Political yoga: A new phase in our democracy

It is a rather curious mix, our ready veneration of sundry godmen and the equally-prompt readiness to push them off their pedestals when we find that they, well, aren’t so godly after all. Perhaps we haven’t yet got to the stage where we can quite accept that men and matters spiritual can really have anything to do with the material world.

Or, rather, we feel a greater sense of betrayal when that supposedly personalised link to the spirit-realm turns out to have baser moorings. A bit unlike other parts of the world, where godmen or cults openly make a virtue out of, what for us, are vices. No experiments, for us, sorry. Thus the scorn heaped upon the one who was recently supposedly taped frolicking with an actress.

His excuses that he was in some sort of trance or merely ‘experimenting’ with stuff didn’t quite wash. We like our trances to be more unearthly, thank you. But that does posit the curious phenomenon of our preoccupation with such godmen . Perhaps the search for deliverance, some sort of sense of agency.

Sure, there are any number of genuine worthies, people who really can be what they say they are. But then, the whole thing is also open to abuse. Just consider the number of such people over the years who have come crashing to the ground, or are behind bars now.

But deliverance is at hand: a spiritual/health guru who wants to expand our horizons and jump into the fray to improve the lot of the nation. In a possible first of its kind, a well-known yoga guru has just announced his intention to form a political party. Which, given his stress on physical exercise, might give a new twist to his stated intention of ‘cleansing’ the wider body politic.

Well, nothing wrong with that per se, as with his calls to crack down on fake religious gurus. This would certainly at least make a difference from our usual spectrum of left-centre-right politics. More like a ‘save the nation, hold your breath’ kind of situation . The age of the political asana might be upon us.