The Mathematics of Super-rich Hindu Godmen!!

Ever wondered about super-rich Hindu godmen??!! All of us cannot escape being wonderstruck at the extensive material possessions religiously safe (always beyond the domain of tax and property laws that stalk the tiny material prospects of lesser mortals like yours truly) under the clutches of long list of Hindu religious figures. Well mendicancy that always reminds us of naked bearded Sadhus lost in meditative trance, it now instantly fetches us the image of gold-imbibed sages on whose feet both elites and the masses put their heads for seeking better prospects. Sadhus are doing good business man!!

It is one of the most predominant means of land grab in India ranging from prime locations in metros to the remote mountainous stretches. It is a very simple Hindu mathematics that functions on the parameters of blind faith and governmental incapacity to interfere into the religious affairs of the people who manage and organize religion for 80% population in this country. It starts with a smart bearded eagle who puts his ass by a holy fire near the vicinity of a suffering settlement full of people in need. You know why people’s faith in fate and God for a reprieve from their problems is not coming down as it should given the vast strides in science and technology? It is rather going up to turn into a blind race without any rhyme or reason. The reason is goddammned massive population in this country. People are crammed in a small space and fight over little resources. They ultimately have to spread out the corner of their apron for divine intervention. In ancient India that was rich in resources, faith was a means of spiritual pursuit. Now it is a mad rush to stand in the queue like sheep and humbly get blessings to fulfill needs. People have so many needs and uncountable frustrations that they are forced to drop logic at the end of a hard-cut day of struggles.

The mathematics of this Godman prosperity is very simple. Suppose ten people start going to a new religious sprout, the new Sadhu on the scene. They have their histories of disappointments, struggles, issues against man as well as God, trials and tribulations. When they decide to hit their forehead into the dust around the holy feet of this new blessing giver, even with a very weak probability law, some of them have already done enough to resolve some of their issues. Suppose out of ten, two people have been struggling long enough so that in any case they would have seen a positive change in their situation even if they had not visited this godman. But since they see a change in their situation after they started visiting this religious fellow, they forget the long trials and tribulations and their fight. They think that if it was not happening for so long, and now it materializes, so it must be born of this holy man’s blessings. So these two overzealous and over-obliged troubled souls turned followers become the publicity agents. Driven by a devotional spirit they will fetch 10 each fellow sufferers from the group of their acquaintances. And out of those 20 persons, at least 4 would have done enough to change their life positively anyway. But again these four will go ga ga about the Sadhu’s prowess in changing their lives. These four will get another 40 and so on. It grows with a very serious mathematics. A sort of nuclear chain reaction.

What about the rest 8 of the 10 people who visited initially? They will never doubt the powers of Sadhus as such. At the most they will think this particular one is not skilled enough to resolve their issues. So they will continue with their struggles against their causes as well as search for a skilled-enough holy figure who will ultimately deliver the goods for them. They will be scattered in the different levels of groups falling in the domain of various Sadhus. And those who realize that things have changed for them (which would have changed anyway given their long-road of struggles); they dump finally their loyalty at the feet of the holy figure that they are visiting at that time. In this way these godmen get their core group of loyal followers. So not surprising that most of these godmen are cut in the avatar of Aasharam and other cheats. A very simple religious mathematics, eh!