WHY PEOPLE NEED ALL THESE FAKE GURUS?

Do we really need such gurus? Aren't we better without these fake gurus? Photo: archive.indianexpress.com

By VINAY THAKUR 

Recently when I shared the news about one incident which happened in India where some people wanted to spread flowers in the path of rape convict Narayan Sai when police planned to take him to some hospital for medical checkup and to a court for the demand of legal custody (a routine procedure after the arrest of any criminal or convict) on my Facebook wall, one of my friend asked why people need these dhongi (which means fake, pretentious, or cheat) gurus, babas or so called godmans? The question is very relevant and valid, but the answer is not that easy and straightforward. Anyone reading this news or any similar news would ask this question, why the heck these people want to glorify a rape convict or a criminal? (there is no dearth of such incidents all over the world but I want to focus specially in India because this is very common here). This guy was arrested after proper man hunt after almost two months, he was trying his best to escape law like any other criminal and he should be treated like that but I know that his fans and devotees won't accept it, we need to understand why they do this?  

I think everyone needs some sort of counselling at different stages of their lives for various issues or problems they face, many people like our parents, teachers, other close relatives play this role in early part of our lives, slowly when we grow up then our education empowers us to deal with these things on our own and if we can't then various books (for people who love reading), movies, friends, motivational figures, etc. perform the role of counselor whenever needed, all these people or other resources help us to deal with various issues and problems in our life, they motivate us directly or indirectly. But not every one is passionate about reading, not everyone likes to watch or read about great people and their lives, not everyone is fortunate to have good friends, many even don't have resources available to them to do some of these things (like reading), and even if they have it's quite possible that sometimes even all these things combined can not answer all their questions, then they need someone to comfort them, someone to say them that everything will be OK, some thing which many professional counselors do, people get attracted to all these babas or bapus or gurus because they try to do somewhat similar thing on mass scale, the only difference is trained counselors are professionally trained to do these therapy sessions and these babas are not. 

These so called self proclaimed gurus entirely depend on their personal charm, charisma and fan following, no doubt many of them have good oratory skills, good knowledge about many scriptures, great memory, charming personality, etc. but they are not professionally trained to offer any medical advise or offer consultation about any personal issues, but most of them do this and that's the main reason of their popularity, hardly people go to them just to listen the speech, many visit them for consultation. Once they are popular they become powerful, their devotees become their strength, many of them have so strong influence locally that it's very difficult even for law enforcement agencies to take any action against them for any charges against them.

The influence and clout of some of these people is so much that even people who suffer abuses from their hands don't dare to register any complaint against them, many cases of financial irregularities, sexual abuse or exploitation don't even get reported. All these benefits and immunity which come with this profession of babagiri has attracted many people with good memory and oratory skills into this profession, these are only two requirements to become such baba and they easily create some fan base in some part of India. Case of Nirmal baba who offers very absurd and stupid solutions to peoples problem is well known and still he is very popular among many people.

Seeking help of counselor for any persisting personal, professional problem in life is not a culture in India rather it's a taboo, many people still hesitate to visit a psychiatrist or any counselor, they always worry that what other people will think if they come to know that there is some psychological or personal issues in their lkives, but visiting any baba or anyone like him is not at all considered as something unusual, rather it's something which everyone loves to talk about, they like to discuss about greatness about their guru, various powers he/she possess and also about miracles they can do. Even people visit these fake gurus to seek advise related with many medical issues which can be very dangerous sometimes. Presence of such culture for centuries has created very fertile environment for many such people who declare themselves head of some cult movement, godman or incarnation of some deity and exploit people's weaknesses and emotions. Actually these fake counselors in the name of various babas and gurus fill the vacuum created by the absence of professional counselors in people's lives.

This all needs to stop, but all these babas or gurus are not going to close their shops on their own, as long as there are customers and favorable market conditions they are going to sell their product, at the same time we cannot put the entire blame on these cheaters, customers who buy their products, and people who don't oppose these practices are equally responsible for this, actually, we need to make their product out of date if we want to remove their influence, we need to expose their fraud and wrongdoings systematically to stop their business from growing any further. Some of these self-styled gurus are still worshiped by many even if they are facing serious charges like rape or sexual misconduct, many of them fool people by making unverified claims and selling non-tested treatments for many diseases, poor people (not economically poor but people without any proper logical thinking) blinded by their faith and problems follow these people without any logic or thinking.

A tireless campaign against all these fake gurus is required, all people with rational mind and capacity to think logically need to come together and work towards this goal, this fight is not easy but very difficult and long, many devotees of all these gurus are like suicide squads they are willing to do anything for their guru or God, they are ready to go to any extent to defend them, so very determined and systematic effort is required to fight this very important battle to free our society from the clutches of these evil-minded people who take advantage of ignorance and weakness of people. People should take the help of some professional counselors rather than these types of babas for their medical, personal and family problems, professional help is always better in any case, it's more reliable. I think some NGOs also can play a crucial role in solving this need of professional counseling for people and with help of everyone we can eradicate need of these types of fake gurus from our society.

About the author

Vinay Thakur is a research scientist by profession and a thinker by choice. He lives in New Haven, USA. He has been blogging since 2011. The present article 'Fake Gurus' has been taken from his blog 'self-realization'. The Roaming Post is glad to receive his permission to reproduce his article. 

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