The Business of Religion

The Business of Religion

The expose into the activities of a self-proclaimed godman has once again brought to the forefront the role of religion in our lives. If self-realization could be had in a matter of days, this would be a different planet. By my reckoning, yesterday’s incidents would have turned quite a few into agnostics if not atheists and some into criminals. The surprise is not so much what the debased person was doing but the fact that thousands of people from around the world were fooled into believing that here was a shortcut to salvation – and please remember a significant proportion of the “followers” happened to be educated and rich.

Public memory is short. The head of one of the widely respected shrines in South India is facing a murder charge. Of course with top politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists among the followers, you can be rest assured that nothing will happen to the case.

Consider another godman in whose premises a young person died under mysterious circumstances. Since the then President of India happened to be an ardent follower of the godman the issue was quietly buried. The godman also ran away when confronted by a person with a “gun”. Surely that was an ideal occasion to demonstrate one’s godliness by stopping the bullet on the lines of the protagonist in Matrix!

Yet another godman who has followers in over a hundred countries has a record that does no credit to anyone leave alone to those who claim to be spiritual gurus. Again, with all the top leaders falling head over heels to prostrate before such self-serving hypocrites, nothing will ever come out of any of the pending cases.

Just two days back a TV channel showed a new godman who apparently turned mud into crystal sugar and distributed special rings to chosen followers. David Blaine with his street magic can do better than that.

Then there are the numerous semi-godmen who control unimaginable wealth and property, and under the façade of education or some social activity, practically rule the country through their politician followers.

Why are we as gullible as a nation? As one cynic has pointed out, the more you sin, the more you are attracted to religious shrines and self-proclaimed spiritual gurus. If your conscience is clear, you don’t need to go anywhere nor do you need to worship anyone. At the end of the day, the quest for self-realization is a lonely journey. It can never be a mass movement. If you have doubts, read the scriptures of any religion before you jump on to the bandwagon. Simpler still, be honest, speak the truth and just do your duty. Nothing more is required to understand the ultimate truth.

What is the solution? For a start, I would suggest that anyone claiming to have supernatural or paranormal powers should immediately be put to the test in three independent laboratories and asked to demonstrate their “powers” under controlled conditions. If anyone is successful (doubtful) we can say a new messiah has arrived. If not, without much ado, such persons must be placed behind bars for life and subjected to hard labor.

Agreed it sounds harsh but the alternative is that we will never move forward as a nation. Let us resolve to get rid of superstitions and beliefs that have no basis and concentrate on improving the lives of a billion people. That would be more godly than anything that the godmen are doing.

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