It pays to be a guru in India. Given the jewellery Dera Sacha Sauda’s Ram Rahim Singh adorns, he could eliminate the scourge of dowry from India for all times to come. His legions of devotees could tilt the scales in India’s favour in a war against China, and none other than the Prime Minister of India has paid him his respects on several occasions. The list of godlike gurus is long. Nirmal Baba, Asaram Bapu, Swami Nithyananda, Radhe Maa, Sri Sri Ravishankar, and many more. Some caught for criminal offences, some law-abiding, and some yet to be caught, but all of them rich, powerful, and highly enviable.

Given these desirable characteristics, a how-to manual on becoming a guru should do good business. There are some on the internet. They suggest tools ranging from developing a deep voice and faking magic tricks to mastering equivocation and performing perfunctory philanthropy. Difficult as they may sound and essential as they are, these tools, even if mastered, will fail to bring about the desired results, for the prerequisite of becoming a successful guru often lies beyond conscious effort, in a medically-recognised psychiatric disorder, known as the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

In a nutshell, NPD is the age-old wisdom, ‘believe in yourself’, taken too far. NPD stands in stark contrast to the only moderately unhealthy social media-induced self-love. Sufferers of NPD are pathologically self-obsessed, seek constant attention and admiration, demand blind obedience and, most dangerously, have unquestioned faith in their abilities and righteousness of their pursuits. They often consider themselves “the chosen one”, sent upon earth to fulfil a larger purpose, and their faith implies that anyone, and everyone, who gets in their way, is expendable. To the NPD-afflicted, a simple thank you is an act of prostration, a lover is a worshipper, a well-wisher is a lackey, and a disagreement is rebellion. There is widespread consensus among psychiatrists that most cult gurus suffer from NPD.

To outsiders, they often lie, fake and con their way into becoming rich and powerful. But to chronic narcissists and their devotees, the most laughable gimmicks are hardcore realities, and the most egregious crimes much-needed chastisements. If they’re not, they’re easily justified as aberrations on the way to a perfect whole.  So, when Donald Trump wows to Make America Great Again, there’s a good chance he’s not a pathological liar but a pathological narcissist who actually believes in his mission. Similarly, when Ram Rahim Singh claims to be MSG (Messenger of God), says he has excelled in 32 sports and trained Virat Kohli and Vijender Singh, gained mastery over several languages “without having learnt them”, is a feminist and an “emperor of melodies”, on most occasions he doesn’t have the mental bandwidth to realise he’s lying. There are more sinister examples too. In his book Under The Banner of Heaven, author Jon Krakauer tells the story of Ron Lafferty, who brutally murdered a mother and her young daughter on the pretext of a “removal revelation” he “received from God”. Lafferty was diagnosed with NPD, but found mentally fit to stand trial. It’s perfectly possible that narcissists often lie and commit crimes with full knowledge of their acts, but to them, these are necessary evils needed to achieve the larger purpose. Psychiatrists have gone to the extent of labelling NPD-tainted personalities as ‘false self’.

Going beyond cult gurus, NPD has also been the defining personality trait of Adolf Hitler and several other famous political/religious leaders. The unflinching self-belief and conviction in their words and deeds is what allowed these NPD legends to build a massive fan following. Magic, drugs and lies came later. The fans provide what’s known as ‘narcissistic supply’ – an unceasing dosage of adulation where the narcissists and their most devout followers fail to recognise the debilitating emotional and physical abuse that often forms the crux of their relationship. This is exactly what Ram Rahim Singh’s rape victim meant when, in her letter, she accused her family of being too smitten by him to help her out. Worse, another of his female followers claimed that getting raped by him would “purify” her. If Ram Rahim Singh raped and allegedly castrated his followers, Hitler wanted Germans to die for losing the war and several religious leaders deemed apostasy fit for death. Thus, devotion is no guarantee against incurring the wrath of a narcissist.

It’s hard to pinpoint the mechanism by which fan bases are built. Some point to the existence of the very first fans, christened ‘inverted narcissists’ (another disorder that makes its sufferers put up with limitless abuse at the hands of the narcissist), who help spread the narcissist’s influence. It could also have something to do with another psychiatric syndrome called ‘Folie à deux’ (The Folly of Two) or ‘Folie à plusieurs’ (The Folly of Many), where two or more people share delusional beliefs that spread to others rapidly. Perhaps this could also explain the foundation and spread of several major religions. Some of the most revered religion-founders are exemplars of NPD, who spent their time claiming communion with God and emerged as the self-proclaimed earthly conduit for God’s message. In time, they went from being the conduit to the message themselves, even as God was reduced to their alter ego. The handful of followers that they started with slowly grew into millions, even billions.

There is no vaccination, no cure of NPD. Worse, political leaders often ingratiate themselves to crazy, delusional narcissists, without being blind like their devotees. If Hitler had Chamberlain and Daladier, Ram Rahim had, and still has, the blessings of India’s top leaders. Perhaps the only defence against NPD is the sanity and rationality of the gullible masses, who often lose it in the face of a charm offensive by narcissists. That sounds like a precarious defence indeed.