Which Way to Go for Spirituality? (ISSUES)- Shivani Mohan/Khaleej Times 14 December 2008

As I typed away at the keyboard, I suddenly realised it was 12.30pm. Time to pick up my daughter from school. While media reports may make it seem that the whole of India is one big burning Mumbai, life fortunately has gone on at its normal pace in many other smaller cities in India.

My daughter’s school is just a block away and was selected for, besides other things, the advantage of just making it there in five minutes. But that day I was met half way with a huge motorcade in gaudy colours comprising of men, women and children distributing pamphlets, with songs blaring from loudspeakers, stopping traffic and creating chaos. As I muttered under my breath, trying to find some way through the fracas,

I was told by some considerate members of this melee that it would be better if I reversed my car and tried some other route. They even volunteered to help steer my car back while some of them signalled the full-fledged Indian wedding style band accompanying them to lower the trumpets while I struggled with the car. When I tried reasoning that why couldn’t I just wiggle my way through one little corner of the road, they informed me that they had taken over the entire public road and the procession went on for almost half a mile.

Fuming and panting, I reversed the car and took a long trip around the block to reach the school from another direction. And lo and behold, I met the rear end of the half-mile long procession. I reversed again and tried to out smart the serpentine parade. I spent the next half an hour doing so till I reached the school where my five-year-old sat next to her teacher with a longing look in her eyes. Most parents had been delayed in a similar fashion. This motorcade was yet another of those shobha yatras or grand processions that are becoming a common ostentatious occurrence in India. I live in a city called Chandigarh, which enjoys the dual honour of being the city with the highest per capita income in the country and one of the highest literacy rates. So the question arises that what are these seemingly well-to-do, well heeled and well educated people, doing taking out such processions in the middle of a working day, not to mention in the middle of a global financial crisis and the aftermath of a major national tragedy? Don’t they have places to go to, things to do, and deadlines to meet?

Many of these were young people who should have been in educational institutions or workplaces doing something meaningful. Let me clarify that I am not an atheist. I am a devout Hindu who observes most norms and festivals laid down by my religion. I visit temples for sanctity and peace. I even have a small temple in my house where incense is lit every day. I am a bit averse to extreme ritualism but yes, if following a tradition makes some elder in my family happy, I observe it.

What gets my goat quite often these days is the way in which my religion is being projected and popularised. While Islam today is in the eye of a storm for obvious reasons, it saddens me that there is a palpable resurgence of ostentatious expressions of Hinduism. There are half a dozen sadhus and sadhvis who hog headlines on national channels not for anything spiritual but a multitude of nefarious activities. They don saffron garbs but flit around in the best of luxury hotels, have superstar disciples and the world at their beck and call. Saffron was once supposed to be synonymous with renunciation and sacrifice. Today it is the colour of religious power and political nexus.

Yogis, babas and gurus are revoking a number of spurious superstitious practices. There are so called Vaastu, tarot, numerology and jyotish experts who are minting money by helping people start ventures with names starting with K, supposedly an auspicious letter; break and rebuild their houses according to some ancient dogmas; say no to perfectly eligible marriage proposals and yes to some others based on the compatibility of stars and not the personalities of the two people involved; and cure obscure diseases that actually need medical or psychological help.

It is surprising that it is not just uneducated people who are taken in by all of this but well-known film stars, industrialists and politicians. Spirituality in India today is a multi-million dollar industry. It is this commercialisation of religion and spirituality which is doing disservice to religion more than anything. Uncle Raghav, a favourite uncle of mine has for decades lived the jet setting lifestyle in Europe. He has owned the best of luxury cars, flown to Paris because he suddenly felt like shopping, had races on autobahns on fancy bikes that cost more than most cars in India. Two divorces and many ailments later, he was with us last year seeking peace and sanyaasa.

Sanyaasa according to age-old Hindu belief is the final stage of life when men are supposed to turn celibate and dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits. When we arranged for him to visit a world–renowned religious sect, which has hundreds of branches in India and abroad, he was told that to attain sanyaas, he would have to forgo non-vegetarian and alcoholic drinks for a year. He was made to sit in a big silent chamber and asked to meditate for the better part of the day. After about three hours of doing this, feeling very calm and pious, when he asked the authorities if he could now meet the spiritual head of the organisation, they said “Oh! Baba ji is inMiami!”

Uncle Raghav was a bit stumped to hear this, wondering why he was meditating in a room in the back of beyond when babaji was feasting at some beach resort in Miami. Uncle Raghav decided to let go of his fancy ideas. He informed the person attending to him that he will try and meet babaji the next time he was in India. The attendant’s demeanor changed and he said, “ Oh! You are an NRI? Sir, you can take sanyaas tomorrow if you want. Just pay up $…… !” Uncle Raghav was back with us the next day enjoying his stiff Scotch and chicken tikkas! Millions of people come to India every year from all over the world seeking a sublime experience. They visit the ghats of Varanasi, they haunt the crowds in Pushkar, they visit temples, shrines and mosques, they seek private interviews with the many gurus and swamis of India. But does one really need to go to the other end of the world to find himself? Or to discover a dialogue with divinity?

One reason for this spirituality renaissance could be the mounting unrest in modern living. It is mostly in times of crisis and pain that most people remember God. While maintaining a personal dialogue with God would be a desirable thing, is there a need for a mediator or go-between to establish that sublime relationship?

It is the intelligentsia today in India that can show the way by not participating in any such form of religion that defeats logic. The educated masses should not get taken in by deviant forms of religion put forth by agencies that have their own ulterior motives — be it breeding blind superstition or violent manifestations of religion. These distorted definitions of spirituality and religion need to be nipped in the bud. Spirituality to me is a person’s private communion with God. Spirituality above all, is to live and let live.

Shivani Mohan is an India-based writer