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Life interrupted, God re-experienced
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It's not just pubbing and clubbing for Gen X. Young people are also turning to spirituality. For many, the attraction stems from stress, boredom, and the novelty value. But, says BHUMIKA K., there are the true seekers too
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DESINGER, ANIMATOR, with a masters in international business, Shreya Chugh, all of 24 years, measures her success not by her degree, a hip career and pay packet. "Today my rate of success is the smile I bring on a person's face," she says.
Shreya represents a minuscule but growing percentage of youngsters who seek that something in life and are high on a spiritual opium. Everyone's "something" may be different. But they are all seeking and meditating anyway. Having quit an Australian firm where she started off earning a five-figure salary, Shreya has been teaching 15 to 21-year-olds the Young Adults Programme of the Art of Living (AoL) Foundation, founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Smart gurus
Bangalore today is home to as many ashrams, gurus and other spiritual homes as there are people with a spiritual hunger. While our parents' generation may have found peace in Osho, Paramahamsa Yogananda and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, today it's the generation of Amma, Sri Sri, Swami Sukhabodhananda, Surya Swami, and the like. Who are smart gurus with snappy one-liners, sense of humour, and people management skills; holding contemporary interactive workshops in their sleek, modern ashrams (for want of a better word) where they talk to Everyman without resorting to arcane philosophy. Believers — most of them middle class and the urban elite — hug them rather than fall at their feet. They include jet-setting businessmen, CEOs, techies, movie stars, housewives, stressed out professionals and the occasional seeker of truth.
It may be a sweeping statement to make, but having got most of what they need in life way too early and reached a saturation point in a world dominated by instant gratification, it's that desire for a new experience that may be driving 20- and 30-somethings, even teenagers, to this quest.
If The Beatles arriving in Rishikesh set the trend for the West descending upon a spiritually rich India to find answers, it's now the turn of India's own children to flock to their mystical abodes. And to those who make spiritualism user-friendly.
Very savvy
Swami Sukhabodhananda is seen as one of the savviest spiritual leaders in the city. "I don't use metaphysical jargon. I talk about things like goal-setting," is why Gen X flocks to him, he says. His workshops have the works — debates, discussions on life, stress and work, singing, dancing. "At my workshops, you will see me dancing. I even play basketball with children."
At the first go, when a person in distress seeks him out, he "empties" them, offers a temporary quick-fix solution, and then asks them to carry it forward it by practising meditation. "Youngsters today are stressed out by pressure from peers, parents, their own pressure to perform, the stress to be Number 1 and the fact that they can't stand being Number 3 or 4. They are looking at options and spirituality is one of them," he says, talking energetically despite having just landed from Baroda and on his way to San Francisco to speak to disciples there. His favourite line? "Life is a big rat race. But even when you win, you remain a rat." He defines new-age spiritualism as a certain level of consciousness that you are neither a recluse, nor a man of the disco world.
Ganesh Hegde aka Gaura Hari Dasa says he was typical youngster till he went through the trauma of ragging at engineering college in Nagpur. "I was an atheist but after I overcame the severe trauma of the ragging incident, I started believing and searching for a concrete understanding of God. One Sunday morning, my friend brought me to ISKCON. And I felt I have met my Lord here."
While studying engineering in Bangalore, he tried to get a better understanding of the movement's perception of God by reading up Srila Prabhupada's books. He's been with ISKCON for five years now, training newcomers, editing its journal, living at the ashram with 60 other followers, and participating in the temple's daily routine of aarti, lectures, and kirtans.
Spiritual search?
Father Anthony, Director, Indian Institute of Spirituality, explains that one reason why youngsters take to spirituality is a certain pursuit of novelty. "In some Catholic and Protestant churches, liturgy is stereotyped, and worship goes on in the same way." He further rationalises the reason why many turn away from conventional religion: "People are searching for a new experience of God."
In fact, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, in an online chat on a news website, took a question: Youth and spirituality seem to be opposites. How can spirituality benefit our youth? An extract from his reply: "Spirituality is not just sitting and doing some practice. Spirituality is a value system; it is a way of life. Today's youth need a broadening of their vision about life and deepening their roots in their culture, tradition and value systems. Deepening their roots gives a sense of responsibility and ownership while a broader vision gives a sense of relaxation. When I say broader vision and deeper roots, I mean responsibility with ease, calmness and equanimity... they need to bring a shift from what I can have to what I can give — from competition to contribution."
It is this philosophy that drives 23-year-old Sameer Mehta, who landed in Bangalore after attending an AoL course in Gujarat. "I come from a typical Gujarati family where everybody was into business. I would see my mamas and father slog day and night. It was all business and all money. But finally, they had problems and no happiness at the end of the day."
Sameer was helping out in his father's cinema ticket printing business soon after college. An only child, he was like any teenager, smoking, freaking out, pubbing, and discoing.
Family's reaction
How does his family react to his decision to join the ashram? "A family friend tells me that when he asked my parents the same question they said, `If he was with us he would have taken care of one family. There he cares for hundreds of families.' I feel proud of my family too."
Today Sameer renders his seva working at the AoL studios, videotaping Guruji's gatherings and satsangs, and editing the films. His day begins at 5.30 a.m. with group sadhana, pranayama, meetings with the Guru at satsangs, and eating satvik food. "I don't think youngsters take to spirituality because it's fashionable," he protests when I suggest that. "This is a way of life. I didn't have to leave anything behind. It just acted as a catalyst in my life."
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