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OTHER STORIES RELATED TO BOOKS Gandhiana In Sepia Authorspeak

If you believe that objects can be materialised out of thin air and miracle cures performed, that there are certain individuals who have mystical powers that defy the laws of nature, this is a book for you.

AMMA: A LIVING SAINT By Judith Cornell Penguin Price: Rs 250 Pages: 216

Amma (meaning mother) relates the story of Sudhamani, born in a poor fishing village in Kerala. Of the 13 children her mother gave birth to, only nine survived. Partly because she was dark, Sudhamani was ill-treated and abused by her parents. She wasn't allowed to finish her schooling and was given away to relatives as an indentured servant. A sadistic elder brother took pleasure in tormenting her, while her mother even hit her once with the handle of the machete-like knife used to break open coconuts. (They are all one happy family now, needless to say, basking in Amma's wealth and glory.)

But the ill-treatment only strengthened her resolve-to be a devotee of Lord Krishna. According to the author, Sudhamani began walking when she was just six months old and started speaking Malayalam fluently soon afterwards. If you are credulous enough to believe that, the rest comes easily.

When she turned 21, Sudhamani started performing miracles. In front of a large gathering that included some sceptics, she turned water in a quart-size pitcher first into milk, then into a pudding. Almost a thousand people were served the pudding from the pitcher, and it was not depleted.

Well, Jesus Christ did something similar. So, why not our own Keralite Sudhamani?

It gets better.

To prevent Sudhamani from visiting a temple, her sadist brother breaks the temple's oil lamp. She tells her devotees to get some shells from the sea, fill them with water and put wicks in them. "She then asked them to light the wicks," relates the author. "Then the impossible happened: the wicks stayed lit and burned through the night."

A possible solution to India's chronic oil shortage?

A leper, covered with sores oozing pus, is cured when Sudhamani (reverently called Amma by now) sucks out the pus and spits it out. The explanation? "The saliva of a yogi or self-realised master has great healing powers, and can cure many diseases!"

If you believe such nonsense, ponder this: India is awash with gurus, godmen and godwomen of all sorts, with tens of millions of followers. They all claim to be divinely inspired with miraculous powers of healing. We should be wreathed in beatific spirituality, good health, love and goodness. Instead, disease and ill-health is rampant, and we have become more corrupt and violent than ever before. In the most honest and well-run countries-the Scandinavian nations, for instance-there is little organised religion and very few godmen. Does that say something?

Ponder this as well: why on earth should as respectable a name in publishing as Penguin bring out such a book? Could it be that a western writer somehow lends more credibility to outlandish miracles? Or is the publisher eyeing the huge following of "living saint" Amma?