In a remote village, recently I came across a 7 day camp of
a well-known cult, who trains people to lead a better living. The venue was an
auditorium owned by one of my relatives, who had given this place at no cost to
the organizers as a token gesture towards the good will of the organization
they represented. My inquisitiveness made me observe the characteristics of the
people who attended the programme with utmost dedication and without any absenteeism. It was an insight to me that regardless of the social backdrops,
there was quite a heterogeneous mix of people who attended the programme; that
too despite paying a handsome fee for registration! First of all, I was
surprised to see the huge number of people turn out, who religiously attended patiently
till the end of the programme and also the excitement they carried all the way!
I think for most of them who attended, it has been awesome to look at the
minute points of life which they had experienced or tried never before in their
lives and the very fact that they are able to look at life through somebody
else’s populist lenses, which is well crafted or designed to suit the most
common person’s lifestyle so that they can easily relate themselves with the
programme and its standards.
I have been appreciating such organizations and their
efforts to induce the thought process of refinement and the resource pool they
generate to further expand their services in order to reach more people. I had
personally witnessed transformation of many people, who never had any
perspective of depth of life and its values, into a completely different, refined
attitude towards life!
While these are the much appreciated works of such cults,
the ugly parts are also gradually on the rise…?! The moment these cults become
establishments, corruption creeps in and the intoxication of power (on people
from every walk of life) makes it more vulnerable to unethical practices!
When I met some of the people who attended the above said
programme, I realized the excitement they are undergoing and I sincerely hoped
that they will all practice the refinement they had been taught in this
programme. My skepticism about this is because I know some of the organizers of
these camps of different cults, who are the synonyms of ‘ego’ and ‘negativity’…?! The question is
not just about them, but if their long association with such cult does not
change their attitude, I doubt how many of these participants would be the real
‘transformed souls’? This is the base of my skepticism about the dilution of
values in such establishments and the amount of corruption which in turn lead
to the deterioration of quality and class.
I do write about this with pain in the heart as I had been one
of the admirers of such neighbourhood groups and cults which had contributed in
improving the thought processes and thus the quality of many lives among the
middle class, who once had strong values and in the verge of losing it
gradually. In fact, it has been very easy to invoke such values among people
from the middle class. These organizations had created amazingly excellent models
of self – refinement and it had improved spiritual, mental and physical health
of many ordinary people and for me, I looked at it as a hope for many millions
of followers of such cults! Now, any dilutions in the quality will actually
backfire and affect the entire species of cults and hopes of millions!
