To a civil compliment, “I think you are the purest and greatest mahatma in the world today,” an undiscovered saint once quipped: “Have you seen the entire world? I think you have not even seen the entire India.”
Indian soil has never been devoid of great saints. It would never be. There are hundreds of truly great saints in the Himalayas even today. They are in a state of unbreakable trance, unknown and inaccessible to the world, he said unwilling to divulge more details. People have no right to say this is not true they can only say they don’t know, he added.
Religion thrives upon faith. And when it comes to spirituality faith, is stronger than reason. Religious leaders are considered holy and their activities, even when guarded, sacrosanct. Followers come to them in deep anxiety and have, or develop, blind faith in their ability to find a cure. Fraudster and lecherous godmen make money under the pretext of practicing false asceticism. With the power of speech and magnetic personality cult created around them they try to entice innocent people, play with their vulnerability, insecurity and cash in on their influence and power. This ultimately weakens sacred and pure spiritual faith and brings countless vulnerable and disappointed followers on the verge of real collapse. Followers, already frustrated –– courtesy their unnatural life style and its side effects or unjustified aspirations ––– would go from the frying pan to fire when they come to know that the holy men they think are divinity personified are actually kingpins of sex rackets, or masterminds behind large scale scandals. Recent sex scandals show that many godmen despite their spiritual air and claims of mystical powers are nothing more than confidence tricksters craving for cash and power.
They thrive upon the gullibility and insecurity of people who want customized, designer religion for salvations, ablution of wickedness or as an easy escape from hell or as an easy bridge to success and fame. It has helped spirituality become a thriving trade. It’s already a billion dollar industry. It is disturbing that the number of temples and religious spots is far higher in India than the number of schools and colleges.
Figures with the ministry of home affairs say that foreign contributions and donations to scores of Indian voluntary organizations, religious groups and charitable institutions every year, touch nearly Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion). Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) at Andhra Pradesh received more than Rs. 50 crore in donation last year. Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple (Tamil Nadu), Akshardham, (Delhi) are among the major recipients.
The Andhra Pradesh-based Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is the largest recipient of foreign contributions. The Sathya Sai Trust received about Rs 90 crore last year. National contributions and donations are also whopping. The laws that govern foreign donations are rarely properly enforced. Loopholes exist at every stage of the governing system.
Notwithstanding the claims of the ministry of home affairs that scores of religious groups, charitable agencies and others are receiving foreign funds for humanitarian purposes in India some of them are allegedly diverting funds for profit-making enterprises. There have been cases of diversion of larger chunk of funds to personal pockets. More than 90 percent of them do not maintain audit reports and startling gaps have been found in the audit reports of those who maintain them. It should be noted that in June 2005 the government had banned nine organisations from receiving foreign donations on account of serious gaps in their audit reports.
Whatsoever ninety five percent of godmen give the remaining a bad name, defame the tough and sacred practice of spirituality, a semblance of heavenly resort for people in distress worldwide, in India.
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