Disciples 2009.

(29 November ’09)

            One of the patients admitted in the hospital wanted to get discharged in a big hurry. Satya Sai Baba was coming to town and he HAD to have darshan. He’d served the ‘swami’ for over two decades by looking after one of his institutions near his house. The billing was taking time and the gentleman was frantic that he’d miss his chance. Then he told me how the man wasn’t a man at all, but a god in guise. How did he know? He had cured so many people of so many illnesses, he said. Why, wondered my disbelieving mind, did he not give comfort to this same old man who was telling me this story? Why did he give him suffering that required him to get admitted every other month? But he spoke on and I listened. He told me of a huge hospital near Bangalore which Baba’s devotees had set up, which had multi-specialty tertiary care given for free. Wonder number two: why was this man paying through his nose for treatment here, then? His wife pitched in: there were going to be over five lakh people flocking to their suburb to see him that evening. No police bandobast, no traffic jams, she said, the volunteers would be guiding everyone. Ideal targets for men with illegal arms, I guessed silently. Back to the old man: the volunteers, they do everything. Do you know, he added, no one keeps accounts of the thousands of crores that come into the coffers. Either the man was terribly naïve, or ignorant, or… have run out of vocabulary.

            The next day, we read about it in the papers. My friend’s parents, also ardent followers/worshipers of the Baba, had gone for a darshan since it was ages since the Big Man had come hereabouts and they were unlikely to ever go to his ashram. I asked my friend about the experience. He said, “No one knew what was happening, it was chaotic. There were different gates, and the crowd was packed tightly in the ground so one couldn’t go to the loo. The cops were there, but most of the devotees clearly weren’t law-abiding and all the whistling and waving had no effect on the drivers/owners of the cars/scooters. The noise level was awful. What saved us were the mobile phones. We aught to worship technology, you know.” Yes, they got to see the Baba, from a distance away, and the parents believed that he looked at them and into their eyes. Considering they were not next to each other, and that many others believed the same, it’s likely that the Baba dear has a problem focusing.

            Nothing new about this disciple stuff. When Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living teachers/promoters come by, I admire they tenacity. Do not give up is their motto. Don’t mind if someone says, “No I don’t want to join up your classes.” Pester them, gently of course, pester again, yet again, coax, cajole, bully, keep at it, don’t give up. No wonder many of them have flourishing businesses. They have the aptitude. And then, networking helps. You see the badge and you connect. Could be of Asaram Bapu or Anirudha Bapu or the Amrit Mother or Sadhu Vaswani, whoever.

            Thing is, all of them really do speak sense. I’ve heard them on Aastha Channel and some I’ve witnessed live. I’ve read much material written about and by them. There’s no doubt their oratory skills and leadership qualities, the way they can organize events and market them, are phenomenal. Wonder whether any management school studies their strategies and models. Maybe they do. The breathing exercises do good, the medicines do good, and the psychological tricks also do good. But they’re not flawless. Not the men, not their methods or medicines, and certainly they’re not gods. But none of the followers will agree. ‘It’s a matter of faith’, claim most. To paste paper posters all over? No consideration for forests, aesthetics or other people’s property. All those volunteers who go around ‘spreading the word’ could channel their energies in many better ways. A dirty country like ours could benefit if each one just picked up a broom and swept the fronts AND backs of our homes, the roads AND pavements beside it, and managed our own garbage. No Swami(ni) will get his/her hands dirty, nor would want his/her disciples to. Leave that to the government, the municipality whilst they breathe-in, breathe-out, and meditate on matters spiritual. In a hospital, some of these volunteers come to help ‘destress’ the patients. No one volunteers to give bedpans or clean the dirty utensils room.

            Not to say that dirty jobs are to be glorified.

            To get back to the old gentleman I mentioned in the beginning. What interested me was the way he treated the lower staff: badly. He called the clerks all sorts of names, the threw important ‘contacts’ at us, he made sure he went all the way up to the CE to get his work done before the others. Forget the queue, forget everything else, I must have the darshan. Attitude, focus, perseverance, he had it all…. all that I lacked.

            I thought: he’s got what we need in corporate life: but he’s pointed in a different direction.