Small-town Swamijis

It’s not just IT and stocks that are booming. S Anand writes about the swamijis who are mushrooming in various parts of Tamilnadu. Inspite of the misdeeds of lot of fly-by-night swamijis, the public confidence in these swamijis doesn't seem to have taken a back seat.

The long-locked man is just about five feet tall and an undernourished 40 kg. Clad in a yellow veshti, he lives in the Adi Dravidar (Dalit) Colony, where the roofs of most of the 27 government-built one-room houses have collapsed. Seated on a gunnysack, Arumugam pedals his sewing machine, stitching a green blouse. It’s early on a Friday, and before the clients turn up, he asks us to fetch him two 180 ml bottles of Cosmopolitan whiskey, two plastic glasses, two water sachets, a packet of savoury ‘mixture’, some pickle and five idlis. Of course, the ‘prasadam’ will be of even greater value if you add ganja, pan parag and Ganesh beedi to the list. The man at the state-owned liquor shop 2 km away knows at once: Is all of this for the Snot Swami? he asks.

Although Jaggi Vasudev has been climbing the ranks quite steadily, I came to know about him only recently. There were some reports that lot of filmstars started frequenting Coimbatore to relax in the pristine surroundings of the Anamalai Hills. This gave a hint about Jaggi Vasudev’s popularity among the rich and famous. Jaggi Vasudev’s presence in Davos this year further goes on to prove that he wants to carve an identity for himself in the international arena.

The Tamil tabloid press reports on the activities of these lower-end godmen with vulgar enthusiasm, and sometimes portrays them as criminals. But Tamil Nadu abounds in gurus, both low- and high-end. The Anamalai Hills in Coimbatore is home to several ashrams patronised by films stars, industrialists and the rich. Jaggi Vasudev, practitioner of Isha Yoga, and new-age guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar both hail from Tamil Nadu. With more than 15 magazines devoted to spiritual matters and astrology, and TV serials and cinema promoting spirituality, this is a state steeped in religiosity. What these swamis represent is a relatively benign, nonconformist—if freaky—fringe.