A wealth of spiritualism

India’s growing prosperity is becoming fertile ground for ‘godmen’

The death of Nemi Chand Jain, better known to the world as Chandraswami, marked the passing of one era of spiritual gurus, uniquely referred to as “godmen” in India. Best known for his close links to an astonishing variety of movers and shakers, including Dawood Ibrahim, Adnan Khashoggi, the Sultan of Brunei and two prime ministers (P V Narasimha Rao and Chandra Shekhar), Chandraswami represented the last of the Rasputin-type gurus, with their elite political contacts and sinister reputations. He somehow survived accusations of cheating, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Fera) violations and even his alleged involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, though these serial scandals eroded his status in the last two decades of his life. Indira Gandhi’s flamboyant mentor Dhirendra Brahmachari, who was actually known as India’s Rasputin, probably represented the apogee of that trend. His famous yoga show on Doordarshan, shadowy involvement in arms deals, much-questioned relationship with India’s first female prime minister and his predilection for private jets became legendary in those decades, stoking Orientalist prejudices about India’s ability to embrace modern democratic political traditions. The Brahmachari’s death in an unexplained air crash in 1994 ensured that his mystique endured.

These two were part of a godman tradition of yesteryear that had tenuous links to India’s middle class multitudes. Indeed, as long as the Indian economy wallowed in LDC status with a per capita income below $400, the godman enterprise was confined to rarefied political circles or focused on western consumers in search of spiritual solace as an antidote to postwar materialism. India may have been a poor country but it had a priceless asset in the bountiful diversity of Hindu philosophy and yogic traditions that could be leveraged to this purpose. Thus, whether it was transcendental meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, made famous by the Beatles, or the novel (and, for the West prescient) prescription of free sex by “Osho” Rajneesh, India’s reputation as a preferred destination for customised mysticism (plus unlimited supplies of cannabis) was unmatched for decades.

Only Satya Sai Baba relied mostly on a large following in India, which expanded exponentially after economic liberalisation. The newer generation of godmen (and the occasional “godwoman”) is distinct in that their cosmopolitan fan following has a strong base in the Indian rich and middle class. Whether it is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Mata Amritanandamayi, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of the Dera Sacha Sauda or Baba Ramdev, the near-trebling of India’s per capita income since 1991 has resulted in an explosion of domestic demand for gurudom. Ramdev, the most powerful of them by virtue of his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was one of the earliest beneficiaries of India’s exploding wealth. Back in the nineties, his followers bought him an island off the Scottish coast for a “wellness” centre. Today, his rapidly expanding Ayurvedic personal care empire seems to have benefited from his political access.

Of course, they are not the only ones. There are many others and the extraordinary point about this growth industry is that it has flourished notwithstanding serious allegations in the past. Despite accusations of sexual assault (Asaram Bapu and Swami Nityananda), monetary malfeasance, murder, (Rajneesh was deported from the US on this count), to influencing governments (permission to Ravi Shankar for a World Culture Festival that destroyed the Yamuna floodplain) and more, the godman market does not diminish. This is partly because most also invest heavily in quality schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure so sorely lacking in India. That probably encourages India’s expanding rich and middle class to suppress their qualms and expiate the pangs of conscience for their growing wealth by donating lavishly to these causes, cocreating in the process one of the world’s most sustainable business models.