Spotlight

Spiritual communion in Bangalore

Bangalore pre-dominantly an IT hub has now metamorphosised into a spiritual hub. Priya Krishnaswamy checks out the spiritual scene

Since the aurora of human time, people have characterised certain places as being hallowed or sacred. Bangalore which was once an IT hub has slowly developed into a spiritual hub as well. The multi-faceted perceptions of people have brought together all of the pivot beliefs under one roof. Spiritual gurus Sri Satya Sai Baba, Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar and Mata Amritanandamayi together with the mass gatherings at Sravanabelagola culminated the spiritual metamorphosis in the city.

Basking in the glory

The city's five star hotels have seen such steep tariff raises that they are the third-most expensive in the world after Moscow and Rome, according to a survey conducted by Business Travel International (BTI), a corporate travel management company. Despite this fact, it was a Herculean task to find accommodation in any of the hotels, star or no star, in Bangalore in the month of February. The 1,600 luxury rooms in the five-star categories were sadly inadequate for the blast in demand, not to mention the other economy and budget hotels.

Anticipating the shortage of rooms, most of these independent organisations had made arrangements to house the devotees. A large number of temporary sheds, tents were erected to accommodate the floating population.

The Mahamastaka Abhisheka Mahostva Committee had made arrangements to house over 35,000 devotees. Kamal Gopinath, media co-ordinator, says, "Since there were people who kept moving in and out, we were able to handle the crowd. Also, the devotees stayed in nearby towns and villages and a few at Bangalore."

If Bangalore hosted the 2.5 million devotees for the Mahamastaka Abhisheka, how then did the 2.5 million find place in the same city during the same time frame? The capacity of the city had stretched to unimaginable dimensions. Reny Choudhury of Le Meridien says, "We have had 110 per cent occupancy for the last two months. Being geographically close to the Jakkur Aerodrome where the Art of Living organisation celebrated its silver jubilee, it made dignitaries opt for the hotel to avoid delay to reach the place due to traffic constraints." Preethi Varma of ITC Windsor Sheraton shares her thoughts, "The hotel is booked to capacity."

Meanwhile, the western part of the city catered to the devotees of Mata Amritananda Mayi. Brahmachari Das from the organisation says, "There were about 80,000 to over one lakh devotees who came to Amma during the three-day stay in Bangalore. Most of them are residents of the city. Since Amma is travelling within Karnataka, we did not have many people from outside the city. Thus we did not have any need to erect any form of temporary accommodation." Reshma Dash from the Royal Orchid adds, "We have had bookings for these particular dates in February some eight months back and having to tell people that all rooms are booked almost became a habit this season."

Choc-a-bloc

The eastern part of the city that hosted devotees of Sri Satya Sai Baba also saw no mess with accommodation. "Since Sai Baba visits Whitefield at regular intervals, people are usually housed in comfortable places in and around the area. Most of them reside in Bangalore city and we usually do not erect any extra accommodation for devotees unless it is a festival. Over Sai Baba's one month stay in Whitefield, we have had a regular flow of over 5,000 people each day, with a little more crowd during weekends," says an official from the Sri Satya Sai Central Trust.

Although room rates range between Rs 1,000 (in an economy hotel) to Rs 10,000 at a five-star hotel, it has not stopped devotees from flocking to Bangalore. K Narayanan from the AOL ashram says, "We had close to 2.5 million people from all over the world attending the jubilee celebrations. Our ashram can accommodate only a humble 6,000. The rest of them were made comfortable in hotels around the city. In addition, we had made booking of various choultries, schools and colleges. The dignitaries were hosted in five-star hotels. A large number of devotees were cordial enough to entertain other fellow devotees in their houses."

First it was IT, and now spirituality. Bangalore is evidently basking in the glory and experiencing another booming phase in the hospitality sector.