Jai Gurudev

Before I write anything, let me clarify these are my personal views, and I mean EVERY single word of it, and NOTHING more than that. So, please don't read much in between lines and anticipate.

I went to the Silver jubliee celebrations of the Art of Living foundations on Saturday. Whether I believe in the teachings or not is a nonissue(which I must confess, I do to an extent), what matters most is, whether such gatherings are of any practical use.

What I intend conveying is that, when there are millions of people gathering, the purpose of the occasion is brutally killed, deliberately or not, is again, a nonissue! It becomes, just a gathering of totally annoyed and agitated people, who feel cheated, who most often, don't complain in public, but carry the frustration in their heart. And exactly for this reason, it kills the purpose of the whole event. Come on, they have gathered to seek peace and answers, not frustration!

I have absolutely no reasons to distrust the genuineness of the Guru in question, in this case Sri Sri Ravi Shankar(Could someone clarify who decides how many Sri's to be added and what rules guide it! It's a genuine doubt with absolutely no pun.) Any sincere Guru, especially a spiritual one(the religious ones do give me reasons to doubt their sincerity), would in the truest of senses want to help his disciple. And that in my viewpoint, requires a one to one interaction, you need to connect to the person in pain, feel his agony and then help flows out automatically.

I know this for a fact that millions of people come from so far away places, with such diverse set of problems. Many of them, if not all, spend a fortune of their repective life's savings to attend such events. Mostly, they are those defeated soul's who have lost all hopes, those who have tried everything that they trust and believe in, and finally they come to the Guru for the guidance! No doubt, there are many who sincerely believe in the teachings(even I do to some extent, until the God angle comes in, atleast the yoga and spirituality part), there are some who are just onlookers(like me again), who come to see what's the fuss about, and then there are a few misguided souls who blindly come there just because it's a fashion to have a Guru these days, and they have a social standing to prove by donating to the spiritual organizations.

But, isn't it the responsibilty of the Guru, to atleast try to connect to the grassroot followers? To try and give everyone equal amount of time and guidance? Even the Guru knows, that this guidance is nothing but a consolation for the troubled soul, and ultimately if the yoga helps, it's for the fact that it's a healthy excercise and that it helps to keep us occupied. There is no miracle associated. The Gurus also know this for sure. I have seen the interview of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on CNN-IBN, and he too acknowledged it.

It's totally understandable that once a rightly guided philosophy is spread properly, it soon becomes a cult, and later the Guru just symbolises the philosophy. The organization outgrows it's own envisioned fate, and millions of follwers are born daily. But, what disheartens me is the fact, that once such a state comes, the Guru becomes celebrities' Guru. He becomes partial. Great, that one has the Heads of States who follow one's philosophy, but those are just a very few in number! The majority who really make you the Guru in the actual senses, are the common masses. And even these heads of states are just normal people. Why so much bias?

Why does a Guru allow a celebrity follower to meet him in person, or for that matter why he gets a front row seat, when he is the one who comes at the last minute or mostly late, while the million others have struggled their way through the miles long queues in scorching heat and dust storms? Why does not the Guru make things fairer, let people sit the way they come? Afterall, these are the people who need the connection of their souls with that of their Guru, the celebrity might be needy too, but not as desperate as most other.

And back to the original question, how in the world does one get the satisfaction of interacting with the Guru? how do you get the solace you are seeking? Afterall, you get to see the same Guru on TV channels daily! What's the big difference!(No pun intended!)

What I can observe, is that, beyond a point, when the organization outgrows its capacity, the Guru doesn't have a control over his way of life. He might be a Guru for millions, but his life is controlled by the set of greedy people we get to see everywhere. And the Guru cannot be blamed at all! It's quite inevitable! How in the world would the Guru know that the place which was supposed to be a ground for spiritual liberation would turn into a business center. Afterall, he is just a Guru - one who can articulate facts in the most comforting way, to help you feel special by consoling you, and yet subtly guide you back to the right track of life. He definitely is not God, that he can see with his third eye that there are cheap loafers selling a bottle of fake mineral water in his name and under his organization's label for a sum of 15 bucks!