How Religion Can Provide A Host of Jobs!

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

05 March 2026

" The most common job for school graduates or dropouts these days in Punjab is that of a ' reciter of scriptures.' Easy money, no rating, respect, and everything else including scope for marriage."

(A retd. Professor of English who taught at Punjab University)

Got to say, a very insightful observation!

In these mediocre and over-religious times, there're a few tailor-made jobs for the utterly useless people. They become kathavaachak (pracharak, preachers), babas, gurus, astrologers and finally politicians because politics is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Now religion and pseudo-spirituality provide more jobs than education does. That's the reason priesthood, politics and prostitution are the oldest professions in the world.

When religiosity increases, superstitions crop up as religion and superstitions are Siamese twins. Astrology is the biggest superstition of the new millennium. There's a tsunami of ubiquitous astrologers on YouTube. Their outlandish predictions will amuse sane people but frighten the ignorant masses. Most of the clairvoyants have appeared like toad-stools. These people are good for nothing but they know how to hoodwink the credulous masses. People are ready to be taken for a ride. Seeing all Hindu astrologers doing very well and minting money, now Muslim and Sikh astrologers have also jumped on the bandwagon because Muslim awaam (masses) find it difficult to relate to Shani, Mangal, Gochar, Dasha, Mahadasha etc. of Hindu or Vedic astrology. So, Muslim astrologers and nujoomis have emerged on the horizon like saviours for the ummah (the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion) who suggest recitation of certain Quranic verses as remedies in spite of the fact that Islam doesn't approve of astrology or ilm-e-nujoom.

All these astrologers have memorised certain mantras and tantras. They use those mantras and recondite terminology quite skillfully. Irrational people are mighty impressed by these voluble charlatans. Some of them show their dubious degrees in astrology to make you believe in their mumbo-jumbo. Mind you, all these degrees are fake. Astrology is a huge deception but it's a source of sustenance for many unscrupulous individuals. It's a business and nothing else. By the way, astrology, now called Vedic astrology, is taught as a subject at academic institutes in India! There's one All India Institute of Occult Science, registered under the government of NCT of Delhi. It offers courses in Vastu, Astrology, Tarot Card Reading, Numerology, Palmistry, Reiki, Graphology and Yog. Barring Yog (not Yoga), all other spheres are pretty amorphous, obscure and dubious.    

Preachers like Aniruddhacharya, Jaya Kishori and their ilk know that people are eternally god-fearing. So, they trade upon the gullibility of a very big section of religious morons, esp women.

Those preachers who know a smattering of English and can mouth platitudes like soul, transcendence, satori, enlightenment and all that jazz, emulate already established Jaggi, Ravi Shankar, Deepak Chopra, among others.

Hindi and vernacular-limited rustic babas like Narendra Swami and Bageshwar Dhaam baba resort to cheap tricks and impress the village and town folks at their will.

All these people are not capable of doing anything worthwhile in an honest way. So, they become babas, preachers, granthis and astrologers and earn much more than those people who're educated and honest.

To encapsulate, all you need is an uncanny knack for exploring the vistas and dimensions of religion, rest assured, you'll not be jobless. In these times of widespread unemployment, preaching, predicting and reciting religious texts can be exciting ideas. Bottomline is, religion is not always bad. After all, there's nothing so bad that there's not some good in it!

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.

URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religion-can-provide-host-job/d/139123

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