The season of Kanwarias, with annually increasing thousands of devotees transporting holy Ganga water to their towns and villages, is upon us once again. While the seemingly innocent faith of the walkers seems admirable it is also an increasing nuisance to other road users disrupted by this annual migration. This raucous religiosity is a far cry from quiet spirituality of true religion. Few things can be less religious than the difficulties the aggressive Kanwarias make for school children or mourners who wish to take the ashes of their departed relatives for immersion in the Ganges.

This custom was unknown a decade ago but now seems to have become a popular act of public piety in which both the devotees as well as supporters providing them with food, refreshments and shelter feel that they will gain ’punya’ or good Karma for a better next life. To complicate matters, professional priests who flourish in the religious frenzy encourage numerous sit-at-home donors to hire the Kanwarias to earn punya by proxy for them.

Professional priests of all religions have for many centuries exploited gullible devotees persuading them that numerous heavenly or otherworldly rewards are available to them in exchange for donations to the religious order, pilgrimages, fasts or other sacrifices or austerities. With surprising speed, many new religious customs develop. Soon even to less credulous succumb to the comfort of going with the current rather than face the threatened wrath of the heavens, the priests or the public by challenging the authenticity of new customs or defying the demands of devotees.

Paradoxically such demands were seldom the commands of the sages, prophets or founders of any religion. None of them had asked for temples, mosques or churches let alone the colourful trappings or demonstrations of religion with sacred robes, triumphant flags or colourful processions. But power corrupts and the priests of every faith are easily intoxicated by the power that presiding at religious demonstrations gives them. With amazing speed, the social and moral core ideas of the founders become lost in an ocean of meaningless rituals and elaborate superstitions. At this stage outward form becomes more important then inner substance and religiosity masquerades as religion.

But curiously, it is at this stage of the most feverish religiosity that religions come to the stage of collapse. New reformers disgusted with empty rituals, subversive superstitions and the arrogance of the priests broke away from the old orders to become the founders of new faiths. Zoroastura and Buddha, disgusted with the gigantic sacrifices of the old Avestan and Vedic priests founded simple new faiths. Jesus, horrified by the excesses of priests who had made the Jewish house of prayer into a den of thieves founded Christianity. Muhammad, appalled by the rituals and offerings to 365 idols at the Kaaba founded Islam. Martin Luther appalled by the ridiculous ’indulgences’ of Catholic priests offering places in heaven in exchange for lavish donations and sacrifices founded Protestantism. Guru Nanak contemptuous of the empty rituals of Brahmanism founded Sikhism. Dayanand Saraswati equally disturbed by Brahmin excesses, founded the Arya Samaj to try to bring Hinduism back to the purity of the original Vedic concepts.

But the insidious influence of ritual and superstition is hard to eradicate. There remain many millions of insecure or gullible people everywhere who are easy prey to self-professed spiritual guides and mendicants. Rituals, penances, processions and offerings packaged as joyous distractions cost much less than the effort of understanding and practicing the moral, social and philosophical tenets of any religion. So, despite the setbacks populist priests and charlatans thrive while ritual and superstition have crept into all the practiced forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and other faiths.

But ritual and superstition seem triumphant in India today so perhaps we are about to enter the age of Kalki where the final incarnation of Vishnu will rise to rescue the world from chaos.