The Swami Cult of India

India has witnessed the hypocrisy of many spiritual figures when it comes to the scrutiny of their real actions and activities. In the name of spirituality, these cult leaders first attract the most powerful persons of society as their devotees so that the latter can serve as the opinion leaders to spread their message effectively. The nexus of spiritual leaders with politicians, bureaucrats, and other elites in our society has harboured many scandalous incidents that have rocked the faith of millions of people in the spirituality itself. The visible good works implemented by spiritual trusts and their masters may seem however beneficial to the larger interest of society, no one ever gets to know the legality of transactions and how these funds pile up exponentially. These spiritual masters have not restricted their operations in India only, the western followers have helped them to spread their spiritual business outside India as well. So why people do easily fall prey to the magic spell of these swamis? Probably, the trust designed by these spiritual masters through a well-organized publicity exercise becomes so powerful that people start believing in the irrational theories. The gullible followers become secondary brand ambassadors to the cult designed by the spiritual masters. When any spiritual organization reaches a critical mass followers, the degree of publicity turns spiral and whatever illegal, irrational, and unacceptable starts receiving acceptance from anybody and everybody. Under the backdrop of this gigantic delusion many bitter truths such as drug peddling, sexual exploitation, physical abuse, child molestation, money laundering, tax evasion, and you name any crime, start confronting the larger-than-life holy figures of our society. Still their followers keep a blind eye to these large details of reality. Can their be any respite from these predators of society in the guise of spiritual masters?