Why do people follow godmen, despite the various instances of widespread abuse

perpetuated by them on their followers?

Karl Marx stated back in 1843-44, that “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the
heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”
and it is no surprise that in a world, where relationships are fleeting, marriages crumbling,
money is king and the race for the ultimate high is more important than anything else, the
poor, the oppressed and in any way marginalised, turn to religion and God for succour,
strength, hope and companionship. Moreover, unable to find these within the precincts of
organised religion, many turn to cults, or fellowships, wherein they believe they can find
solace or at times are coerced or brainwashed into joining them. Unfortunately, once the
godman/ guru/ leader of the religious movement has amassed enough followers and thus
power, he/she has the power to misuse this and take advantage of the trust that the flowers
have in their leader. According to Guruswamy (2017) religion has moved from being an
opiate for the masses into a dangerous thought process that has the power not only to
change individual lives but in effect destroy the community, society and even the country.
Moreover, as Mathur (2015) points out though Godmen or gurus have existed in India for
generations, the numbers seem to have not only skyrocketed but the power wielded by
them and the blind-faith and devotion exhibited by their followers, despite convictions for
rape, financial fraud, even murder, stands unabated. However, the biggest question that
emerges from this is “why do people still follow godmen, despite knowing that they are
abusing their power and only amassing wealth, and the followers still give credence and
offer blind-faith? “

In a mofussil town only 240kms from the capital Delhi, is the ashram of Dera Sacha Sauda’s
spiritual guru, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was convicted in 2017 for rape and tried for
murder and just days before his conviction, he celebrated his birthday on stage attended to
by various politicians, who also donated thousands of dollars to his organization. Singh is a
film star, singer, and of course cult leader with a passion for bling and sports gold jewellery
that would shame a rap star (Kumar and Wilkes, 2017). At present he is lodged in jail in a
different district so that his supporters, mainly poor farmers and illiterate peasants, do not
cause trouble. In 2019, Swami Nithyananda fled India, as his spiritual empire based in
Ahmedabad was wracked by cases of rape, kidnapping, illegal usurpation of land and other
criminal activities (Paul, 2019). One wonders how he was able to flourish and expand his
spiritual empire, and also his material empire, after having been implicated in a rape case as
far back as 2010. This begs the question, as to how and why Indians here and similarly
Americans in the USA flock to Rev. Ted Haggard, Jim Baker, Dave Reynolds and many others
of their ilk, who were gay, caught for paedophilia, sexual abuse and fraud, molestation and
rape including underage girls. Japanese cult leader Shoko Asahara was having affairs with his
female followers and was mastermind of the Tokyo Subway sarin attacks (Carlton, 2018).
The presence of godmen, the abuse of their power but the ability to retain followers is a
global phenomenon.

India has a rich tradition of spiritual gurus and many have found fame and riches in India or
abroad. Just as business is considered the proponent of globalisation in present times, it can
be argued that in reality it was religion and missionaries that started the trend of
globalisation (Weiss, 2005) in a bid to shape the behaviours and beliefs of those they
encountered and with colonisation, this trend increased manifold, especially in South
America and Africa, though going even further, it could be argued that Buddhism and
Hinduism spread across South East Asia and the Far East much earlier. In this scenario, the
cult of the godman has only increased and crossed national boundaries and attracted
disciples from across the globe, as was the case with Bhagwan Rajneesh or Osho, as he
styled himself later on in his career. He drew devotees from across the world and they
congregated in his ashram in Pune. His message was simple, “To avoid pain, they avoid
pleasure, To avoid death, they avoid life” (Ranjana, 2021) and through this he exhorted his
followers to live life and enjoy it. Ranjana (2018) also points out that he was a strong and
vocal critic of socialism, Gandhi and Hindu orthodox views and earned himself the title of
“Sex guru”, due to his open approach to sexuality. This drew both curiosity but more
condemnation from the local people in Pune and across Indian society, however, foreigners
and Indian celebrities including film stars were drawn to his ashram in large numbers. This
also allowed him to amass great wealth, though he fled to Oregon in the USA, as the
government pressured him to pay back taxes, which they did not allow disputing his claim to
be a charity and thus, tax-free. In Oregon, he was famous for having a different coloured
Rolls Royce for every day of the month, allowing us a glimpse into the financial empire he
now controlled.
Godmen operate from huge ashrams, many of them run along corporate lines having
different departments to effectively manage the affairs of the commune/business.
Moreover, management is normally undertaken by followers, who not only live on the
premises of the ashram but are extremely loyal to the guru. The new age ashrams have top
level communications and media cells, which allow the message of the guru to be
disseminated widely and thus raise the guru’s credibility (Mathur, 2015), while also allowing
the ashram to function as headquarters and communicate with its branches spread across
India or even the world and is similar to religious congregations in the USA and other
countries. On the other hand, though these godmen use the very concept of globalisation
and its tools to spread their message, amass wealth and function like multi-national
corporations (Weiss, 2005), the message they convey to their followers may be diametrically
opposite and is usually custom-tailored to their audience and congregation, which may
consist of small-town middle-class and even low-income groups, as they are the ones most
likely in need of spiritual comfort.

Followers consist of families and the guru is passed on down generations, poverty also
drives people to the ashram, as they find material comfort, medical care, subsidised food
and also a path to nirvana or absolution from sins committed (Choudhary and Mahapatra,
2019) and generally followers tend to remain loyal, unless a major atrocity is committed
against them. Furthermore, the concept of the guru is a long-held tradition, as people are
not highly educated and even those who are don’t have the knowledge of spiritual texts and
the guru has held the position of not only explaining religious beliefs but also of
consecrating rituals and actions. The predominance of religion in everyone’s daily life and
the plethora of traditions and philosophies that have evolved over thousands of years
ensure that the guru is vital to interpret theories and adapt them to practice (Gavankar,
2015), while in certain areas of India, where not having a guru to guide people on spirituality
and religion, makes them outcasts from the community (Choudhary and Mahapatra, 2019).

This phenomenon has gained further ground due to a resurgence in the Hindu nationalist
sentiment since the 1990’s and the support from the political leadership for these guru or
godmen, in return for their considerable vote-banks, allows them to further influence the
community without fear of redress. Further, the appearance of politicians as followers of
certain gurus exhorts the followers of the politicians to also join the guru (Gavankar, 2015)
perpetuating a cycle of followership and a mutual dependence between the two.