Religion, especially if taken too seriously, can be dangerous. It can serve as the perfect mask to hide your sins; it can lead to visions of self-righteousness. Religion is of course, at least in my view, different from being spiritual. By forcing yourself to be religious, you can give some direction to your life, that is, if you feel you need one in the first place. And then again, being over-zealous can lead to acts of insanity, enough to vilify the person for life. So somewhere in between this fine line, mankind created the moniker of Godman, who, unsurprisingly, shall serve as a liaison between the mortal and the immortal soul. God's own man! I would love to have that on my visiting card. Unfortunately, that one line is all that can be said about most godmen peddling their trade around these days, not in a positive way.
So what are they actually doing? Some like Terry Jones, a pastor in a conservative church at Gainesville, Florida, believe it is a sin to practice Islam, and in his own mind, advises his followers that by physically burning the Koran, a strong message can be sent to the fundamentalists out there. In the process, he has provided sufficient ammunition to the evangelists. Then, there's the kind of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of JuD, operating out of his personal fiefdom in Pakistan. To him, not believing in Islam equals blasphemy, and as Allah says (though it is hard to come up with specific quotes), death shall rein on the blasphemous. Oh, and he also master-minded the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, where innocent passengers awaiting boarding their train were slaughtered in cold blood. Surely they must have sinned, because he had the terrorists believe so. Innocent lives were taken, children silenced forever, before they could even discover God and create their own impressions of his creation. It is a shame that people are being misled by religious venom spouted endlessly to satisfy the selfish needs of a few.
And then we come to our Godmen. The ones who wake you up in the morning with an addictive (to those undergoing the midlife crisis) concoction of yoga and Bhagwad Geeta. Some go the extra mile and add a song-and-dance routine. Early morning entertainment the way only India can dish out. And then there are those who call themselves reincarnations, who profess their self-connect to the almighty and establish themselves as a legit channel of absolving sins and purging past lives. One such god, Shri Sathya Sai Baba, breathed his last yesterday, and the sky came crashing down. I had a rather horrid introduction to his gospel. If I remember correctly, sometime in the year 2000, India Today carried a headline on the alleged sexual misconduct and abuses being carried out in his asharam. While the details are too fuzzy to pinpoint, it carried interviews of devotees-turned-disbelievers, who claimed to the extent of homosexual abuse at the hand of baba. Not a good line to read if you are 12 years old (it raises too many questions which don't get answered up to 4 years later). As it turned out, the charges were never proved and the sensation-craving media moved on to match-fixing. The second introduction to baba's gospel came when we shifted to our current house and a family in the neighborhood started weekly kirtans dedicated to the Sathya Sai baba. And did the ladies of the colony flock!
Somehow, even though we heard his praise from all quarters, replete with anecdotes of his magical vibhuti having cured grave illnesses, Baba's image had been torn in my mind. The importance of a good first impression! So knowing him through news articles and hearing about him from talkative aunties may not be the best way to form strong impressions about a revered personality. And then came the news of baba's life strength being sapped after a prolonged period of illness. While he succumbed to geriatric problems, questions and conspiracy theories arose in the sensationalist media. As it turns out, while baba was one of the foremost philanthropists and social worker in India, his Sathya Sai central trust being responsible for numerous noble initiatives, baba could not live up to his word. Calling yourself a reincarnation of an earlier personality is safe, because really, it is like dissecting a dead fish and finding out the source of the weed that trapped her. But predicting your own demise and then a reincarnation, complete with details of location and caste, is an altogether different ballgame. Baba died 11 years too soon. The rationalists cry victory. Now the sceptics are out in full force and it is safe to say that the aforementioned location shall be at the center of the attention of Baba's devotees.
While the concept of a human calling him/herself God is beyond my comprehension, why go to those extremes in the first place. Are you trying to say that the all powerful almighty wasn't strong enough and so he sent interlocutors? Or that Science, which definitely cannot prove everything but surely offer a train of thought, can be subverted by the magic of these Godmen. If anything, Sai Baba should be remembered for his noble causes and the lives he benefited. 10-year olds don't wail for nothing, so he did have a profound impact on millions of humans. In the end, it essentially boils down to human insecurities, which prompt us to look for escapes and bunkers. And in a materialist world, these are attractive professions. So you have one Godman after the other exposed, some even charged with acts of communal violence. However, a few Godmen, who know the difference between God and man, can usher in positive changes. Maybe God comes knocking at our door right when we get into the shower. And then comes the Godman!
I wish we could somehow prove this guy wrong conclusively!
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