Gods for Sale

[Guest guest]

Gods for Sale

by Satya Sagar

 

January 25, 2004

 

It is a very, very Indian story.

 

A few weeks ago a friend of mine filed a petition in the Indian

Supreme Court against - believe it or not- the tenth incarnation of

the Hindu God Vishnu! Or at least, against a person who claims

to be nothing less than that and has in the past decade

drummed up a following of over several million people in the

southern part of India.

 

Blasphemous as the claim of this fake avatar is the court battle

is not really about the finer details of Hindu cosmology or

theological doctrine.

 

Based on several years of painstaking investigation and

research it is my friend's claim that 'Kalki Bhagwan', as the

defendant calls himself, has taken money from the public for

rural development activities and fraudulently diverted it to his

personal bank accounts as well as that of his close relatives.

From being an ordinary clerk working for a state-owned life

insurance company fifteen years ago today the 'Tenth Incarnation

of Vishnu' is allegedly worth many million dollars and owns vast

properties in many parts of South India.

 

The Indian Supreme Court has been asked, based on the merits

of the evidence presented, to order a thorough investigation by

state agencies into the functioning of the 'Kalki' empire.

 

The 'Kalki' case is not very unique in a country that gave the world

the word 'guru' to begin with and produces more of them every

year than the rest of the world combined. (I am including some

software programmers here!!!). The manipulation of abstract

(often abstruse) thought to manipulate animate creatures has

deep roots in this ancient land, which has produced several of

the world's major religions apart from numerous cults and

mystical traditions.

 

Out of all the 'gurus' that routinely spring up on the spiritually

fertile Indian soil only a few are genuinely enlightened souls who

help spread goodness and true religiosity around them. The

bulk of them are unfortunately ordinary conmen out to make a

quick buck.

 

Once upon a time the typical 'guru' would prey on the gullibility of

the predominantly rural and illiterate Indian population.

Considering the raw deal these village folks got here on Planet

Earth their attraction to anyone promising a better life in the

Heavens above was never surprising.

 

But in recent times god men and gurus of all kinds have

developed a huge following within the urban Indian lower middle

and middle classes. Since the early eighties in particular there

has been a boom in the `guru industry' across urban India and

some of them have acquired virtual pop-star status. (All that long

hair helps, I am sure)

 

So what explains this phenomenon of otherwise educated,

well-heeled Indians queuing up in droves to fall at the feet of fake

god men and shower them with money? Is this about the

genuine quest of individuals seeking spiritual salvation in a very

materialist world or is it about their dishonest attempts to get

quick-fix solutions to the moral dilemmas they face in an

increasingly unscrupulous world? To be fair I guess one would

have to say it is a bit of both.

 

On one hand there is a genuine search for spiritual satisfaction

that many individuals undertake, in a world where there is

growing material consumption but diminishing human

happiness. This leads many to experiment with one false

prophet after the other in the hope of arriving at a magic formula

that will bring balance between mind and matter.

 

Also given the inability of institutionalized religion to cater to

the

specific spiritual needs of individuals, many people turn to gurus

who offer precisely such personalized service. Like having your

own custom-built conduit to nirvana.

 

At another level, the kind of things that most members of the

middle-classes need to do in their jobs to both keep their jobs

and get ahead of the Jains (the Indian equivalent of the Jones)

creates considerable moral turbulence to say the least. While

most people justify whatever they do as being part of 'what

everyone does to survive' the fact is their conscience still

undergoes a torment that simply cannot be wished away- and

hence has to be whitewashed away.

 

The more troubled a society is by feelings of guilt and sinfulness

that the consumerism of the few amidst poverty of the many

engenders, the more frenetic its public display of pretended

religiosity. It is this vast growing market for moral mufflers

across the small towns and cities of India that the guru industry

has managed to cleverly identify and capture.

 

With their instant solutions of spiritual salvation- sold at steep

moral discounts with pay-as-you-pray options- the gurus have

struck a commercial goldmine. In exchange for a fat fee they offer

the modern citizen an easy way out of the more difficult task of

maintaining integrity or decency in their day-to-day lives.

 

There was a time in the past when the typical guru would

become popular by exhorting the public to give up their material

desires and then sit back to watch all the lovely money flow into

his own bank account. Nowadays though the average guru is

more realistic about public attitudes and instead promises them

all kinds of shortcuts to instant wealth while charging a

commission for his services.

 

" Don't shun worldly pleasures, seek ultimate happiness " the

Tenth Avatar is quoted as preaching to his devotees, (sounds

like the late Chairman Deng to me!) to whom he promises

everything from winning lotteries to marrying a bride who looks

just like their favorite movie star. His foundations charge

followers for attending courses on something called 'pragmatic

materialism'.

 

The Indian public is lapping up this kind of drivel and paying for it

too. Today the sad situation is that while the average urban

Indian becomes more and more overtly religious in his/her

public activities, politics, priorities and cultural symbolism- this

is

accompanied by a steep fall in his/her actual moral worth.

 

For all their hedonist holiness the Indian middle-classes have

neither become more charitable, or generous, or kinder or

tolerant- not a single sign that they have somehow become

better human beings than before. ('Don't interrupt my orgasm!

