Spiritualism is often used as a garb. But it is not the fault of people who use it as a garb.Spiritualism in reality is a garb.
For a Swamiji selling spiritualism there are many tools. Hindu mythology, Vedas, Upanishads, mantras, poojas, tantras, psychology, motivation, inspiration, meditation and even management is a tool to sell spiritualism.
Spiritualism comes in when basic needs of man like hunger, thirst and shelter are available to the satisfaction of a person.
A man did a lot of penance and acquired a devil with the condition that he needs to give work to it continuously or the devil would kill him. Within few hours the man exhausted all the work he had and devil was on him to give some more work. Man finally planted a pole and asked the devil to go round and round the pole till he gives next work.
After a lot of penance the homosapien race evolved. But it also got a devil inside it called intelligence. If this intelligence is not given work, it consumes the homosapien race. Spiritualism is the pole around which the homosapien race ties its intelligence to pass the time.
Think about it. Many of the Spiritualists are young or middle-aged. They have never gone through real worldly experiences of life. They are people who infer a lot from outside. But they themselves neither have the wisdom nor the experience to teach others.
Look back at our history. It is clear that for being a Rishi or Sanyasin, one has to have experiences of all the life. Our scriptures clearly state that for one to preach something, he should have mastered it and benefited out of it.
Even the mighty Sankara was defeated on this point and he could not escape it. He had to go through several trials and tribulations to experience the married life, its pleasures and perils, before teaching about giving up one’s pleasures for penance!
A Saint or Seer in the Hindu tradition called a ‘Rishi’ is a person who is supposed to learn the ‘vedas or knowledge’ and thus contribute to the society. In fact ‘Rishi’ means ‘Observer’. Rishis kept themselves off from the people so that they focus on their work of discovering knowledge.
Can we say today’s mutts have Saints and Seers as above..?
When knowledge became static, even Sankara’s mutts started producing Swamijis, who abandoned the Vedas and their knowledge, instead focusing on interacting with people and attaining power, property and pleasure through their people interactions to augment their sustenance. And this model has been copied by swamiji’s of all shades from the management ones to spiritual ones.
The Spiritualist Swamijis are master marketing men.
That is the basic fact. They know how to market themselves and their tools. Over a period this marketing art has been practiced and perfected well.
Let’s face it. There are several people around us. Each one wants something. Someone wants hope. Someone wants energy. Someone wants confidence. Someone wants love. Someone wants money. Someone wants fame. Someone wants networking to stabilize their sources of income. Someone wants connections that could be useful in their future. Some people want jobs. Some people want business.
A spiritualist swamiji can provide all of these. In fact he/she ties them all up in an eco-system that is self-sustainable. This is the difference between a normal human being and Spiritualist swamiji.
A spiritualist Swamiji is a businessman vending devotion, confidence, hope, inspiration, motivation, meditation, yoga or some such thing under a spiritual garb.
Using their capacity to inter-network men, money and materials, they are able to create an economic eco-system for several people to sustain. This is their secret of success!
And these spiritualist Swamijis will not go off, unless there is a demand from people for them. Hence my suggestion is to people, who search for solutions outside them.
We often become the Naseerudin who searched for the lost gold coin under the street light, though he lost it somewhere else. We search for solutions in the place where it is comfortable to search, though that may not give us any result, as it is not the place where our problems are.
I wrote few words to my daughter on her birthday. I would sincerely suggest it to all the people.
Not in a substance one can find Not in the nadir of nirvana mind Not in spirituality of any kind Happiness, simply, is in our daily grind! Study, Play or simple chat too Cook, Clean, or take care of few Brush, Bathe or Be it the Loo Learn to enjoy whatever you do! Anger, Anxiety, Depression or fear Love, Pleasure, Sorrow or tear Emotions are the tastes of life Learn to enjoy even if some are rife! Income, Expenditure, Gain or Loss Prosperous, Penniless, Priceless or Trash Parents, Friends, Spouse or in-laws Learn to enjoy their fits and flaws! Cricket, Cinema or the Television shows Ever wonder why we enjoy them most..? Make your ‘Mind’ a spectator sitting close Not the player feeling all the woes..
-TBT
April 20, 2010 at 9:45 am
March 7, 2010 at 9:23 am
Regarding the situation of today’s so called God(devil)man, I actually pity the people who throng throng these babas.Why are they so innocent not to judge the right from the wrong? Even the looks of some of these ‘Baba’s is so siniter, one can easily judge their character.Even after so many cases of fake Gurus, people are not able to give up their blind faith.
March 6, 2010 at 10:57 pm
On the point of Rsi being identified as ‘one who absorbs’ and not ‘one who observes’, which I interpret from the root word of dRz, which plainly means ‘to see’, I won’t argue.
Being the archaic language Sanskrit is, this could be interpolated as learn, understand, absorb etc.
From what I wanted to communicate, in fact, ‘one who absorbs’ is more appropriate than ‘one who just observes’. So I leave it at that.
But again Sir, Spirituality as it is today, is a garb! No doubt.
Read some of my blogs on my kind of Spirituality here:
http://thebigthinkg.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/09/existentially-non-existent.htm
-TBT
-TBT
March 6, 2010 at 10:35 pm
If you pin-point a particular point in this article that has been written for the ‘heck’ of it, I accept your point and would correct it.
If you can point out where substance is lacking, I will add it.
Regarding Spirituality, I am not sure if I ‘researched’ into it. But I have been with it for looong. If you really understand the ‘poem/verses’ I wrote for my daughter, you will realize it.
I am not talking about a case. I am talking about all cases. Today “Spirituality’ is a business entity. It is a garb to sell some other stuff.
-TBT
March 6, 2010 at 8:54 pm
You say that spirituality is a ‘garb’. Though I wouldn’t say that I am a spiritual person , but I surely wouldn’t call it a garb.
As for you, i sincerely feel that an article should not be written just for the heck of writing an article. There is no substance in what you have written since your foundation is wrong.
The word Rishi doesn’t mean one who observes, rather it is one who absorbs…
I hope you understand the difference.
Spirituality is a subject in itself and one should write about it only after doing some research.
You could have just highlighted the case which you are taliking about instead of attempting to talk about something which is not understood by many (including yourself).
Anirban.