Spiritual entrepreneurship, Thanks, Thangu, amma and Yohannans and Dinakarans ....

Spiritual Entrepreneurship, booming business in Kerala ...


The past few days we have been reading about the various successful, partly succesful and totally failed spiritual entrepreneurs in Kerala. Godmen/women. conmen/women, some of whom have gained worldwide fame, name and wealth and some who got exposed with too much of sex and lust. Cutting across religious spectrum, except for the Muslim community, we have seen competitors vying with each other to come to the forefront in this material world, amassing real estate, untold wealth in cash and kind and the appreciation and blind allegiance of thousands of followers within Indian and abroad.

We need to analyse why this pathetic state of affairs in this country of sages, rishis and wise men with a parampara, culture and civilization, perhaps the most ancient in the world, of five thousand years. When the white men were still on trees, our rishis and people of knowledge ( scientists in the modern  terminlogy ) were busy talking of the navagruhas (  the nine planets, it took them hundreds of years to disprove it..) and studying the impact of the position of stars and planets on human life ( something which even the modern Science of present day has not yet understood and hence claims as rubbish..)

Whatever be it, modern day science is under tremendous pressure to denounce such theories for their own survival, existence and acceptance, due to lack of understanding and knowledge of the unknown. Therefore in a spirit of accommodation as in a pluralistic society, we allow these modern theories being propounded by the modern day science to co-exist.

In this materialistic world, it is success and riches which are in great following.  Our spiritual entrepreneurs, both the successful and failed ones, have leveraged or exploited this weakness of our people running after success and material wellbeing. Be it writing an examination and getting a medical or engineering seat, getting a good high paying job, building a palatial house, going in the latest Mercedes, these spiritual entrepreneurs are ever ready to offer succour and comfort our fears, of course at a price. For the recipient it makes good business ation which will get corrected, as it is throwing some money to get more money. In Christianity as in other religions,  the emergence of the recent aggressive, born-again, rock-n-roll movements, extreme charismatism etc to corner all the good things in this materialistic world,  is just a aberration  which will get corrected in due course.

The people of Kerala are smart enough to know this, but the pressure of pursuit after materialistic pleasures, is resulting in the sprouting of such spiritual entrepreneurs ... If we are smart enough, we can avoid these rogues for ever ... ( but some of us will still try to outsmart others..)

Acting together we can live in a better world...

george..