Jalandhar, Jan. 22 -- For the followers of Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (DJJS), time has stood still since January 28, 2014. For 12 years, their faith, and the body of their founder, Ashutosh Maharaj, has remained frozen at a constant -21degC. While doctors declared him clinically dead over a decade ago, the management at the sect's 100-acre Nurmahal headquarters maintains he is in 'samadhi (deep meditation)' and will eventually return to the physical world. Today, the enclosure where he rests remains a high-security zone, accessible only to a select few, while the organisation he built continues to flourish in his "divine presence". The preservation is not merely a matter of faith but a ritual of clinical precision. Every six months-in May and November-a three-member medical committee, comprising the Jalandhar civil surgeon and doctors from Ludhiana's Dayanand Medical College and Hospital's anatomy and forensic medicine departments, inspects the body in compliance with the Punjab and Haryana high court directive. "The last inspection in November 2025 showed hardly any changes in appearance," Jalandhar civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Garg said. "The body, kept in a lying position, looks 99% fine, barring a few patches on the upper part. No decomposition or skin loosening was observed. At such freezing temperatures, any body can be preserved for decades," he said. The DJJS management ensures the -21degC environment is maintained round-the-clock, while periodically changing the founder's clothes. Far from waning in the absence of a leader in deep freeze, the DJJS has seen an exponential expansion since 2014: From 40 acres in 2014, the Nurmahal headquarters now spans 100 acres, with an additional 300 acres of farmland. The sect has grown from 100 centres to over 500 globally, including presence in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, according to data on the sect's website. In Punjab alone, the sect claims 24 lakh followers, with 1.5 million digital followers on social media. "The sangat (community) understands the concept of samadhi," says DJJS spokesperson Swami Vishwanand. "In 12 years, no questions were raised by followers. We have only seen a jump in followership," he said. Despite the vast assets and sprawling properties of the trust, the DJJS has avoided succession battles that often plague sects. A lifesize cutout of Ashutosh Maharaj occupies the main chair at the satsang hall, signalling that he remains the functional head. "There is no second-in-command. Ashutosh Maharaj ji is our head and will remain so. We operate as volunteers managed by a governing body in New Delhi," Vishwanand added. The preservation was not without legal hurdles. In 2014, Dalip Kumar Jha, claiming to be Ashutosh Maharaj's son, and Puran Singh, a former driver, moved the high court seeking a cremation and a probe, respectively. While a single-bench judge initially ordered cremation within 15 days in late 2014, rejecting the 'samadhi' theory as not being a protected religious practice, a double bench later stayed the order. In July 2017, the high court formally allowed the preservation of the body, provided regular medical checks were conducted at the sect's expense. Born Mahesh Jha in 1946 in Bihar's Darbhanga, Ashutosh Maharaj left his family 18 months after marriage to pursue a spiritual path. After a stint with Satpal Maharaj's sect, he founded the DJJS in 1983 and there was no looking back. As it prepares for the next medical inspection in May, the Nurmahal sect remains a site of faith frozen in time....