It all started after I attended a charity event about two months back. I suddenly started receiving emails, text messages and phone calls from a spiritual group claiming to be experts in spiritual enlightenment, aura reading, healing and self-proclaimed crusaders of world peace, ensuring guaranteed entry to the golden gates of heaven!
It took me a while to realize that my details were taken from the card I had left at the charity event. Initially, I ignored their mails, calls and text messages but the more I ignored, the more vehement and relentless their approach grew. Obviously upset with the development, I decided to make a formal complaint and wrote them not to invade my privacy and time. Within minutes, I received a call from a "spiritual guru" from the group. The conversation baffled me!
"You see madam, our aim is to build a tribe of awakened souls like you. If I may use the term, it is a movement and we need people with good, spiritual aura to make our mission successful. Mother Earth is experiencing immense turmoil and negativity hence we need to unite people like you from across the globe for deep energy cleansing."
Shocked by the pitch and the direction it was going in, I intervened, "excuse me, when did you learn about my aura and soul being awakened when I myself am absolutely clueless about such things?"
"You don't remember our meeting? We met at charity event and were even formally introduced. I instantly knew we had some spiritual connection and you could do wonders for our group.
Our workshops are precisely about that. We introduce you to your own sacred soul and once that is attained, we help you see golden gates of heaven open for you." After listening that, I lost my patience but the "guru" went on with his blah for some time.
It took me a while to regain my balance after learning about myself in detail from a complete stranger who claimed to know so much about me! I must confess, the sales pitch was good but it did not take long to realize its sole purpose was absolutely commercial and had nothing to do with anything spiritual. The workshops and sweet talks were nothing but a sham. My tone changed from that of a polite listener to an angry warning and that is when the "spiritual guru" understood there was no point in further chase. "God bless you! Do visit us whenever you are prepared for the new beginning."
I am still recovering from the experience and am shocked to learn that even at charity events that are meant for a select few, fraudsters are at large! I must admit, I admire the persistence, patience and the sales pitch of the "spiritual guru" who could give the best sales person of the world run for his money.
I find it amusing that people are sold on ideas of heaven and hell. Like most of the Indians, since childhood, I was disciplined, moulded and indoctrinated with the philosophy of good/bad, heaven/hell. Fed up with its torture, by age of ten, I managed to break shackles and stopped believing in all that as it offered me much more solace than endlessly worrying about being fried in hot oil for committing small little sins of saying even harmless lies. The promise of magical heaven was not enough to lure me back to keep subscribing to the ideas of typical Maharastrian Brahmin upbringing forced down upon me. Luckily, I was loved far too much to be outcast for that blasphemy and managed to survive on my own terms.
Subscribing to any ideology for the fear of eternal damnation or out of charm of fantasy of heaven in after life is beyond my comprehension. I don't believe in heaven or hell as separate worlds or in doing anything with the aim of gaining passport to heaven. For me, essence of heaven and hell is in this very moment and lived through our karma on this beautiful, fragile, blue planet Earth. Once that is sorted and I have taken conscious care of my own deeds, I don't need to worry about energy, aura, enlightenment or world peace. I don't think any agent of God is eligible to come between me and my Almighty.
