Mummified Monk , "Not Dead".

I reported, in a post from Dec. 16, 2014, of spiritual guru Ashutosh Maharaj, founder and head of the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan, who suffered a heart attack and was declared clinically dead by a team of doctors on January 29, 2014.

Many of his followers, however, believe Ashutosh Maharaj to be in a state of deep meditation (samadhi) and won a court battle in Decemeber, 2014, delaying his cremation until February 9, 2015.

As I write this, we are still 3 days away from the latest cremation date. So far, no new news to report on that.

However, I've learned today, from a report on the Siberian Times website, of a 200 years old mummified monk found in the lotus position on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province of Mongolia. Ganhugiyn Purevbata, who is the founder and professor of the Mongolian Institute of Buddhist Art at Ulaanbaatar Buddhist University, said:

'Lama is sitting in the lotus position vajra, the left hand is opened, and the right hand symbolizes of the preaching Sutra.

'This is a sign that the Lama is not dead, but is in a very deep meditation according to the ancient tradition of Buddhist lamas'.

Looks as if we could do with an updated Monty Python sketch.