Ask someone in India today, “What is the easiest way to make a lot of money?” and you might get any one of the following answers:

Become an Entrepreneur ,
Get an degree from an IIM and join the corporate world,
Start a web based company ,
Invest in the Market, etc., etc.

One answer you might not get, but which, it seems, is the right answer today is:

“Become a Godman”

With the minimum investment – just set up a microphone in a big, empty, piece of land and start sermonising – you can earn big time. The sermonising part can’t be hard because half of the things constituting these sermons are things that are well known to one and all.

The number of Godmen is increasing exponentially these days. That is no wonder as there is an increasing demand for them, to feature on the increasing number of religious channels we have today. It must be acknowledged that some of the gurus and pundits might be genuine, but most of them are not. Most of them have today been proved to be involved in all kinds of criminal activities like land grabbing, sexual molestation, money laundering, murder – you name it, and we have one or the other god men involved in the crime. What is worrisome is that even these fraudulent gurus manage to garner a good following, and these followers are ready to do anything – even kill – on their guru’s bidding.

What is the reason behind this infatuation with Godmen?

Ignorance, naturally, tops the list. People, sometimes even educated ones, are ignorant, or choose to be ignorant, when they are bathing in the fountains of knowledge emanating from their gurus. The most outrageous point in recent times was the condemnation of aerated drinks by a leading baba. While there is evidence that these drinks might not be the best thing for your health, the logic forwarded by the all knowing baba was less than convincing. By comparing the pH levels of a coke with your regular toilet cleaner, he claimed them to be the same. And people believed him.

Some people, who know the difference between a coke and a toilet cleaner, feel that one should look at the ends and not the means, but never – especially not in the spiritual field – do the ends justify the means.

Unwillingness to accept responsibility is another major reason for the expansion of this new business. It is a common fact that men like to take full credit for any success, but want to take no responsibility for any failures in their life. The realm of the supernatural provides an easy target to put all the blame on; People who are non-believers in good times, turn into the staunchest believers when they face tough times.

The need for an external support is also a factor for the rise of the gurus. Raj (name changed) was having some issues with alcohol and his friends had given up trying to explain to him the consequences of what he was doing. One day, he says, he heard a sermon from a reputed guru on TV and quit. He himself admitted that there was nothing new in what the man on the show said, but somehow he needed to hear it from a spiritual guru. On being asked why, he had no answer. This need for external validation might have something to do with the way our society deals with authority. The time has come, however, when we stopped looking outside us for answers, and took complete responsibility for our actions.

The importance and need of a guru – in any field of knowledge – is undeniable, but unless until we pull ourselves out of the mire of ignorance and fallacies we will continue to breed such gurus, while the real Guru will remain hidden to us. Do we want that?