Millennials see the world with a different perspective and are undoubtedly the ones who aren’t afraid to break stereotypes.
Be it giving up on age-old religious beliefs or boycotting traditions or customs, they do it all in spectacular fashion. They have been termed as the “rebel generation” for all the right reasons.
Another popular notion associated with millennials is that they are not likely to be fond of “Godmen” who clearly have been polluting the minds of naive Indians with their “ideal” religious philosophies.
Considering the fact that more and more millennials are drifting towards atheism, it can be rightly said that the “godmen charm” is doing little to no influence on the rebellious millennial generation.
Who Are The Goodness Godmen?
In India, Godmen are people who act like preachers and provide guidance to those who are lost or are seeking a way to live. These Godmen are particularly “self-proclaimed spiritual leaders” who have taken the charge to inspire people with their wisdom which subtly promises to reduce their suffering (and add to the mass suffering of the nation). They are the so-called charm Gurus.
The trend of becoming a Godman is rising in India at an exponential rate with these Godmen even having a signature look. Flamboyant jewellery, extravagant lifestyle, saffron uniform with a Godly tilak on forehead, and a “Baba” attached as a prefix to your name.
Some even think they are not Godmen (or women) but are GOD themselves.
Surprisingly, these Godmen claim to be righteous human beings but it gets dark inside when you look closely. But still, due to the sweet words and high publicity, these Godmen have a huge following in the country.
Many of them have been charged with rape, murder, assault, financial frauds, paedophilia, etc., possibly all acts associated with a high-end criminal.
No wonder their followers are called ‘BLIND followers’.
Then Why Are Millennials Turning Away?
Just like any other toxic politician, these Godmen also have a blind following, and thus it’s hard for people to accept the red flags. But breaking the stereotypes, millennials are back at challenging the ideologies of Godmen and boycotting them for all the right reasons.
According to research done by the San Diego University in 2015, millennials are the least religious generation and thus their faith in godmen is likely to be at an all-time low. The research suggests that “Millennial adolescents are less religious than Boomers and GenX’ers were at the same age”.
Twenge, one of the researches says that “We also looked at younger ages than the previous studies. More of today’s adolescents are abandoning religion before they reach adulthood, with an increasing number not raised with religion at all.”
The atheist factor existing amongst millennials is often linked to behavioural issues like recklessness, disobedience, rebellion, etc. which is said to be underlying in the entire generation.
While on one hand, people believe that the rapid shift to modernization has led to the birth of such a free-spirited generation which fails to align their religion with their values due to their reckless attitude, on the other hand, Twenge completely denies the same and suggests that “Unlike previous studies, ours is able to show that millennials’ lower religious involvement is due to cultural change, not to millennials being young and unsettled.”
Read Also: Breakfast Babble: Here’s Why I Hate It When Fanatics Of Any Religion Try To Give Me Unsolicited Spiritual Advice
Due to this unlinked-ness with religion and God, millennials have more than one reason to just not fall for these Godmen.
Especially when you look at the track record of these Babas, you’ll know why the self-aware generation chooses to go on its own way rather than blindly following someone who might be just an imposter.
The Track Record Of Godmen Is A Real Turnoff
Famous Godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was charged by CBI for a rape case in 2017, followed by more revelations about him molesting young women and even sex trafficking.
Another renowned godman named Asaram was alleged to be involved in the murder of two young boys at his ashram. Swami Nithyananda was in the news for a leaked video of him being seen in a sexual romp with an actress and Swami Sadachari was in jail for running a brothel illegally.
All of these records are enough to let us millennials realize that these Godmen are no less than afraid and it is a foolish move to follow them blindly.
Moreover, when you closely observe their preachings, you’ll get to know the loopholes present in the same. Millennials are people who are believed to be open-minded and are most famous for thinking out of the box.
Thus, just blindly following anyone who claims to be a spiritual guru does not make sense for us. We question and we need logic.
And no prizes here for guessing the logic quotient of these self acclaimed baba log!
-
Hypocrisy
Moreover, the obvious hypocrisy shown by these godmen is one of the main reasons as to why millennials will never fall for them. A person who is enlightened in reality will never hold a criminal-like track record or force people to pray to him and idolise him/her.
-
Megalomaniac Mindset
These Godmen subtly possess a megalomaniac mindset and claim to have had a near-death or afterlife experience which eventually blessed them with all the wisdom. This again is hard to digest for us millennials as we look for more scientific reasons and cannot believe anything without facts and figures.
After all, even Lord Buddha didn’t boast about being God’s favourite despite His world-famous enlightenment experience.
-
We Know Your Tricks
The head of the Indian Rationalists’ Association has been on a journey to expose the fraudulent Babas of the country. He figures out the duping involved in the famous miracle moves by these Godmen and exposes them bluntly.
Mr. Edamaruku, teaches members to perform the tricks in villages and then explains how they are done, or demonstrates them at press conferences.
Simple tricks which are said to be miraculous include walking on hot coals (the skin does not burn if you walk fast enough) and lying on a bed of nails (your weight is spread evenly across the bed).
The “weeping statue” trick is usually done by melting a thin layer of wax covering a small deposit of water.
And there are myriad other reasons that assure that the millennial generations are less likely to fall for such cheap tricks and better prefer to use their own head and logic in order to ease their sufferings.
The millennial generation has faith in science and believes in rationality. They are always up for calculated risk and would never do something that does not make sense even when it comes directly from the mouth of “Godmen”. So, considering the same it can be said that the future is in safe hands.
Image credits: Google Images
Sources: Science Daily, Japan times, India Today +more
Find the Blogger: @ZehraYameena
This post is tagged under: indian godmen, indian millennial, godmen and millennials, atheist, millennial, religion, asaram bapu, ram rahim singh, swami nithyananda, hypocrisy, godmen commits crime, sadhguru, millennials hate godmen, why younger generation is not religious, are millennials religious?, do millennials follow baba, godmen, godwomen, spiritual leaders?
