God is online

The age of soothsayers is back in India. An educated guess is that the maximum number of publications that come out from the press belongs to astrology and related departments. So what is news? The news is that youngsters account for the lion’s share of the subscription. 

Belief in God and His powers has never enjoyed such pull in the recent history of the subcontinent. Till the middle of 1990s, it was the material school that reigned supreme. To be politically correct, the youth were not atheists but maintained a very skeptical notion towards the so called ‘logies’ – astrology, numerology etc., etc. In the scheme of political, cultural issues, the pseudo sciences were just not a serious enough bother. 

The tarot reader’s luck turned with the onset of the millennium. It had seemed that the year 2000 ushered in collective phobias about the future. Tomorrow suddenly loomed over the Himalayas and the sight was not very pretty. Poor working conditions and terms along with unemployment dogged a fresh generation that had terrific skill but not opportunity.  

The real opportunity, however, lay across the turf, in the businessman’s court. As keen-eyed as ever, it didn’t take the seasoned publisher to dowse the niche for a ‘spiritual’ press. 

Soon enough, magazines, one after another rolled out and were consumed hungrily by a terrified, superstitious market. Along with Information Technology, the fever of spiritualist practices pervaded the soul of India. Denounced by every level headed Indian from Swami Vivekananda to Mahatma Gandhi, these superstitions got a good conduct certificate from the practitioners of its western counterparts as well, such as Wicca and tarot and you name it – the fact that these ‘prophets’ and ‘sorcerers’ are also

out to make a quick buck seems to have been lost on the frenzied population of India. One thing Bharat Mata has proved: that India is the definitive millennium market for superstitions, from the idea that IT makes a Bill Gates out of you, to God has a single purpose and that will be emailed to you if you pay a dollar. 

The stereotypes have also been changed: gone are the bald-headed, pot bellied old men who mouthed incomprehensible stanzas in Sanskrit or the old hag with a cauldron before her. The astrologer is hardly thirty plus, often holds a management degree, svelte, cool and very, very up market. The witch is, well, what some wives would call a real witch – she is thirty forever or if possible, younger. She comes in all sizes but keeps herself in shape. Unlike yesterday, she is no longer afraid to affirm her status as a witch in the society. Luckily, the coven is not proclaiming ‘so mote it be!’ in a stage show like the Christians. But they are also in the bandwagon, reading tarot, runes, sticks, tea leaves, anything. 

Whether all this has any purpose is permanently under discussion. While that goes on in the soap box, what one would like to know is, has any of this fatuity been proven in any of the labs across the globe? If the answer is waxing lyrical like ‘it has been proven in the laboratory of millions of minds’, please excuse, there’s book waiting for me – The Complete works of Swami Vivekananda. Want a quote? "I would rather have every one of you be rank atheists than superstitious fools".