God Katharagama's younger brother in Negombo!

God Katharagama's younger brother in Negombo!

A kapu mahaththaya by the name of Gamini has been carrying on his business at Polwaththa area in Akkara panaha Road, Negombo. He is supposed to curing the sick with a combination of  universal powers and godly powers only on Wednesday and two other days. When doctors are available, this kapu mahaththaya who is supposed to be curing sicknesses through authority given to him by gods is understood to be solving domestic problems too. Whatever he does like this ... his
charges are Rs.thirty thousand. Apart from godly work, he also is employed as a labourer at Katunayaka airport. 

I happened to pay a visit to where he operates in the devalaya on a Wednesday when god is supposed to make his appearance. The place has space for about thirty people to sit and at the time of my visit there were already about ten individuals there. Gamini was making his customary pompous lecture to the the crowd there. 

"To tell you'll ... one day my eye was terribly swollen. Those who were coming of course began to wonder, 'What the heck is this .. can't this fellow cure his own sickness!' A very big accident to which I was to become a prey .. I turned into an ailment of the eye. What Gamini from the first part of this lecture was trying to say is that before unveiling the universal power within himself to the world, he managed to display it to the world through a sign. "That eye problem I had that day I cured myself and demonstrated  in front of the people. I didn't do much ... I kept my hand to my eye twice ... blessed my ownself ... pulled out the pain in my eye". 

He thus demonstrated himself by wiping out something on his eye and in that manner he cured himself. When Gamini was proceeding with his talk, there were two persons in the front row of seats ... providing ample support to him. These two males who were around the age of 60 or so fell into difficulties on several instances by over-acting, so to say. "Why what about that female who came with a bandaged leg? Why that akka living down?" When the two of them were coming up with such stories ... Gamini of course was not able to finish that dialogue as such. 

As time passed by .. the crowd streaming in too increased. As the number began to increase ... Gamini's pomposity also became high. "When stepping into this place where god is .. nobody is great. Even if the president comes, he is not great to me. Even if he comes, I will tell him to come according to the queue". What Gamini says is that that site is where godly council visits. He then begins to explain to the people present about the manner in which people get sick. That explanation commences with his words, "Doctors who care for the sick are frogs .. there sicknesses it is I who cure! It's not in any other way that one is afflicted with sickness ... when someone dies from a sickness .. he or she becomes a demon and takes possession of us. It is because of ignorance that words like bacteria, virus are used, Gamini rattles on non-stop. 

Then his speech turns into another direction ... how one can attain Buddhahood. "Attaining Buddhahood means, refraining from telling lies. None of us can refrain from telling lies, no. So we cannot attain Buddhahood". In this instance of course dialogues of the two supporting actors really was productive. While one of them happens to say, "In that case even if one is a god, there's no point ... can't acquire merit" while the other adds saying, "How much should one should do merit to get a human soul!" 

Making the best use of that statement Gamini comes out with a wonderful climax to it by saying, "It's my fourth  soul that cures these sick people". According to what he says, he has to be born as a human being and has to suffer many incarnations. When this lecture is over, it leaves on to think twice whether Gamini's statement is something a human on this earth would ever fulfill. According to him, his mother is Shri Mahisha Suramardhana Durga Devi. Every time he speaks out the word 'amma' it is to that goddess. Gamini has got these powers because of having been born to those two gods. The most amazing point is that he says that his elder brother is god Katharagama. 

"Curing these sicknesses is a sime job for me. My mother Durga Devi is present here now. So saying he worships with both hands clasped together at the figure of a female with a distorted countenance and with teeth being displayed in a hideous manner and seated on top of a  tiger. About fifteen minutes are expended for the interval of the drama. During that period Gamini who was chewing betel so long then spits it out and after putting on a shirt over he skinny banian he was wearing and then lays a cloth and finally sits himself on a high chair. Subsequently he calls one by one to come in the queue and after asking the location of the ailment begins to display some tactics of kungfu-karate fighters and then blurts out, "Right you are now cured". 

Nobody who had come is cured. To them he says, "I now removed the the most powerful demons in your body. By tomorrow you'll be cured. The other demons are at home. Let's perform a ritual by taking this list that I am giving". I was able to have a look at    what is in the list of one one those who was given the list. The list contained four types of fruits, seven types of eatables, four images of nagas, seven tridents and five types of seeds. 

