Nirvana via Media

The lila of Baba Ramdev as it is unfolding today, and as it is being relentlessly reflected in the national media has brought to the fore the fact that modern yogis and godmen of India have realized the importance of making media their handmaiden.

Their nirvana lies in the magic of numbers, of increasing their tribe of followers and in messaging to masses their maxims. Media is a convenient `ally` in this exercise.

Media can ill afford to ignore the so-called breaking news…and Babas of all hues are past masters in adopting public postures that pass off as news. They know that any publicity is good publicity.

Baba Ramdev wants to translate his yoga followers into a votebank. And hence embraces media as his ‘brother.’

Usage of media as a tool of mass communication in itself is not bad. But it’s use to meet own’s narrow ends is bad.

Afterall, Gandhi liberally used his magazine ‘Harijan’ to propogate his socio-political philospohy and Sri Aurobindo used ‘Arya’ as medium to present his world-view. In fact Gandhi’s reliance on the press for support of his non-violence movement is well-known.

Even in his bestselling book ‘The Man Whom Nobody Knows,’ Bruce Barton claims that if Christ were to come on earth in this age he would have used modern communiction tools to propogate his message.

Our freedom struggle is replete with instances of strategic use of magazines and newspapers by nationalists to mobilize the masses.

However, the key difference in media-savviness between the saints and leaders of the yore and of present day Babas lies in the motives.

Today it is more of mass manipulation through mass communication. And in an era of TRPs and circulation-driven ad. Revenues mass leaders cannot be ignored.

As to the question of seclusion in the private lives of contemporary leaders. It finds no place in their universe of ideas. Seclusion has always been the price of greatness, of spirituality.
Now with greatness, spirituality and self-abnegation at discount, wither seclusion???