[Reader-list] From Surya; Guru on the Air: Ist I-Fellowship Posting

[rakesh at sarai.net]

Dear Surya Prakash

Your project seems interesting. Since you have proposed to do the field
work in Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mumbai, may I suggest you to visit one more
place, Haridwar. This is because Haridwar is an ancient pilgrimage and
almost all the new age gurus have their ashrams there. Just some
conversations with old pandas and mandirs' pujaris and some of the
tirthyatris, may be that brings some more angles about this gurugiri.

best wishes
rakesh


On March 25, 9:13 am surya upadhyay <surya_rajan21 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear All!
>
> This is Surya Prakash Upadhyay, Research Scholar, IIT
> Bombay. This is my first posting on Sarai,
> Reader-List. I am also an Independent Fellow with
> Sarai for year 2007.
>
> The work with Sarai is titled: "Guru on the Air:
> Televised Hinduism in contemporary India".
>
> Looking forward for more ideas and suggestions.
>
> The work is looking at the contemporary religious and
> spiritual gurus in contemporary Hinduism. Though, this
> is a case study of one such guru named Asaram Bapu but
> it supposes that some general characteristics about
> these gurus could be formed through the study.
> However, there was no dearth of religious
> personalities in Hinduism since very ancient times but
> the recent gurus are somewhat different in many ways.
> They are not only religious figures but they are also
> personal counselor,healers, soothsayers, and medicine
> man at the same time. They suggest ways to live life
> healthy, happily, and prosperously. They have
> rejuvenated Ayurveda, and herbal medicines along with
> the keep-fit meritorious value of Yoga. Also, this
> particular guru stresses more on the ideal of
> self-restraint and achievement of
> self-realization. The modern gurus are not based at
> any established religious centres or pilgrimages such
> as Varanasi, or Allahabad. Rather, they have their own
> local ashrams where their followers come together and
> instead of praying to god they prey their guru.
>
> Also, they are not attached to temples, so they are
> different from the temple priests. They have their own
> way of interpreting Hindu philosophy and these gurus
> propagate through  various kinds of amendments in
> them. As far as this guru is concerned and whatever
> information, I have, gathered through his literature
> survey it comes out that he is more inclined towards
> the Upanishads rather than Veda. It
> does not mean to say that he discards Vedas but he
> puts more emphasis on the Upanishads and other puranic
> scriptures. Also, he includes Buddhist philosophy and
> treaties on Jainism and Sikhism. From my point, it
> gives a more broader audience and follower to this
> guru. One interesting point that is coming out that
> they readily talk in scientific language and for that
> they use scientific terms and
> scientific researches that endorse their view;
> irrespective of the value placed to that particular
> research work in the scientific community.
>
> Basically, all of these practices are going through
> the telecast of satsang programs through television
> cable channels, and therefore, I prefer to call these
> modern god-people as "Tele-guru". A preliminary survey
> done among his followers shows that almost 80% of his
> followers came in his contact through listening his
> sermons on Sony channel and Sanskara Channel. I am
> looking at the instrumentality of
> audio-visual media in the construction and maintenance
> of religio-spiritual world in contemporary Hinduism
> and at the process of mobilization of people,
> particularly, towards this tele-guru.
>
> The project is an ethnographic work and would likely
> to be conducted through interviews, and questionnaire
> among the devotes and followers of Asaram Bapu, living
> in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow. The reason for
> keeping three different locations is that I want to
> see the difference between the responses of the
> devotees of these three cities. Mumbai is a
> cosmopolitan city and Ahmedabad is the main ashram.
> Lucknow is a peripheral ashram. In this way, the study
> will throw more light on the varieties of contemporary
> religiosity.
>
> However, the study looks at the media practice, both
> old and new and will involve the analysis of print
> media as well as electronic media and how media is
> playing its role in the propagation of his
> organisation in terms of increasing his followers.
> Till now, I have formed a questionnaire that I will
> send on the reader-list for your
> valuable suggestions.
>
> Cheers
>
> Surya Prakash Upadhyay
> Research Scholar,
> Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
> I.I.T. Bombay,
> Powai, Mumbai 400076
> surya_rajan21 at yahoo.com
> surya.upadhyay at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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