You unhappy, pseudo-secular, bloody communist!!' I can hear

them say)

 

At the macro-level too there are other pressures that bear upon

the individual pushing them towards blind unquestioning faith.

One of these is the deliberate injection of uncertainty into the

material lives of millions of Indians in recent decades by

successive governments implementing neo-liberal economic

policies.

 

Since the early eighties successive Indian regimes have

pursued a path of Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation (the

LPG model) which has resulted in increasing income

inequalities, diminishing job opportunities and the rapid erosion

of the rights of employees in both the state and private sectors.

The last two decades of the Indian economy has been aptly

characterized by some as consisting of an industrial sector

which had growth without jobs, while the rural sector saw

employment without income. According to the Indian Planning

Commission there are currently 212 million people in the country

between the ages of 14 to 24, but only 107 million have jobs.

 

The insecurity of the average Indian family today is one of

gigantic proportions as they witness before their own eyes the

systematic destruction of all hopes for a better life by policies

designed only to enrich a few at the expense of the many.

Unable to understand this process and in the absence of

organized resistance many have resigned themselves to their

fate or sought refuge in the false but comfortable world of

pseudo-religiosity.

 

Another major factor promoting the growth of spiritual

supermarkets and religious retailers in India is of course the

speculative greed unleashed among its middle classes by the

'casinofication' of its economy- as a consequence of

globalisation.

 

The sheer volumes and velocity of global financial flows

conjures an awe among many human beings that was once

upon a time reserved only for the grand forces of Mother Nature.

And in a world where money mysteriously appears in some lives

and disappears from others, like the incarnation of an ancient

God, it is difficult not to become superstitious.

 

It is not accidental therefore that financial speculators, aptly

dubbed as 'wizards' by the media, have become the new high

priests of our societies and role models for many people. " When

in sorrow contact Soros, for happiness try the Hedge Fund! " has

become the new mantra of the punting classes.

 

And like all gamblers everywhere the speculating middle-class

citizen today will do any damn desperate thing to keep fate of

his/her financial investments prospering. Go through the

classifieds section of any major Indian newspaper and you will

find outfits peddling everything from astrology, numerology,

fengshui, magic gems side by side with finance companies,

stock brokers, real estate agents, investment consultants,

wheelers and dealers of every description.

 

So what we have right now in much of urban India is a mad

scramble by the middle classes to blindly bet everything they

have on the market and equally blindly buy insurance from the

nearest holy-looking scamster and hope it all works out fine.

 

While I have described so far the dilemmas of the temple (also

mosque/church in the Indian context) going public the question

that troubles me is that if the people have become vulnerable is

it not the responsibility of the truly religious to restore their

moral

spines? Unfortunately as far as most contemporary religious

institutions are concerned one sees no attempt whatsoever to

help ordinary citizens cope in an honest and dignified manner

with the momentous economic and social upheavals tossing

around their once simple lives.

 

Instead what we witness is that religious outfits- after having

served out their feudal masters in the past- are quickly adapting

to the corporatisation of the world and becoming full-fledged

enterprises on their own. And all signs are that they have been

extremely successful too- using every modern corporate tool

from slick advertising to internet marketing to get their

customers.

 

Just to give an example from Thailand- one new Buddhist sect

here called the Dhammakaya which preaches the Kalki/Deng

line of " to get rich is glorious' actually won a national award in

1988 for its 'market planning strategies' from the Business

Management Association of Thailand.

 

Before anyone gets me wrong let me explain that I do seriously

believe in the possibility of religious institutions playing a very

positive role in many societies provided they put the interests of

ordinary folk above that of rich elites or their own survival. Just

to

give another example from Thailand again the Buddhist Sangha

here does a fantastic service to society by absorbing large

numbers of rural youth from poor farming families into the

monkhood. The Sangha provides the young monks with shelter,

a basic education and a sense of social responsibility and at

the same time is not dogmatic or rigid about their leaving the

monkhood to take up other professions. Some of Thailand's

best know writers, artists and even social activists come from a

background in the monkhood.

 

Maybe one can argue that it is the role of the state to provide

such welfare but in many a developing country given the

dysfunctional state of the state such traditional social welfare

systems still have an important role. (If such opportunities were

extended to young Thai women, who are unfortunately

discriminated against, Thailand could get rid of much of its

notorious commercial sex industry)

 

In stark contrast in India, with a few splendid exceptions, most

religious institutions have ceased to serve the public in any

meaningful way and instead parasitically live off them. At the

time of Indian Independence Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime

Minister, famously claimed that industries would become the

'temples of modern India'. What we see now is that instead it is

the temples that have become 'industries of a revivalist India'!

 

If this is going to be the case then I have a suggestion to make.

Subject all religious institutions to the same laws that apply to all

other industries, businesses and trade. Allow all those

employed by the religious industry to form trade unions and

empower consumers of religion to claim compensation in the

courts when they get products of 'low spiritual quality'. If they are

in the business of selling God then there should at least be a

sales tax on the proceeds. Tax these religious outfits and use

the money to pay for truly religious actions such as giving the

weak and poor a better life.

 

A good start would be to straighten out the booming business

empire of none other than our dear 'Tenth Avatar of Vishnu'.

 

Satya Sagar is a journalist based in Thailand. He can be

reached at sagarnama

 

Gods for Sale

http://shorterlink.co.uk/5133