Commerce of Godmen
Spiritual
entrepreneurs start with the peddling of intangibles by way of highfaluting
sermons in florid flourishes of language, using arabesque turns of phrase and
idiom. It is often accompanied by spectacular rituals that compel attention and
the recycling of fossilised wisdom from old texts, all in exchange for the not
so intangible collections from their followers ostensibly for the promotion of the
Faith, the best Instrument to tackle the problems of the modern world. As Meera
Nanda taunts in The God Market ‘...tradition
is modernity and to go forward, Indians must face backward.’
Intoxicated
by the unexpected success of these start-ups, the purveyors of supernatural and
theological virtues first enter the fields of education and health care, both
highly rewarding areas, and follow it up with obtaining grants of land from a
benevolent government to aid their socially beneficent schemes. Exercising a
business acumen that has been highly developed from the handling of large
finances some eye real estate and parcel out land (against substantial
donations) originally acquired for an Ashram, retailing it for the stay of devotees
in the larger family defined by the ashram which is now lorded over by the New
Age Guru. Such is the usual trajectory
of the Babas that a gullible population worships and deifies.
However,
the ambitions of unbridled ascetics soar high and aspire to match the successes
of the tycoons of commerce and industry. Diversification is the tool to use and
the manufacture of fast moving consumer goods provides a potent answer. The
constituency of devotees becomes a captive test market and in some cases acts
as a distribution network greatly subsidising the costs of selling. Even the
tasks of copywriters and advertisement managers become easy by using terms like
Ayurveda, Patanjali, Science of the Ancients, Naturopathy, all of which tug at
the emotions of a people not yet unburdened of tradition. The competition which
starts by facing organised industry takes on a different fierceness when pitted
between different ashrams. Brand loyalty is yoked to Guru loyalty.
If
these spiritual enterprises, having co-opted the temporal without deviating
from the spiritual, are to follow the well trodden path of modern industry, we
may soon see black knights and white knights manoeuvering for control of the
smaller corporations and even perhaps mergers and acquisitions. There are quite
a few ashrams in decline and in need of resurrecting. Will the larger spiritual
corporations come to their rescue?
As
Gramsci said “The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while
not becoming disillusioned.”
