How long can the country let the bogus Babas play with our dignity and eat into our bodies, minds and soulsIJ It's a long way ahead till we have strong and honest political leadership; till we get enlightened and educated; till we have more judges with integrity and guts
Soon after the pronouncement of sentence against Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was convicted in a rape case, Jagdeep Singh, the proficient, tough and upright judge with a ‘no nonsense’ attitude, became a hero. Indeed, Singh needs to be applauded for his ruling, but should the judiciary be applauded tooIJ Absolutely not.
The reason: Why did it take the judiciary 15 years to wake upIJ By doing this, did they not give additional years to the godman to play with more lives and amass more wealth and powerIJ
As if this wasn’t enough, the self-styled spiritual guru Ram Rahim arrived for the verdict in a motorcade of about 200 cars with bodyguards protecting him.
Additionally, the Dera chief was given ‘Z’ category security. Imagine the kind of patronage he enjoyed. Above all, what is bewildering is the blindness of the followers, which became evident soon after the special Central Bureau of Investigation court delivered its verdict. Instead of rejoicing that ‘justice was finally done’, the Dera followers resorted to violence and disrupted peace.
In a country where Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Guru Nanak fought against social evils and superstitions, isn’t it a disgrace to see an army of lunatics supporting self-styled godmenIJ
Isn’t it time that the counterfeit ‘Bapus’, ‘Bhagwans’, ‘Babas’, ‘Maharajas’, ‘Swamis’ and ‘Mahatamas’ be taken to taskIJ Such people have amassed billions of dollars of wealth and have taken crooked paths to become watchdogs of religion. Indeed, the business of marketing ‘spirituality’ is lucrative as it rests on the naivete of the illiterate and the superstitious. Most people go to ashrams and so-called religious places out of fear than out of faith.
These phony godmen take advantage of this fear and market their brand of spirituality to the vulnerable. The biggest strength of such people is the weak-minded, frustrated and desperate followers who fall prey to their hypnotic spell. People get hypnotised by deceptive skills which the Babas conveniently call ‘miracles’. These ‘billionaire Babas’ have hoarded inconceivable amounts of wealth because of such deceitful skills.
To explain the blind faith the devotees have in such babas, I will narrate a fable I heard.
A merchant used to sell clothes door-to-door. He used to carry the bundle of clothes on his head that was rather heavy and tiresome. On the way to the village, he used to rest at a temple. Once, the priest of the temple took pity on the man and said, “I have a donkey, I will gift it to you. It will carry your load and make life easier.”
The merchant accepted the offer and went about selling his merchandise happily with the load on the donkey.
Unfortunately, a few days later, the donkey died.
Out of gratitude towards the donkey, he created a memorial. He lit a lamp, a few incense sticks and was chanting holy verses. As he was paying his last respects to the donkey, a passer-by, who was a wealthy man, and who was having some problems in his family, saw this tomb and stopped over to seek blessings from the divine soul and make a wish. Coincidently, his wish came true and his problems got solved. He attributed this miracle to the blessings received at the tomb.
So, he went to the village and announced to everybody the news of his good fortune. The whole village came over to celebrate the divinity of the tomb. They made donations and very soon built a huge temple at the spot. Soon, the owner of the donkey, the merchant, who by default became the priest of the temple, became a very wealthy man himself. One day, the older priest, who had gifted the donkey to this merchant, was passing by the temple and saw the rush and donations flowing in.
He went inside and recognised the merchant. He asked, “Who is this divine soul whose memorial you have built which is generating so much wealth for youIJ” The merchant said, “I’m just telling you in confidence and please keep it to yourself. This memorial is of the same donkey you had gifted to me.” He then asked the old priest, “But tell me, the memorial that you had built, which divine soul does that belong toIJ” The priest said, “I’m just telling you in confidence and please keep it to yourself. That one belongs to this donkey’s mother”.
The above story may not be true but there is lot of truth in it. It may not be out of place to say that we are blindly worshiping donkeys disguised as godmen. You can lead an educated person but not enslave him. Followers are literally hypnotised and enslaved by these conmen.
The big question is: How long will we let the bogus Babas play with our dignity and eat into our bodies, minds and soulsIJ The answer is simple: Till we don’t have strong and honest political leadership; till we don’t have the will to bring educational awareness; till we don’t get enlightened; till we don’t have more judges with integrity and guts.
(The writer is an author)