India’s Gurus Fall Victim to West’s Shrinking Market

The last survivor is out of the game. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is back in India.

Lonely, bankrupt, banished from the United States, humiliated by the immigration authorities of a dozen other countries, the sensual sage is now chasing anonymity in the suburbs of Bombay.

Swami Nityananda has resigned as head of the Ganeshpuri commune in western India. Other international Indian godmen are either dead or stripped of their glory and credibility. And the flow of American and European youth, migrating to India in search of peace and solace, has declined.

This has literally changed the colors of the tourists in this country. Ten years ago saffron-robed visitors from the Western world, particularly from California and West Germany, dominated India’s airports and railway stations. Hare Krishna devotees danced on the streets of Bombay. Rajneesh followers’ wrangles with local people made headlines. Attractive girls belonging to the “Children of God” cult tried to persuade young Indian men to join their weekend beach jamborees. Indians came to associate all Western tourists with saffron color and a lot of noise.

Today the tourists look like any other people in normal clothes. Even in Jahu, where the Hare Krishna main temple is located, there are hardly any shaven heads atop white faces.

It is unclear whether the change reflects any realization by rich Americans, or whether Americans and Europeans simply no longer need to visit India to buy peace of mind because it is now sold at home in numerous centers set up by Indian gurus.

California is full of such centers. Some of them, such as those dealing with applied intuition and reincarnation, demonstrate the willingness of some Americans to think beyond the confines of modern science. But the prosperity of some other centers proves that insecure rich Westerners are as easy to manipulate as ever. Hardly any Indians were ever attracted to these cults.

Since the godmen propagated Indian religions in forms unknown to 700 million Indians, they attracted only North American and West European youth. For kids whose lives were unhappy and frustrated, due to the uncertainty and alienation resulting from excessive materialism, an esoteric Eastern faith seemed to provide answers to all their problems.

For them the guru provided a highly emotional atmosphere, evidence that there was a god. The strong rules and discipline of the commune gave a sense of belonging. The sanctuary of the temple precincts accorded safety from the horrors of the outside world. And the chanting of hymns or dancing was like an absorbing, intoxicating drug, described as consciousness-expanding or psychedelic.

What the Western followers of the India godmen did not know was that they merely received a different type of psychic healing, not Hindu teaching. Gita, the bible of Hinduism, advocates duty and action. Its basic principle, “Karmayoga,” says that one should always be engaged in work but should not be attached to the fruits of the deeds. It objects to shirking basic duties and escaping to some exotic country. Westerners who run away to India in pursuit of Hinduism, in fact, defy Hinduism.

There is a reference to renunciation in the Hindu doctrines, but renunciation does not mean running away from routine life because one is incompetent to handle it. True renunciation involves sacrifice of all materialistic pleasures. But Swami Vishnu Devananda and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi own planes, and Rajneesh maintained a fleet of Rolls Royces until last year. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness owns 10 large farms in North America, a multimillion-dollar business empire and a publishing house.

Nor are these spiritual masters without a lust for power. Sometimes their rivalries take vicious forms.

In the bitter power struggle that led to the closing of the Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, Rajneesh accused Ma Anand Sheela, his former personal secretary, of numerous crimes, including stealing millions from the commune coffers, attempted murder and drug trafficking. Sheela, who is now behind bars, has responded with countercharges, accusing her ex-lover of being a Valium addict, megalomaniac and obsessive liar.

The battle for succession in the Krishna society, following the death in 1977 of its founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, was as bad any political party fight. “It all comes down to money,” said the losing faction’s leader, Hans Kary.

Now there is a leadership vacuum on the Indian spiritual scene, and that is not necessarily a bad thing at all.

Spiritual peace is not a commodity that can be purchased for a few thousand dollars. Nor is it a prerogative of the Indian religions. It can be found as easily in New York City as in the Himalayas--if it is there in one’s heart. It can best be achieved by managing work and personal relationships well in everyday life, rather than by joining a commune only to be shattered years later by the guru’s business aspirations and bedroom politics.