Dear friends

While reading Nithyananda’s religious books I didn’t expect that a casino was hidden in him. When the Tamil actress’s CD was circulated and while watching it I felt that it was not real. However having now heard about the American lady’s lamentations of the Nithyananda effect, it seems that there is some fire in the smoke:

The issue here is the Business of Spirituality: Very recently I had spent an hour with a clean shaven, white sari clad lady who introduced herself as Ma Purvi who gave me a power point presentation of a yogic exercise ( needless to say,  seeing this  beautiful lady I had thought of only one  yogic exercise) which will benefit the stress induced corporate sector . The induction fee per participant was only Rs 3000 and she also offered me a corporate discount as well  .

I was thinking, as to what difference is there between me a Corporate Sales Man to this spiritual Sales women

The Astha channel is a breeding ground for such spiritual mosquitoes where a baba or swami with innumerable followers around them addressing   day to day issues. These babas are now a   brand in them self . Some talk of healing through the scriptures and some on yoga (in this case you get a ticket to be in politics via team Anna), or the Art of making a living . The business model is simple, set up an ashram (Capital investment), do discourses (the operating cost is minimal) and the revenue is exorbitant, and the IRR is infinite. In fact I feel now besides Marketing and Finance, Business Schools should start a PGDM in Spirituality.

I heard that there are 1 million spiritual gurus in India, with an unaccounted market size, may be a sizable share of our GDP. If you have the habit of waking up at 5 O clock in the morning and open up any TV channels (fortunately I wake up at 8) you can witness  this huge market size.

Here i would recommend you all to read Meera Nanda’s book named the God Market where she has indeed done a research on this .

Where are we heading to? The answer is simple, as globalisation and 9% growth became a reality, there is a cash formation which needs an outlet for spiritual healing from the anxieties of the present day:

Sanyasi