Senseless Sense of Well Being

Hello friends.

There are a few side effects of development. The one I am seeing obviously is the spurt of Wellness-Fitness centers,Gymnasiums,Spiritual Gurus holding Satsangs,verious diet planners,Weight loss-inch loss centres,Personality development courses,Career guidance centres & many more.We feel that unless we do such courses,we & our children cannot progress, be successful,wealthy & achieve peace of mind.

I wonder how the  previous generation managed to do well without having the advantages of these schools. The Tatas,Birlas,Ambanis, Mahindras must have been real lucky,isn't it!

Infact,the advent of internet,it's widespread use, resulting in an outburst of knowledge(many times incomplete & confusing) has changed the psyche of the people & these agencies take advantage of this situation to make money.

This has become a status symbol amongst the riches,who can afford,but the poor are also lured & made to spend in an attempt to uplift their status.

I joined one such forum recently  at the behest of one of my close friends,to experience & analyse the whole thing.
I came to know that there are many more from my region including many doctors.I contacted two of my doctor friends & asked them as to how they knew about the forum?I was told that there was an introductory "free" session, & a lot of motivated "graduate" volunteers were there to follow up, whom they paid the fees & registered. Infact,they were coaxed to bring along the cheque books at that intro session,which they did,not really happily.

Anyway,my motive of attending the forum was to unearth any problems with me,about which I wasn't as yet aware of, & maybe troubling my near & dear ones. Plus, to give a boost to my profession,which is a definite outcome,they had claimed.

The fee structure was from 16 thousands to 22 thousands depending on how early you register.
Then,the forms to be filled in,asking you to write down all your problems,personal or otherwise. The form was like that of a public issue form of shares of a company,a lot of paragraphs of small type letters printed in a language difficult to digest & assimilate easily.

The four of us doctors reached the place,travelling by train,getting up early in the morning at 3 am. The venue was shifted to a place nearly 5 Kms from railway station as the registrations increased to around 275, than expected 200.( Credits to the "graduate" volunteers.) It was raining heavily,but we reached safely,courtesy my friend who had assigned a chauffer driven car for us,at our disposal on all three days. It was a multiplex theatre hall,fully air conditioned,the seating arrangement,the sound system,the overall ambience all conducieve to hypnotise you.
The major problems for most were : we all were made to sit for nearly 15 hours a day with only short, haphazard breaks for food,even to go for toilet,we had to pass through the stern unfriendly eyes of the volunteers.Nothing was complimentary apart from drinking water which was outside the hall. The food outside was pathetic & delegates didnt have a place to sit & eat the food,most had to eat standing. We were fortunate,as my friend always sent home made food for us. We weren't allowed to use mobiles inside the hall,neither could we take any foodstuff inside.

The session started with introduction to their aims & objectives - that it was an international organisation,having origin in the U.S; that most of the workers are voluntary,that the forum leaders & graduates are all the owners & they spend most of the profits in charity.( Which,they didnt specify.)They also showed a promotional cum advertising video hammering upon us their pure motives to make the world better!

The forum leader was a North Indian,very handsome,eloquent,having terrific command over Hindi & English & many more languages(he said he conducted forums in many countries),very good vocabulary,fantastic delivery of sentences,& excellent stamina.
He said he had a big family business & came to lead the forum after freeing himself & all of his family by doing forums,for the welfare of the people(?) I am poor in maths & took time to understand the huge profits the forum is making with a very little investment.

He started with vouching the participants to surrender,to just follow what he said,no questions asked,no why's,no nothing,just surrender & "share" all the problems,"shamelessly!"

He said it was his fourth visit to Vidarbha,as a forum leader. He said he found Vidarbhians to be lazy,lacked the entrepreneurship, who can't progress. It's ok,but as a staunch vidarbhian, what irritated me was when he said,thrice in succession,that Vidarbhians are the ones who *stab in the back!*
My God,I was taken aback & wondered how my fellows took it in a subdued attitude? The effect of hypnotism? Maybe. Because if not,then he would have been thrown out immediately( with dignity of course,)such is the self esteem of true vidarbhian people.आळशी असू,ढिल्ले असू,पन प्रेम भल्ल  करते गड्या लोकाईनवर,अन हेबी ध्यानात ठेव,जरका मुद्दाम पाय ठेवशीन शेपटावर,तर डसन बी तेवढ्याच जोरानं,हां!

Then he called for active participation,asking everybody to "share" his or her problems. Asked to come in front,gathered them, maybe six or eight,asked to stand for minutes to hours.He asked for personal problems,interrogated,worse than the police or CBI for that matter. People were humiliated, wanted to cry,thrash that fool,but succumbed in the end, confessed to the false allegations by the rude leader in the hope to be "freed" early. But this time,the forum leader had started acting like God!

