Impressionable Souls: Why Fans and Followers Are Never Truly Yours
In today's world of social media, celebrity culture, and
instant fame, millions chase followers, fans, and public admiration as though
these were the ultimate measures of worth and success. People gather around
someone today, celebrate them, call themselves devoted supporters — and
tomorrow, with equal enthusiasm, they move on to someone newer, shinier, and
more exciting. This is not a modern problem. Hindu thought has addressed this
deeply rooted human tendency for thousands of years, identifying it as a symptom
of the restless, unsteady mind caught in the cycles of Maya and Tamas.
The Impressionable Mind — Chanchala and Chanchalata
The Bhagavad Gita directly speaks to this restlessness of
the human mind. In Chapter 6, verse 34, Arjuna himself confesses to Krishna:
"The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very
strong, O Krishna, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than
controlling the wind."
This restlessness — called Chanchalata — is precisely what
drives people from one admiration to another. A person who is easily impressed
by you today carries within them the very same impressionable quality that will
draw them toward someone else tomorrow. The capacity for deep, steady loyalty
requires a trained, disciplined mind. Most people, living at the surface of
their awareness, simply do not possess this. They are moved by novelty,
spectacle, and crowd energy — not by genuine understanding or inner connection.
Maya — The Great Illusion of Belonging
Hinduism teaches that the world of appearances is governed
by Maya — the cosmic illusion that makes temporary things appear permanent and
superficial connections feel deeply real. When followers gather around a
person, both the followed and the follower fall into the trap of Maya. The
person being followed believes they have earned loyalty. The follower believes
they have found truth. Both are mistaken.
The Vivekachudamani, the celebrated text of Adi
Shankaracharya, warns repeatedly that attachment to the world of appearances
leads only to suffering. Fame, admiration, and public approval are among the
most seductive and most unstable of all worldly attachments precisely because
they depend entirely on the perceptions of others — perceptions that are always
shifting.
The Crowd and the Concept of Tamasic Consciousness
Hindu philosophy classifies human consciousness into three
Gunas — Sattva (clarity and purity), Rajas (passion and restlessness), and
Tamas (inertia and delusion). Crowd behavior — the impulse to follow popular
figures, to be swept up in collective enthusiasm, to jump from one idol to
another — is deeply Tamasic and Rajasic in nature. It is driven not by wisdom
or discernment but by stimulation, novelty, and the need to belong.
The Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 18, verse 32, describes Tamasic
understanding as one that:
"Accepts Adharma as Dharma and sees all things
perverted — that understanding, O Arjuna, is born of Tamas."
Followers who are attracted purely by surface impressions —
charisma, appearance, popularity — are operating from this lower level of
consciousness. They mistake entertainment for wisdom and presence for truth.
Bhagavan Krishna's Own Experience
Even Bhagavan Krishna, the source of all wisdom and the very
embodiment of the Divine, was not spared from this human inconsistency. The
same crowds that celebrated him in Mathura (criticized him for constant war with Jarasandha) and Dwarka (forgot his teaching & divinity and fought and killed themselves) were often fickle in
their devotion. The Mahabharata repeatedly shows how people followed power,
convenience, and advantage rather than genuine Dharma. Those who stood by
Krishna steadily — Arjuna through knowledge, Sudama through love, the Gopis
through pure devotion — were the rare exceptions, not the rule.
This itself is one of the most profound teachings hidden
within the Mahabharata. Even the Divine does not command unconditional loyalty
from the masses. What then can an ordinary human being expect?
Bhakti — The Only Antidote to Fleeting Devotion
The Bhagavata Purana draws a clear distinction between
superficial devotion and true Bhakti. Navavidha Bhakti — the nine forms of
devotion — begins with Shravana (sincere listening) and progresses through
stages that demand commitment, consistency, and inner transformation. True
devotion is not about being excited by someone. It is about being transformed
by them.
The fleeting fan or follower has never truly listened. They
have only been entertained. The moment the entertainment stops, so does the
following.
Modern Day Relevance
Social media influencers rise and fall within months.
Political leaders who command millions of votes are forgotten within a single
term. Spiritual teachers who attract enormous crowds often find those same
crowds dissolving when the next charismatic voice appears. This is the digital
age expression of an ancient truth that Hindu thought identified long before
algorithms existed.
The person who chases followers for validation is building
on sand. The person who chases inner truth, Dharma, and genuine contribution is
building on rock. One collapses at the first wave of novelty. The other stands
regardless of who is watching.
Life Lessons from Hindu Wisdom
The teachings are clear and practical. Do not mistake
attention for affection, or popularity for purpose. Do not allow the size of
your following to define your sense of worth, because that following is held
together by nothing more stable than common curiosity. Cultivate instead the
qualities that attract Sattvic connection — depth, consistency, truth, and
genuine service.
As the Bhagavad Gita teaches in Chapter 2, verse 70:
"A person who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the
threefold miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free
from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind."
The one who is free from the need for admiration is the one who will always be worthy of it.
Fans and followers are not a measure of greatness. They are a mirror of collective restlessness. Hindu philosophy does not ask us to reject people or become bitter about their fickleness. It asks us instead to understand the nature of the unsteady mind, to have compassion for it, and to invest our energy not in gathering crowds but in deepening our own sincerity, wisdom, and Dharmic purpose. That alone endures. Everything else is, as the Upanishads remind us, Anitya — impermanent.