The Spiritual Store

Spirituality is in vogue again. One sees astrologers and soothsayers having a field day. No property ad is deemed complete without the mention of Vaastu. Lifestyle stores are filled to the brim with Feng Shui articles. Alternative therapy like Reiki and Pranic healing have reached every nook and corner imaginable. And the less said about numerology, gemstones etc., the better. Lovely, isn't it? Life's so easy. Change your name, wear a dozen rings, shift to a new house that faces east, keep a few objects here and there, do a 8 hour course on Reiki that gives you immense spiritual powers and you're all set to face the world. The bunch of money you lose in the process is worth it...isn't it? Nothing...no one...can even dream of harming you ever and you're safe - insulated from all the karma you've accumulated.

They say astrologers base their deductions on planetary positions. Since all heavenly bodies follow certain basic rules of physics, this seems very much plausible. But one thing conveniently missing out of this workabout is the involvement of Karma. How does an astrologer factor in the past Karma of a person he hardly knows? And without such a crucial input, are their predictions really that believable? Vaastu specialists are another set that's making hay while the sun shines at its cruellest. Vaastu is a science that works entirely on the principle of air and light circulation. It was written at a time when there were no multistoreyed apartment complexes; when there was a lot of greenery around; when there were no artificial sources of light and when people didn't know a bit about fans or airconditioning. Is the science still just as relevant in its original form? We haven't heard about any research being done on Vaastu in recent times. And then there are name changes and gemstones. Not even worth commenting on.

The general line here is that these things actually bring you prosperity. People tend to forget that its finally only your Karma that brings out results in your life. They tend to ignore the effort they've put in to attain the prosperity. All credit is given to whatever hogwash they went through. I've heard people saying they bore children due to a visit to some temple. Wrong! You bore children because you fornicated buddy! Success is attributed to changes in names. As if the name change changes the person himself. My wife was talking about how a few changes prescribed by a Feng Shui expert (hanging a few objects here and there in the office; changing the size of their letter head from Letter to A4 etc.) brought a sea change to the fortunes of the company she used to work for. Conveniently forgetting that the business they got was something they'd been working on long before the Feng Shui expert stepped in. And as if their prospects noticed the change in their letter head size and immediately changed their opinion about the company. Its true that these things set in motion a reverse psychology. This actually adds on to one's efforts after they've undergone a process like this. But how far is this helpful? Wouldn't a simple realisation that one needs to increase the quantum of their efforts do the same trick? I guess its a matter of choice and people still prefer to be gullible about such facts.

Alternative healing is a slightly different proposition. I don't doubt its authenticity or relevance. Since its all based on the power of the human mind (which borders on the infinite), it sure can be very powerful. But what disturbs me is the crass commercialisation of an ancient science. You have single day Reiki & Pranic Healing courses which proclaim to make you good enough to practice the science at a basic level. These courses are open for anyone who can shell out the required fees for the course, which is "nominal" (I love the lovely positioning at work here). Pay a couple of hundred rupees and become a doctor in a day. There's no qualification procedure in place to judge whether one really has the aptitude for the stuff or not. There's no evaluation done at the end of it. A bunch of people are taken through a day long ritual of some sweet sounding but complex theorising interspersed with some feel-good exercises and presto! They are healers now...with powers to heal the world. And thus is set loose a highly motivated team of sales reps to bring in more of the "nominal" fees.

Karma is all about cause and effect. And this furious spate in the incidence of alternative therapy is actually disturbing the balance of cause and effect. Notice how great prophets were extremely selective in healing people from their maladies. The reason for this is simple. The people who were healed by them had it coming. The healing was actually a part of their Karmic cycle. The prophets were just a medium for them to get through the part in question. How many alternative healers of today actually understand that they might be harming their subjects in the spiritual long-term by giving them an immediate relief? For if the healing is not supposed to be a part of their Karmic cycle, they'll have to go through the balance at some other point in their life. Moreover, the healer adds an extra Karmic debt to the subject in this case. And we'll all agree that the earlier a debt is paid off, the better.

Human civilisation is in an advanced stage of scientific evolution. And as a result of this, is regaining a lot of its old glories - ancient sciences that are extremely powerful. But the scientific evolution should be accompanied by an equal level of intellectual and spiritual evolution too - otherwise these very ancient glories would become dangerous tools in an infant's hands. May The Almighty give us all the strength to achieve the intellectual and spiritual evolution needed.