They came,one by one,many known to me & more of them knowing me.
Shared the secrets which I hated to hear ever! (I firmly believe that personal & family problems is a confidential matter & one should take the help of a psychiatrist or counseller on a one to one basis,they should never ever be discussed publicly.Remember,we are talking about the people who have been raped,recently gone bankrupt & others who were physically & emotionally abused.) Then they were tortured,humiliated,grilled for not telling the "truth!",emotionally ripped them apart in front of all the other participants.(falsely convincing the crowd that they were safe & people wouldn't take these stories out of the hall!)

If the forum leader was not happy with the answers,he asked the graduate volunteers to take these persons out for severe interrogation,untill they vomited what was 'expected' out of them! पोलीस कोठडीत असाच कबुलीजबाब घेतात म्हणे,जोपर्यंत आरोपी केलेला(?) गुन्हा कबूल करीत नाही. असो.

Usually out of 6 persons called on stage,only 2-3 persons are through this ordeal in that session,rest are just made to stand.These interrogated people are then asked to do introspection,to find out the fault in them & to "share" their feelings via mobile with the concerned person,maybe a husband,parents,mother-in-law,a friend,a business partner etc.
In the next session,they were called on stage again & asked about the results of the talk via "leading" questions & they were made to feel relieved & so called "freed" of the guilt.(can you imagine living with no guilt? There is a name for the people who don't experience guilt.....Sociopaths! A little bit of guilt is good I feel, it means you still have conscience.)
The whole exercise sounded like hypnotism to me,as if you keep on telling a particular thing to a person time & again he starts believing it. If you keep on telling a frail person to follow some exercise & keep on telling him from the next day onwards that now he is looking very fit & muscular,he will start believing it & will be euphoric,flex his biceps in front of mirror again & again,that certainly he looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger!

All these poor people were taken to a virtual non existent world & were made to believe that now they are" transformed",have become  powerful,free of all the stress,& will be wanted by all,with whom they had problems,and ready to live an *authentic* life.

*This is Hypnotism*.

Unfortunately,this condition won't last long,soon they will face the reality,will break down & will be worse than what they were.

On the last day,everybody was given a "bonus" opportunity,to talk to the people near them,who haven't done the forum yet,& to invite them for a follow up session to be held 2 days later.(obviously to drag them into the net of forum,one of my friends had literally to run away from the clutches of the volunteers who were after him to get registered.)
All the participants were lured to do the advanced course,at a discount of nearly eleven thousands(from 33000 to  22000) if they register early. Each single person was asked,targeted by the volunteers to pay.The ones who did not show interest in advance course,were then taken to the leader. One of my doctor friends asked to keep the prices low for the lower working class,so called poor people. Poor? They are not poor,you make them one by calling them poor,retorted the forum leader.What he failed to understand that he was making even the rich ones poor by making them spend in the useless forum. Anyway.

The whole atmosphere was nauseating for me.
I made my dissent clear to my friends twice during tea break, & my intension to write about it in my blog,the news went to the forum leader,he called me during one of the lunch breaks & tried to pacify me, hypnotise me, promised to transform me if I surrender.I said I will do anything you say,but will ask "why" & do only if I find it logically correct. Then sensing this,he never allowed me to speak. Warned/threatened  me not to write anything against,or their law department will be after me & make my life miserable! There were so many dissatisfied souls like me,they were singled out & were handled by volunteers. Some were  asked to leave taking full refund,but it never materialised as I saw them again sitting inside.
Finally,on the last day,I somehow grabbed the opportunity to speak out my mind,but very few were left unhypnotised who could understand it. The forum leader then said there was no point of me continuing as I didn't follow their order of "surrendering", & asked the volunteers to arrange for the refund of money. I am doubtful about the refund of money, but,even if I get monetary refund,how can they return my 72 hours I lost,just listening to the  nonsense.

Now,you will ask,if this forum is not good,why people go in good numbers,spending their time & money. The answer is,they take advantage of weak minds,proper advertisement,constant follow ups by the graduate volunteers & promises to transform lives for better.
All of us know the quack Nir....baba,who solves the problems of his disciples by just telling them to follow nonsensible advices like eating red chutney instead of green one! But still,his Durbar is always full!

I know my sharing of the thoughts & trying to expose the so called Racket,is not going to change anything as their vast network of hypnotised graduate volunteers will keep on luring people,taking advantage of volatile minds. But,even if I can save a single person from this mental agony, anguish,monetary & criminal loss of time,my purpose is served.

To sum up :

The motives are good,the Methods wrong.

The Abilities are good,the Attitudes wrong.

And,

The Heart should take  precedence over Head!





Jai-Hind!🙏🙏