Religious Brand Equity

I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic, but after experiencing and knowing the commercialisation of religion I couldn't stop myself from writing this. It may be blasphemous but sorry people these are the most honest views that I have about religion of the day.

In today's economy, religion is a best-seller. Oil prices, inflation, recession, world economy taking turns, stock markets' upheaval none of it has even a miniscule impact on the Religion Inc. Although there are no statistics available but surely it is an industry that continues to grow, at a rate surpassing each year.

I happened to attend an economics lecture in first year of engineering and the professor discussed the B-Plan of a replica of Vaishno Devi temple in Ahmedabad. Realising the profits the temple generated, the conceiver (read owner) of the idea was planning another replica-temple in the region. Moral of the story, religion is serious business.

I have utmost respect to the religious organisations who work for the benefit of the society, education, up-bringing of orphans etc, but at the same time there are many which, under the name of religion, make a mockery of it. There are religious communities and sects who have started branding themselves with marketing concepts- take 4Ps for instance.

Product Differentiation: Promote themselves as having the largest pure gold idol of god
Place: Provide comforty ambience to people, amusement parks in the temple premises, food courts
Price: Although there is usually no entry fee in temples, but most of the times people are lured into religious acts by the priests (read marketing executives) and made to shell out a large amount.
Promotion: There is no major temple or a religious body in India which doesn't have a website of its own.

And this is not the end of it. Temples and their managing organisations have tied up with banks for online donations, prasad delivery and even booking for an early meeting (read skipping the queue) with the almighty. The money that goes into this religious system is hardly accounted for and probably parallel money or another RBI is running across the country.

Adding to it, religion is also keeping pace with any other business domain in the world. If globalisation is the most talked about issue in the world, religion is not lagging behind. Temples are going global with their branches (read offices) opening in major cities of the world, with headquarter of course in India. With revenues and forex pouring in from all over the world, when the rupee rises against the dollar certainly temples must be getting a hit in their annual balance sheet and forex reserves depleting each time rupee weakens.

What's in store for us?
In years to come, we may find online temples where the GenNext would pay homage to the god by click of a button on a PAID internet website. We may find temples getting into shopping malls, or there may be temples branding themselves as Lifestyle products and targeting niche clientele.

I know it is exaggeration but still is it the religion that we believe in, and is it worth believing in the same? Is it necessary for us to have an organised religion? Or is it just another version of Hawala or a parallel money market?

I personally don't disbelieve in religion, or the religious practices. But for god's sake can't the caretakers of religion keep it clean?

A Day Full Of Life

Even before coming to Bhubaneswar, I had discussed about a trip to Puri and thought of reaching XIMB a day or two earlier and visiting the place. But many things don’t happen in life as desired and most good things that happen are not planned in advance.

The idea of an excursion to Puri started with a mail seeking biking enthusiasts to join a group. The idea supposedly got attention of almost the entire batch and it turned out into a PGP-1 trip to Konark and Puri. The entire batch was all set to have a day full of life coincidently on the “Friendship Day.”

The CulReps n CRs planned out an itinerary and the first destination was Chandrabhaga Beach to catch the first rays of the sun. We were supposed to start from campus at 0300 hrs, but managed to start at around 0400 hrs and missed those first rays by 15-20 minutes. By the time sun was way above the horizon illuminating the clouds. I had never seen a sunrise at the sea, although had a chance at Palolem Beach in Goa, but preferred sleeping.

Anyways, the sight of a beach after a long time was captivating. This was the first time I was at the eastern coastline of India, the Bay of Bengal. All the beaches I had been to were on the western coast, the Arabian Sea. It is difficult to contain one’s emotions and excitement at the beach. And actually nobody cared about the clothes getting wet or changing the wet clothes and went into the sea, believe me it was fun. There were people with me who were at a beach for the first time in life and I can’t really imagine the ecstasy. We spent around an hour on the Chandrabhaga Beach and then moved towards the Konark Temple.

What I like the most about the ancient temples and monuments is their architecture and the creativity. Konark Temple was built in 1250 A.D. and is a World Heritage Site. We had guide with us before entering the temple premises and he started telling the history of the site. I tried listening, concentrated but wasn’t able to pick his lingo. I still don’t know how the temple relates to Sun apart from the fact that it depicts a chariot with 24 wheels, each representing an hour of the day. The temple seems to be inspired from Kamasutra, with sculptures in various amorous poses on all the main walls. I bet Hugh Hefner is reincarnation of an Indian King of that era. Even Playboy isn’t that erotic as the sensuous poses carved on the stone structure. Indians are ahead of Americans by 8 centuries. But at the same time, it is the art and the architecture that values the most. The symmetry, the size of the rocks, the perfection makes the temple astonishing and not to forget the fact that it was built in the age when there were no machines and cranes.

After the Konark temple, we took a break at Yatri Nivas, changed clothes and headed towards Puri. The marine drive was marvellous. We then reached Jagannath Temple regarded as one of the four most sacred Hindu pilgrimages in India. We were advised not to speak to the priests in the temple. The temple is known world over for the Rath Yatra, and the English word juggernaut originates from Jagannath. We spent some time in the temple had Prasad and was time for moving to the Puri beach. At times I feel the temples should never become commercial centres and whenever that happens I think it transforms into a business centre rather than remaining a place of god.

We spent the entire day at the Puri beach. The golden sand, cool breeze, rising waves, clouds what else to expect and rain added to the party. It was all about struggling to stay at a place in the waves, making groups and challenging the incoming waves to be washed away to the shore and standing up to the sea again. It was fun, adventure, enjoyment and tons of other adjectives...

Every cloud has a silver lining; there were clouds with more vibrant colours as we left the place. The entire batch went into hibernation on the return journey back to the college. The day is unforegettable and will remain very special to me.