There are two kinds of people. Those who believe in Godmen or Godwomen as the case maybe and those who don’t. Like many in India, I have been on  both sides of the argument and realised that you cannot argue with faith. It is hard for most of us to live without believing in something or someone. Or in the fact that some unseen power watches over us and knows what is best for us. I know of a friend who has had the most incredible experiences during the lowest points of her life when she left her home to find some answers.

Once she found herself in Benaras without any address and suddenly ran into a stranger, who not only arranged for accommodation but also showed her the rarest glimpses of the city, the kind ordinary tourists don’t have access to. Another time, she found herself in the Ashram of  a Godwoman who is hardly if ever found there and rarely gives a private darshan. But my friend found herself in her presence and came back with renewed energy to get on with her life.

Many years ago, for some reason, I began to notice the image of Shirdi’s benevolent  fakir everywhere and actually came by a statue around the same time I wanted one for my temple. I even got to go to Shirdi out of the blue with a friend who asked me. On the way to Shirdi,  we saw a man who was dressed like Baba but in the middle of the night, his sudden appearance in the headlights of our van on an empty road was a goose flesh moment.

I know, it is the readiness of the mind to believe that even turns regular events into miracles and my faith today is not really about names and faces and shrines but conversing with the higher voice within but I know, what it felt like to be in a room full of pure devotion as hundreds of devotees inched slowly towards the gloriously decked statue of Baba. I wonder what he would have made of the multi-crore empire that his devotees have turned his name into considering he never owned anything and instead used every ounce of his energy to bring peace and solace to those in need and pain.

Some of the most influential men of faith never had wealth. Nanak, Kabir, the Sufi poets, Gautam Buddha among many others were austere men and yet their influence has lasted through centuries.  Compare this to the pomp and splendour that modern gurus live in. They have stakes in everything, including real estate and tourist traffic.  And they are marketed like magic potions in glittering bottles. Once I was followed around an art gallery by a saleswoman with pamphlets asking people to join the Art of Living course.

A friend who joined one of the classes then, came back to share that every new recruit is asked to write down his or her profession in a form that subtly gauges what your social standing is. And you can see from the followers of this man of God that he is in good company. He was eager at one point to start schools and colleges of journalism too. Whether education should be stamped by any kind of spiritual ideology is a debate for another day, another time.

But faith is a strong mind-bender. I remember how during a summer holiday at a relative’s home, I discovered  kirtans and the beautiful tradition of singing bhajans (in this instance to honour Sathya Sai Baba)  every Thursday. I was moved and caught up in the powerful emotion that seemed to take over every singer.

The resonance of faith however went beyond just the music. Visitors to the kirtans would talk about discovering holy ash or honey on the pictures of  Baba. Or ‘miracles’ like his footprints in a room. Once a young woman told me that she prayed to Baba to stop the rain on her way to the movies and yes, the rain stopped. These stories were a bit unsettling and not just because they suggested that sometimes perfectly rational people start seeing more than there is in their reality. The manner in which these stories were told, conveyed also a dangerous dependence on ‘miracles’ and on those who ostensibly can perform them even though they are mortal beings, bound by the laws of life and death.

The truth is there are no Gods walking the earth. Only men and there is a difference between men of God and Godmen. The former may spend an entire life time in the service of others and causes that contribute to the well-being of the planet without thrones and multi-crore empires but then, faith has its own logic. And it is the faith of the adoring millions that builds empires and turns men into Godmen.

A very livid acquaintance who was not even a Sathya Sai Baba bhakt once said that all those who doubt him may one day have to queue before his multi-speciality hospitals for free treatment if they get afflicted by diseases they cannot afford to get treated.

But then it is one thing to respect a man for the good he does and another to believe that he can do anything, heal anyone, maybe even look into our hearts and minds at the sorrows festering there and make us whole with just a touch and a glance. When we don’t want responsibility for what happens to us, we want someone else in charge and that is how a Godman walks through the door that we have left open. And if someone doing an immense amount of good for the poor, opening education institutions and providing free medical care, is anointed as a Messiah, why should it be anyone’s business? Business though it is as the newspaper reports speculating about who will inherit the late Sathya Sai Baba’s wealth of assets and followers, will show you.

However unlike a Buffett or a Gates, a Godman and his empire can never be just about a definite business plan and philanthropy. They are about the medium becoming the message, a human being becoming more than just a guide and a teacher, someone in whose presence people prostrate, lose their sense of self, refuse to examine if there is a possibility that men who are put on pedestals are fallible too and not beyond reproach. Swami Nityananda’s televised escapades, the politics of Mutts and Deras, the cash rich temples and churches with their own unique scandals, fatwa wielding religious heads and many religious leaders wanting a slice of politics are de rigueur. A few years ago, a well known religious sect  ‘convinced’ a friend to sell a piece of land far cheaper than it was valued at. And it is not just land and money but political muscle that makes Godmen powerful. Just sample the way Baba Ramdev has progressed from teaching community yoga to political showmanship.

Yes, faith can be many things. We can believe in God. A Godman. A political ideology. A religion. A Sachin Tendulkar. Or Oprah Winfrey (whose influence reaches countries beyond America and is known to have inspired women to stand in her shoes literally to ‘feel’ just for a moment  how it is to be her) or maybe in the fact that we are all here to be our best. To help each other along.

And that beyond the bombast of organised religions and cults of faith, there is a quiet energy that goes around making the world tick. An energy without bells and whistles but tireless in its quiet resolution to ensure that the earth keeps moving, the sun rises everyday and that we too find our truth, with or without help.