URL: http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/godmen-throng-mumbai-display-political-cloutMAMTA SEN Mumbai | 6th Mar
Self proclaimed spiritual gurus have been making a beeline for Mumbai to host lavish religious discourses in an attempt to re-establish their connection with the masses and display their political clout. In the last one week Bhaiyyuji Maharaj, Sant Nirankari Maharaj, Guru Radhe Maa, the controversial Asaram Bapu and Sri Sankaracharya visited the city to preside either over jaagrans, or public meetings. Indore based Bhaiyyuji Maharaj is a favourite with politicians. He had a "darshan session" with almost the entire Maharashtra Cabinet and with politicians ranging from Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajnath Singh and Shahnawaaz Hussain to Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. He also gave a talk to around 5,000 Muslims on "Challenges before Minorities" in the five-star Leela Kempinski.
"An Urdu channel, which organised the event, asked me to speak on the role of Muslims. I get people from all communities for my discourses," Bhaiyyuji stated, rubbishing allegations that addressing a Muslim audience was a deliberate move to interact with the politicians present.
"I interact with everyone. Politicians come to me for advice. If they do not agree with what I say they go elsewhere. I only preach spirituality and its use in the promotion of national integration," he states.
Another extravagant religious gathering was that of Sant Nirankari Maharaj, who is originally from Peshawar in Pakistan. The event continued for three days and was attended by over three lakh devotees comprising mostly Maharashtrians belonging to the Most Backward Classes (MBC). Pravin Chhabria, coordinator of Sant Nirankari Mission, siad, "The Sant Nirankari Mission is a spiritual movement. We have been attracting devotees irrespective of community. We even have a huge following in London and other parts of the world." He claimed that since Mumbai had many Nirankari devotees, it was apt for the Sant to host a gathering for them.
The controversial Guru Radhe Maa, a favourite with Marwaris and Punjabis, organised a jaagran for her devotees in suburban Mumbai. According to Radhe Maa's secretary Sanjeev Gupta, around two lakh devotees flew in from London, Singapore, the United States and Australia to seek her blessings.
Amid this, one of the four Shankaracharyas, Jagat Guru Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati flew down for a press conference to announce his plans to campaign for a new Ram temple in Ayodhya. The campaign will start from Mumbai.
