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Journalism of Courage
A STEEL grey bedroom cum smart office on wheels arrived early from Ayodhya to the tin shed modesty of Nashik8217;s Sadhu Gram. Soon the covetuous glances of many fellow sadhus turned to sniggers and quickly to boredom.
Swami Govindanand Saraswati8217;s pet DL3C C9068 and Videocon television was just another sign of what to expect when some 2,50,000 sadhus from Jammu to Faizabad and Surat troop in or rather drive, to bathe in auspicious times. Their elephants travelled the highways by truck.
If the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad prefixed the godman8217;s cellphone to his chillum stereotype, 2003 by the Godavari is completing a revelation of India8217;s religious exotica in mass, rapid transition.
8216;8216;Come, walk in for a discourse,8217;8217; says Swami Parmanandji Maharaj a commerce graduate of yesteryears who8217;s rumbled into Trimbakeshwar8217;s rather plain Sadhu Gram from Aurangabad in a live-in saffron Tata van. The discourse in the hills 30 kms from Nashik is nothing less than a presentation complete with a projector and computer that somehow fit in beside a material world of kitchen, bunker, gas cylinder, pressure cookers, CDs, saffron curtains, saffron steering wheel and yes, the van is air-conditioned.
8216;8216;Disciples are increasing. I have learnt to speak thoda bahut English,8217;8217; says the swami, admitting the need to stay in touch digitally. A saffron string keeps his Nokia always at hand to avoid missed calls.
The century old Kailas Math in the heart of Nashik is an unabashed display of what lies ahead. 8216;8216;The cellphone and computer are not my kamzori weakness. They are a necessity. I can work faster with their help. The best of the ancient world cannot be spread without the technological blessings of today,8217;8217; says Swami Samvidananda Saraswati, in between pacifying a steady stream of sadhus heckling for a boycott of the mela8217;s inauguration to protest a Central Act. Their zeal, once solely spiritual, is now poured as much into the purifying Kumbh bath as the dubious politics driving its current. The sadhus stoop to touch Swami Saraswati8217;s feet that once walked the holy ghats of Varanasi. They touch his white socks.
Sometimes they talk religion in the red carpeted conference room in the house of Gods on the walls, on the roof, in the language of the inmates. Inside his math, 12 and 14-year-olds from across Brahmin homes nation-wide learn to be priests. There are two computers to teach them how to convey religion in an age of convergence.
Blessings and prasad are sought not only in temples. If you are a bureaucrat winding the machinery of a religious event of the decade, they are offered to you from pockets of saffron windcheaters and imitation Nike knapsacks at district collectorates and municipal corporations. In return, please kill the mosquitoes at Sadhu Gram, ensure plenty of drinking water and how about moving my plot of land to that quiet corner away from the loo.
So it8217;s hardly astonishing when the chief priest of Nashik8217;s revered Kalaram Temple and an influential influence in the Kumbh organisation, snaps at his co-priest for not charging both his cell-phones. 8216;8216;One is so busy these days, communicating with VIPs,8217;8217; PtSudhirPoojariyahoo.com, smiles apologetically in perfect English.
Maybe the poojari8217;s modern persona has more to do with a past chequered with a masters degree in commerce that was abandoned for a family tradition that elevated him to a 27th generation chief priest.
The Swami who crams his Tata Estate with Colgate tooth powder, Dettol and stacked, padlocked VIP suitcases told this reporter he expects to be treated like a VIP. At Sadhu Gram, he is an erratic exception. His 8216;8216;private secretary8217;8217; confides that his tin shed cost Rs 84,000.
But there is no mistaking that the humble godman is on the road to a nirvana where he does not always have to walk barefoot. Mahant Kishoregiri of the Awhan akhada from Surat zoomed in on his Hero Honda, his dreadlocks protected from rain and the sun by a hooded windcheater. The only give-away of his links with the Gods is the saffron of the windcheater.
