India's 'godmen' questioned

PUTTAPARTHI, India -- For centuries, their image was as barefoot ascetics who spent their lives in solitary Himalayan meditation.

But now India's gurus, "miracle workers" and spiritual leaders, often collectively known as "godmen," have become savvy, powerful figures who control vast philanthropic and business empires, dabble in politics and manipulate the media.

With that power and wealth, however, have come questions about the business of religion, fueled in recent months by the discoveries of hoards of gold, silver, diamonds and cash, the declaration of assets running into hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, and accusations of money laundering.

The godmen range from "miracle workers" and "living gods," such as Sathya Sai Baba, the diminutive holy man with a black Afro who left behind a secret trove of gold, silver and cash when he died in April, to yoga gurus including Baba Ramdev, a television star who joined a popular campaign against official corruption, only to be investigated for tax evasion.

The rising wealth and prominence of the godmen in the past two decades has accompanied rising incomes in India and the liberalization of the media. To an extent, it also mirrors the rising political popularity of the Hindu nationalist movement, with its assertion of pride in Hindu traditions and values.

But their popularity is more an expression of "the extraordinary religiosity of the Indian people, which has withstood the forces of education and modernization," said historian Ramchandra Guha. "Its manifestation is the offering of money and jewels to a deity, whether living or frozen in stone."

Often their most devoted followers come from the middle classes, and donations also stream in from Indians abroad. The flood of money is partly a function of the huge rise in disposable income that many Indians now enjoy, but some sociologists say it reflects a need to balance newfound wealth with old-fashioned values.

"The Indian middle classes are a very schizophrenic bunch of people," said Meera Nanda, author of "The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu," who argues that it is time the religious trusts were properly regulated, audited and taxed.

When Sai Baba died in April, his personal chambers were found to contain $2.8 million in cash, along with gold and silver worth about $5 million. Cupboards contained cloth bags filled with diamonds, hundreds of robes, more than 500 pairs of shoes and dozens of bottles of perfume and hair spray.

While his followers insist Sai Baba never even had a bank account, the trust in his name is thought to be worth about $10 billion. While Sai Baba generated mystique by limiting his private audiences, the black-bearded and bare-chested Ramdev's popularity owes more than a little to modern celebrity culture.

Like television evangelists in the United States, Ramdev is one of a new generation of gurus skilled at manipulating modern media. At least 30 million people tune into his daily TV program, and he said last year that television had made him "a hundred times more powerful."

But when he joined a popular movement against official corruption with a brief fast in June, Ramdev's supporters were beaten and tear-gassed by police and he was forced to declare his assets.

His trust alone was found to be worth $250 million, a figure that probably includes his yoga university but not his Scottish island or global business interests that include a pharmaceutical company producing medicine and herbal products.

While some of the self-styled godmen are crooks or charlatans, many provide immense spiritual succor to their followers. When Sai Baba died of heart failure, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it an "irreparable loss," describing him as a "spiritual leader who inspired millions."

But with the vast wealth have come, almost inevitably, questions about whether that money was being properly accounted for, and whose pockets it was ending up in.