A vast majority of Indians seek succour in a supernatural force widely termed as ‘God’. Including myself for the record. But why God-men? Why do we need an anchor that channelizes a path for us to access our creator, when we have HIM readily accessible everywhere? While history has handed down few great examples of well-meaning saints who have truly embodied the spirit of spiritualism and more importantly dedicated their lives to the service of humanity, a large number of present day so called self-proclaimed godmen continue to exploit the latent insecurities and vulnerabilities of many of my compatriots. Many of these men who have successfully cracked this model run large business enterprises paraded in the name of the godhead. A larger part of this conversation is explored in an another poem which can also be viewed in these archives – ‘The God Business’
The godman walked
in
Escorted by his
sycophantic claque
As the auditorium
bursting at the seams
Fell into pin
drop silence.
The coterie
climbed up
The dais and the
godman
Was helped to his
throne
As he ensconced
himself in his seat of poise
A girl came up
And invoked the
divine
With a recitation
Of well-rehearsed
shlokas
Having prepared
the audience
The godman
started
“Today we are
here to teach
You the ultimate
secret to happiness”
Instilling a
frisson of hope in
The miserable
masses seated affront
“Money isn’t
everything.
It is the root
cause of all evil
Here in the
pristine precincts of this ashram
We will take you
on the path
To reach exalted
state of the ultimate realization
That money is the
last thing you will need”
“When you die,
Will you carry
the millions you made?
Or the homes you
built?
Or the land you
bought?
Or the
materialistic pleasures that weared
You out all your
life?”
“Make peace with
your fellow humans.
Shed your materialistic
dispositions.
Forgive.
When your mortal
remains
Enter the
graveyard,
Only your name,
your thoughts, deeds,
Will accompany
you on your farewell journey”
“In this course
you will be taught
How to decouple
money from your life
And shed aside
the avarice of materialism
By the end of the
week, you will be taught
To regard money
and materialism as
The 2 goal posts
of Suffering
And surely no
more”
And with
stereotyped and over-wrought
Platitudes of bed
not buying sleep
Food not buying
hunger
Clock not buying
time
And the likes
The soi-disant
godman bored on and on and on
The benighted
crowd listened with messianic zeal
With five minutes
to go,
As the
strategically timed hour rang in
The claque
shimmered down and split themselves
To cater to each
aisle in the throng
Handing out neat
glossy brochures
Of what the camp
entailed -
Pictures of the
ashram, a promising schedule of lectures
Shlokas and a
strict diet regimen
Marketed by embellished
words
Calculated to
inveigle the wariest of
The hoi polloi
On the last page
of the brochure
In words that
neither blared nor were hidden
Text of an
unsuspicious font said
“The duration of
the rejuvenation camp is Fifteen days
It starts on the 15th
and ends on 29th May”
3 hours in the
morning everyday”
From 6 AM – 6PM,
Saturday and Sunday
“Early bird
registrations last till May 7th”
Camp fees - Rs.
50000/- only.
Extra donations for
the noble cause are most welcome”
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