Corporate Spirituality: A mirage in the cruel desert

-- G Manjusainath

The Swami, in his mid-fifties, ambled along amidst his devotees sitting in the rows at an open amphitheatre in his sprawling Ashram in Bangalore. After displaying all his soft skills, he then sat on the throne.

In this management era post liberalisation, the buzzword of soft skills has come quite handy for this Corporate Swami to hide his feminine behaviour.

From the dais, the Swami roared in his mellowed voice, “Today is a historic day as people from across the globe converged here to eradicate poverty. We formed several kilometre-long human chain to send out a message to all the governments across the globe that poverty shall no longer be tolerated. It needs to be eradicated.”

But still there was a section in the crowd which was not convinced. It wanted to know how the poverty can be eradicated from the village in the backyard of the Ashram, let alone the world, by forming a human chain. Actually, the scepticism should be blamed for the absence of a vision to look at things in the right perspective. The atheists ignored the fact that these means had helped eradicate poverty of the self-declared seer. The grand magnificent and palatial ‘hermitage’ of the Swami, which is spread over hundreds of acres of land, is big enough to give complex to emperors and business tycoons of the world.

The event instinctively reminded people of former Prime Minister Ms Indira Gandhi’s call for ‘Gareebi Hatao’ (remove poverty) in the late ’70s, which had helped her return to power. Those, who still question the prevalence of miseries in the society many decades after the popular slogan was raised, actually turn a blind eye to the riches of those who were among the Granny Gandhi’s confidants.

You need not have to bang your head too much to know why poverty and spirituality sell like a hot cake in India and the Swamis mushroom here. Visit any government hospital and you will realise that God along can save people here. Take the case of Vani Vilas Hospital in Bangalore. In literal terms, the name of the hospital means ‘Rich in Speech’, which sounds very apt for the century-old government hospital in view of the acute shortage of doctors, paramedics, medicines, equipment and also sanitation workers. This scene is prevalent in almost all the government hospitals in India.

A hospital, which itself is ailing, cannot offer anything but lip services (Vani Vilas) to its patients somewhat on the lines of Adi Guru Shankaracharya’s famous work ‘Bhaj Govindam Moodh Matay’. The devotional song in Sanskrit underlines the insignificance of memorising the principles of grammar in the twilight of life and emphasises upon invoking the name of God all the time.

A general observation is that when government fails, God, Godmen and their missionaries come into play. Another Swami in Bangalore only strengthens this notion. He is known for offering quality treatment at his five-star kind of super speciality hospital at a hefty price. It will not be out of context to say that spirituality is a family business of this Swami as all his near and dear ones are some or the other Swamis serving in his luxurious hermitage and enjoying their share in the hospital and education institutions.

Not many people can afford the Medical Swami’s blessings, which come for a hefty price. For such lot, a new seer has emerged in India, Nirmal Baba. Too many things have been written against him but his quackery at a relatively cheap price has shot up his popularity graph leaving his competitors far behind. Among his hundreds of ways of offering ‘relief’ to the ailing humanity, one has become a grand hit.

“Eat Samosa with green Chatni and ‘Kripa Aane Lagegi’ (You will start getting the grace),” the Baba had said at a seminar.

You would wonder that there is a price tag attached with the Samosa Chatni remedies too. You need to deposit at least Rs 2,000 in Baba’s bank account to attend his seminars. People say the Baba has been exposed because of media’s sustained campaign but those who cannot afford Medical Swami’s blessings and are afraid of going to sick government hospitals, Nirmal Baba and other godmen like him continue to be their guides and mentors. The distressed masses knowingly overlook the fact that these Babas and Swamis are only a mirage of oasis in the cruel desert.