LIKE, PRAY, FOLLOW: A QUICK PATH TO THE TOP

How do you become a religious leader in Madhya Pradesh? There are many ways. For Archana Sarmandal, all it took, in her words, was a moment when her eyes were opened to her own potential, while she was sitting outside a temple. That was nine years ago.

Today, she adds, she is known for ‘saving lives’. “People call me when they are ill, I tell them to go to a hospital, and I promise to pray to ensure the treatment is effective,” she says.

Sarmandal, 36, is a homemaker, mother of two, astrologer and self-styled spiritual leader. “I advise people on what kind of puja to perform,” she adds, “as they seek professional medical help.”

Clad in a saffron robe, Sarmandal meets people in a special room in her two-storey Ujjain house. Her visitors range from ward officers and MLAs to grocery store owners. What do people give her in return for her advice? “That is out of their own happiness,” she says. How does she know what advice to give? I advise them based on what has worked for me, she says.

Ujjain is one of the ‘religious centres’ of Madhya Pradesh; others include Maheshwar, Khandwa and Amarkantak.

During the Ujjain Simhastha, a Kumbha Mela that occurs once in 12 years on the banks of the Shipra river, ascetics from across Indian converge on this town. The fair lasts a month, but the culture of faith, holy men and ritual is permanent.

How you pick your guru can reflect what you’re seeking.

“A man does not become a sage because he announces that he is one, just as a doctor doesn’t learn to heal by adding initials to his name,” says Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati, 93, head of the Dwarka Sharda Peeth and an authority on Hindu religious practice. “A true sage doesn’t need to be photographed with ministers; doesn’t go out looking for support. He becomes a sage by studying under a sage, and he can claim that title because he helps others towards enlightenment.”

One cannot become an ascetic because one has lost in one kind of life and wants to try another, adds Baba Laxman Das Maharaj, who heads an ashram in Indore. “One must be drawn purely by the call of God.”

Saraswati believes there is no sphere of life that should be closed to dharma. “A fair election is one that follows dharma; every party has to be faithful to the Constitution, if one party breaks away or treats the different communities that form this country unfairly, that is not dharma.”

But if someone who calls himself a saint enters politics for personal gain, says Laxman Das Maharaj, he is a danger to everyone, including himself.