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PRABU, Prabhu …”, an elderly man in a faded turban and crumbled kurta, eager for a photograph, calls out to Gaur Gopal Das, India’s most-followed monk with over 25 million followers and 2.5 billion video views.
The sadarji is barely able to get his thumb on the shoot button when an energetic young woman with a chopped fringe up to her eyelids and festooned in Gothic tattoos bumps him like a charging bull. She gets her shot.
It is an Instagram momento of her foray into the 19th Jaipur Literature Festival in India’s iconic “pink city” famed for its palaces, forts and gay hangouts.
Not since the free-loving Rajneesh or the Harley-riding Satguru has a saffron-robed storyteller gathered such a fan following.
“You Can Have It All” is Gaur Gopal Das’s latest book presenting “a transformative and radical path for those caught between ambition and fulfilment, between striving and being”.
Copywriters and public relations people in India go into overdrive marketing their books at one of the world’s premier book fairs and the electrical engineer turned lifestyle couch cum spiritual guide has his books flying off the shelves faster than the harried staff can stack them.
In the frenzy of hoisted mobile phones, I too am able to satisfy my exacting editor with a storyline picture before being sadomasotistically shoved against a marbled pillar with scores of unwelcome bodies being pressed against every inch of my anatomy and decency.
Gone are the peacenik days of rhythmic drumbeats and hopping chants, this Hare Krishna devotee can rival any American hip hop sensation in gathering a baying crowd.
His infectious humour, evident empathy and poetic wisdom puts an intriguing spin on navigating the complicated existence we call life.
“Let’s just make sure that in doing all that we need to do, or even want to do, we don’t postpone living our life. … So pause. Breathe. Smile a little more.
Call that friend. Sit with your thoughts. Watch a sunset without taking a picture.”
The last bit of wisdom is lost on the eager beavers who bob and weave to get the best angle.
The monk pulls up a few more predictable pearls: “When things are beyond your control and there is nothing you can do, why worry?”
Worry is an age-old subject that’s kept oracles from Sigmund Freud to weepy country and western singers in solid business. Worry we need not be lectured is a futile emotion that not only drains energy but robs us of our peace. Waxing lyrical about it in low tones is however the stock in trade of the spiritual saviours. The monk draws the faithful closer. Notebooks jot every last word. Heads nod.
Someone’s life might have changed in that emblematic encounter. And just as soon as he appeared, Gaur Gopal Das is off to his next engagement. One wonders what might be if he were to take his own advice of pausing to watch the sunset.
Naidoo is an occasional columnist making his annual pilgrimage to the Jaipur Literature Festival.
