was an associate of Ghandi - he has been preaching since the age of nine and his website is full of testimonies from people who claim he has healed them from stress, arthritis, depression and other ailments. "I take no credit for this. It is God's energy, love's energy that heals. It comes through me. I do nothing," he says.
HIS PHILOSOPHY HAD a profound effect on Longford businessman Frank Murphy, who is funding the cost of advertising the workshop and bringing Balendu to Ireland. Murphy met the guru when he visited Ireland last year and then a few months later travelled to his ashram in India. "Swami Ji said he wanted to do something big in Ireland and I agreed to help. I believe it's something that can benefit everyone," he says.
Whatever skeptics might think, Balendu's words and healing have had a positive effect on the young people in Naas.
"It was interesting," says Eoin Mulvey, (15). "When he gave me a healing I felt something I can't really describe. It was very different to anything I have experienced."
"Every one of us felt a physical sensation after the healing. I got a feeling in the bottom of my stomach, someone else felt it in their lower back," says Melissa Byrne (16). "It was a bit awkward at the start because none of us knew what to say but as we spent more time with him we relaxed."
Asked whether his teachings are in conflict with the Catholic religion, Balendu smiles. "For me religion is not important. It doesn't matter what religion you follow. My God is love, I am working for love, healing for love," he says. "I come from the Hindu tradition but for me all religions are the same. I am not here to spread Hinduism, I am here to spread love."