Spirituality cannot be bought.

"Along the river Beas in North India sits a sprawling spiritual commune that's somewhere between a traditional ashram and a Florida gated community," wrote A Alstedter. "It's home to 8,000 devotees of master: Gurinder Singh Dhillon. His group, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas, says it has more than 4 million followers worldwide. Many call him a God in human form. But in the secular world of money, Dhillon, 64, is a key character in one of the most dramatic collapses in the annals of Indian business: The unraveling of the financial and healthcare empire owned by the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder." "Over the years, the brothers' main holding company loaned Rs 2,500 crore to the Dhillon family property businesses largely controlled by them, according to documents and people familiar with the matter." The brothers sold their pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy to Daiichi of Japan in 2008 for Rs 150 billion. The brothers did not disclose that Ranbaxy was being investigated by the FDA in the US and ended up paying a fine of $500 million in 2013. A tribunal in Singapore upheld a charge of concealing information against the Singh brothers and awarded $550 million to Daiichi. The brothers filed a case in Delhi High Court against the Singapore tribunal but have now been told to pay up. Ranbaxy was built by their grandfather Bhai Mohan Singh and taken over by their father Parvinder. The brothers had sell their house in Lutyens Delhi to their uncle Analjit for Rs 1.85 billion. A private equity firm Siguler Guff & Co have a 6% stake in Religare Finvest Ltd. It has filed a case in Delhi High Court accusing the brothers of "diversion, siphoning and digression of assets" and charge that the Singhs "are engaged in systematically plundering" Finvest. Why are the brothers in such a mess? A property boom in 2010 presented an opportunity for instant wealth. "The Singhs' resources were marshaled to help the Dhillon family build a real-estate empire. Two companies, Prius Real Estate Pvt. Ltd and Lowe Infra and Wellness Pvt Ltd were set up by people close to the guru, and although partly hidden by layers of shell companies, the Dhillon family had ownership interests in both, people familiar with the matter say and filings show. Over the next two years, these firms together received about Rs 2,000 crore in zero-interest loans from the Singhs' private holding company or its subsidiaries..." At least the brothers were not castrated for buying property as another guru Ram Rahim Singh did to his followers. 'Guru' means 'teacher' and are meant to show the path to spiritual salvation. Sadly, some of them are charlatans. Although not a case of 'shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations' the story of Singh brothers has salutary lessons.