India: The ancient most civilization that has been a spiritual torch-bearer over millennia has also been overshadowed with evil spell of self proclaimed god men for centuries. One common thread that ties all these god men are Sex and Illgotten money. In recent days 2 such creatures Radhe Ma aka Sukhvinder Kaur Sidhu of Mumbai and Sarathi Baba akaSantosh Raula of Odiaha are hugging news headlines.
Radhe Ma: Educated till 10th Std. gets married in adolescence and starts spiritual discourses. Moves into a rich Mumbai business family from her village in Punjab. Recently accused of impersonating revered Indian deities, dancing in fashionable clothes and obscenity with followers.
Sarathi Baba: He was a much bigger parasite preying on impoverished people of a poor state (Odisha). This man a school dropout who claimed that he is God himself as reincarnation of supreme Lord Krishna had his bogus empire to the tune of Crores of rupees. In a way he had close connivance with the corrupt state govt. He had money invested in Ponzi schemes, real estate as well as Sex and extortion rackets. Till he was busted after a photograph of him clad in blue denim and ray-ban glasses in a Hyderabad hotel with a girl surfaced; he was, indeed treated like God by illiterate masses of Odisha!!
Subsequent public outrage ensued which the Government tried to hush with brute police force. Thanks to relentless investigation and broadcast by one news channel Zee Kalinga, thebaba, police department and the state government were all brought to books. After Crime Branch investigation started, in no time lid blew open and accounts of Sarathi's misdeeds were oozing out. Baba's empire of deceit and fraud came crashing down. The fraud man was charged with multiple counts of Indian Penal Code and sent to prison.
Following are a list of his ill-gotten wealth uncovered in just 10 days:
300 plots across Odisha and neighboring states.
10 crore rupees and still counting in 12 bank accounts.
3 large bungalows.
Dozens of luxury cars and buses.
Pounds of gold and silver.
Remember all this in one of the poorest states of India(Odisha).
Last year another such old man named Asaram Bapu, was jailed for raping minors at his ashram. Similarly the list is endless.
But all this fiasco raises one pertinent question, why India's serious obsession for such people? A land with rich spiritual heritage (science, arts, philosophy) are part of main stream culture, what could have gone wrong?
Answer is simple. Its miserable life of an average Indian. With a an ever-increasing population putting tremendous crunch on resources and infrastructure, rising unemployment, huge social/family expectations are all proving huge drain on citizen's mind.
With little or no respite in sight, many seek escape in frivolous religious activities. Such masses easily fall prey to some preachy hypocrisy by a scoundrel parading as a guru. Thus only getting into vicious cycle multiplying their drudgerymanyfold in the end.
This has always been and will continue to be as these tetra headed monsters keep sprouting one after another, as miserable social living coupled with a long history of cultural superstitions keep providing fertile grounds for such men to flourish.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY
&
JAI HIND!
