Spiritualism, a growing industry

A growing number of 'Godmen' airing their 'wisdom' on multiple television channels devoted to religion coupled with escalating sales of CDs, VCDs, books and literature pertaining to various faiths has led to a growth in the market for spirituality. "The market of spirituality is huge. If we talk about only spiritual channels, the market is around 18 to 20 cr but the spiritual gurus' market is around 2,000 cr, which includes VCDs, CDs, books, medicines, periodicals, etc," says Sanjay Pahwa, former associate vice president of a religious channel. "There were just a few of them some years ago and they were known as the bhajan and kirtan channels. Now there are many more -there is Aastha, Sanskar, Sadhana, Jagran, Shradha, to name a few," he adds. While pointing out that now channels are tailoring their content to suit requirements of a changing audience, he adds, "It is just about satsangs or religious shows that are aired on such channels but also includes a mix of health shows, lifestyle programming, religious tourism, art and culture to attract a wide cross section of people. Some channels like Aastha are reaching out to the NRIs in US, UK, Canada," he says. Mohammed Asif, senior manager, Tips industries, says that the market for devotional music is the second largest, next to Bollywood music and is growing at a rate of 20-25 per cent per year. "Market figures say that out of every 10,000 copies sold in a day, 40-50 per cent goes to film music, 30-40 per cent to devotional music and rest 20 per cent to classical, qawalli, pop...etc," he adds. Tips is planning on expanding their devotional music section to tap primarily the market in north India and would soon launch a series of music with focus on religion. The cost of running a spiritual channel is comparatively less than an entertainment or news channel. Here most of the content is original given by gurus, so outsourced. This keeps the whole activity a low cost exercise. The advertising rates depend on the time slot and minutes of the advertisement. Apart from this there are other sources of revenue like teleshopping business which channels tap for Ayurvedic or health products. Revealing that spiritual gurus pay money to TV channels to run their programmes, Pahwa says that the Babas’ market has grown tremendously in the last 10-15 years. "There are several gurus who get donations in millions every year. There is no problem with the money, if it is being used right!" Spiritual gurus also promote their products in the satsang or live shows, he adds. There are six known spiritual channels in India right now, so the competition is high. "How would you sell your slot in an 18 hour channel without having the same number of Babas? And with one programme costing between Rs 75 thousand to 1 lakh, the stakes are high," Pahwa adds. There are products like - audio tapes and CDs of satsang, bhajans, kirtans, dhyan, meditation aids including incense sticks, mats, malas (rosaries), books, periodicals and other literature covering various topics such as saadhna, yoga, healthy living, spiritual thought and more...Video DVDs and VCDs of satsangs, festivals and herbal medicines recommended by the Gurus. "The demand for spiritual books on gurus is growing at the rapid pace of 30 per cent per year. Earlier the demand was minimal but in the last 10 years, the sale of books on spiritual thoughts, yoga etc, has touched the sky," says a merchandiser at oxford bookstore. Ravi Kumar, a follower of a spiritual Guru, says that he has complete faith in the products of that Guru's 'ashram' and has benefited from it during the last five years. "I am a monthly subscriber of the books by his (Guru) ashram. I also purchase herbal medicines from the 'shivirs' (camps) in a month and then distribute it amongst the people who are suffering from diseases on a nominal charge. Even I have started practicing like a doctor in my hometown." Growing popularity of these 'Gurus' can be gauged by visiting the camps, where thousands of 'sadhaks' (followers) come to listen to the master and then buy materials, which includes everything from food to books to medicines. Holy places like Mathura, Vrindavan, Haridwar, Hrishikesh are hub of this business where most of the population earn their livelihood by selling products of religious means and they are also a huge market of audio-video cassetts, CDs, VCDs, books. Bureau Report