Vinod Kumar was away, working as a mason, when he received the call that shattered his world: his wife, daughter, and mother were among the 121 people killed in a stampede at a spiritual gathering in Hathras.

He and his three sons searched hospitals through the day, looking for their loved ones. Near midnight, they found the bodies of his wife, Raj Kumari, 42, and daughter, Bhumi, 9, laid on slabs of ice among dozens of others in a government hospital corridor. Grief-stricken, Mr. Kumar wept at his wife’s feet. “Who will scold the children now, and send them to school?” he cried.

But there was no time to mourn. His mother, Jaimanti, the family’s matriarch and a devoted follower of the spiritual leader Bhole Baba, was still missing. Mr. Kumar embraced his daughter one last time before continuing the search. “I want to do their last rites together,” he said.

Jaimanti, like many others drawn to the guru, came from a marginalized background—one that Bhole Baba’s teachings often appealed to. What began as faith ended in tragedy, leaving families like Mr. Kumar’s to pick through the wreckage of loss with nothing but their love and sorrow to guide them.