The booming spiritual bloom!

"Inner Engineering", "Spiritual Software", "Cosmic architecture", and many more paradoxical terms have seen a sudden boom in the last decade. This is the new set of jargon presenting itself when the need has arrived. 

The blend of spirituality and technology seems to be the USP of the recent resurgence of the spiritual heads from India, whom I categorize as the "Corporate Gurus". This entire saga of Spirituality and India is a deep rooted gimmick, which has flourished through centuries and still growing, better than ever.

Ancient Indian philosophy, when traversed through without the prejudices we might have inculcated in today's world, is nothing but contradictory to the current preachings of today's spiritualists. In Debiprasad Chattopadhayaya's book "Indian Atheism" he elucidates the fictitious nature of the contemporary spiritualism. He argues and very well validates the absence of the concept of God in most of the ancient Indian Philosophy, which on the other hand is the underlying basis for the contemporary spiritualism.

Another important aspect which comes under the scanner is the plethora of lost minds who are seeking solace from this trend. If narrowed down, the ones seeking 'spiritualism' today mostly are workers deprived of their rights!

An employee who works for 14 hours a day, with no time to spend with his/her family, with no sense of satisfaction and with almost zero interaction with the society in its real terms are the ones who are driven to such extremities.

If one extremity is falling prey for depressants like carcinogen, alcohol and other hallucinogens, the other 'respite' to this new class of social destitutes is seeking spiritualism in order to fill in the voids left by their exploitation.

Capitalizing on this new class of desperadoes is the new thriving 'industry' of spiritualism. Most of these Corporate Gurus bamboozle the vulnerables into their traps, with nothing but sweetened non-sense and a heavy 'donation'.

While Indian philosophy has homed the greatest of the philosphers like the Buddha, Kabir,Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekanada, and certainly some contemporary ones also who haven't shot to 'fame'. The discerning factor between these philosophers and today's swindlers is their motive.

While the genuine gurus were preachers for the sake of betterment in the society, the contemporary Gurus are lavish charlatans who have made the most out of the vulnerabilities in the society. While the ancient philosophers were reformers, who fought against social practices which made the lives of the people miserable, today, the Corporate Gurus are the parasites feeding on the exploitation rendered by the system, and who have zero consciousness of the problem in its entirety. They are mere pseudo embalmers, pretending to salvage the depressed.

It ain't just pretension, the Gurus of the day are frauds of the highest order.
Take a look at some of the programs and ideas propagated by these self proclaimed teachers and leaders!

Walk without Feet, Fly without Wings and Think without Mind!

Art of breathing, to teach you the Art of Living!

As we have physical science to create external well-being there is a whole inner dimension of science to create inner well being. I call it Inner Engineering!

With so much debauchery surrounding the entire scene of spiritualism today, the crowd thronging at them mainly is the learned urban middle class. Isn't it a shame that an educated section of the society can endorse and let such attempts to thrive!

Hypocrisy as the Lifestyle syndrome

I meet many people; people who don't enjoy what they do. They simply go through their lives, getting on with it. They got no great pleasure from what they do; They endure it, rather than enjoy it, and wait for the weekend...
Sir Ken Robinson


Using this excerpt from Sir Ken Robinson as a take off point, allow me to present the little acknowledged, but the common societal catastrophe: The ubiquity of superficiality in people, or the Hypocrisy as the Lifestyle syndrome.

We might have acknowledged this syndrome, i.e., in others; But most of us wouldn't dare to evaluate ourselves, to see where we personally stand on this scale of self treason.

Deriving pleasure and gratification out of the work we do is as irrelevant in today's world, as the expectation of honest and earnest governance in today's pseudo-democracies. The unfortunate trend, which has percolated to become a trait of the society is : We'd know it is wrong, but wouldn't bother to better it, because supposedly everyone does it that way!

We bury our natural urges and talents deep down, piling the routine of hypocrisy, confusing mediocrity to be excellence, and pseudo recognitions as results. Few moments of exalting happiness is what keeps us going, when there's a life full with exalting gratification that goes wasted.

A friend of mine says, "All our priorities are screwed up! They're nonsensical". And I so agree with it.

We emulate others, while we lose our authenticity; Worst of it all, we feel no remorse about this self betrayal. Starting from our desires, passions, culture and lifestyle everything has one common factor: Pretension!

After cribbing about this syndrome to this extent, I shall end it optimistically by remembering the few true humans I know: People who are, what they are, and others would only want to emulate them.

A depiction of the so called transition

Facebook Republic Day!

Change your profile picture in tricolor theme; Post a futile status message saying "Happy Republic Day", without knowing what a Republic is!; Get tens of likes from like minded "Patriots"; Talk about shallow nationalism for a day ; Try remembering the National heroes, as portrayed by the media; Most of all, enjoy the holiday - stay at home, or better rush to a shopping mall! 

Isn't it a really nice way to commemorate the oblivion of a Republic India?

This sort of a superficial and occasional patriotism is what has rendered India to it's current messy state.
Does this sort of occasional sense of pride and nationalism do any good at all? Aren't we only trying to please ourselves, or our entourage by showing such shallow patriotism? We let go daily opportunities through the year, where we can excel as citizens, and only on a few occasions exalt in the name of patriotism.

Every time 'We the People', 'celebrate' the Republic Day, we must place a check on the extent of how much of a Republic we are.
A Republic gives heed to its citizens: Our Voice matters in a Republic. But, with every passing year, this national trait is eroding and will soon be met with oblivion, without any remorse.

It is alarming to observe a huge section of the society being happily complacent with the lack of Democracy in a Republic, and are self approvingly endorsing such hypocrisy, branded as nationalism.

If you are proud of your country, be so every second of your life, and transform that pride into efforts and actions, which will better the nation. Please stop this occasional hypocrisy!