One Lucien who visited Gamini spoke of an experience he had in having gone to have his wife cured of an illness. As was told, unnecessary physical contact has been made to several females inclusive of Lucien's wife. "My wife was suffering from an unidentified headache. Because she got no cure from early treatment of doctors and because the expenses were high, we went to this person called Gamini. On the first it was told that all these problems was because of demons in the house. On the second day, a shanthi karma was advised. But I didn't like very much the way he comported near my wife. After that I stopped wife from going there and went alone and watched .. several days. He would finish off blessings for males and elderly women. If a young woman would come ... he would bless her for a long time by feeling her body everywhere. 

A Negombo resident, one Kumara had gone to the devala of Gamini thinking of some hope like Lucien and this is how he explained his experience. Kumara has in fact met Gamini in order to have spine ache which he underwent in having worked as a driver for a long time. "I went there because a friend told me. As soon as I went he hit me on the spine and said, 'Okay .. all your ailments are gone .. now run. Since my pain has not subsided even a little bit; I said I am scared to run. Then what he told me was that there is a demon in my spine and advised me to perform a shanthi karma and that it will cost Rs. thirty thousand. All my friends told me that this man is notorious in the village .. taking big money like that. Because of that I managed to escape from him. I actually was cured after taking medicine from a Sinhala  vedamahaththaya. 

When inquiring further, what came to be known was that as neighbours of Gamini are against him, he avoids anyone who comes through them, calling them villains. It is not difficult to understand that it is the fear that they who are aware of his fraudulent activities they would spill the beans. Through all this talk .. came my turn to test my luck about this universal power. Gamini who says that gods are his kith and kin, the godly council has not told Gamini as to who I am. 

"Aren't you someone who has come here with someone?" Gamini questioned me. I then went close to him and like that saying, 'if you go to a bat's wedding .. keep on clinging', I blurted out something which came to my mind that moment. "I am a cricketer. After the match my knees keep aching. Doctors said that I can't be cured. A friend told me that you could cure". Gamini asked me to close my eyes and then kept rattling out something like a shloka. 

"Right, now I removed the ailment you had. From tomorrow everything will be alright. As soon as you open your eyes, you'll be fine. But as soon as I opened the eyes, I had to say, "No .. it's paining more!" Gamini then told me to close my eyes again and lifted one of my arms and kept murmuring something. "Open the eyes!", Gamini said in a harsh tone and told me to tell the message for everybody around to hear. "Nobody told me anything", I responded. Gamini's face took on a darkish look and this time it was he who kept his eyes closed. "What I know and what I heard is that there is a godly authority operating. Since some poison has been given, can't see", he said. Gamini who asked me to close my eyes once again he began telling people around him, "This person is shaking like this because I removed that spell". I of course felt hundred per cent that I was not shaking at all ... as some people there kept saying, "Yes, he was shaking", I kept silent. 

"Now open your eyes ... there's nothing to hide ... I removed the spell; you are cured now. Stamp your leg three times on the ground", he said. I responded likewise. He then asked me to run to the gate about 10 metres away and to come back. Then in a victorious mood Gamini said, "Right, no ... you are cured, isn't it". But my reply was, "No .. no feeling of being cured". Gamini next questioned me as to what religious family I belong to and then invited Saint Sebastian to come there. Gamini then asked Saint Sebastian in somewhat of a loud tone asking him to cure my leg. Like for other gods, he spoke to that saint too in words like 'come, come ... go as if in a cordial tone. Gamini exerted him so much on behalf of me in this connection and then began his usual talk. 

"Come again about twice ... if it doesn't come right .. we'll do a ritual. I'll give the list", Gamini said. Though I had a great desire to remain till the drama came to a close, as those who got the blessings had to leave the place, I too came out. Thus it is commonly seen how people who want to have their physical or mental or problems relating to their domestic work thus become a prey to culprits such as this. 

On the other hand, having been born to this world in normal fashion and though miracle-workers who say they possess and flaunt powers of the supernatural keep on keep reiterating the same thing over and over again; there is no evidence that anybody from Point Pedro down to Dondra has achieved cure from an ailment or disease from universal or unseen powers or have got anything done so much as that of an ant's limb, for that matter.