Himanshu Guru
‘Spiritual leaders’ who proclaim they can ameliorate all human misery and command unquestioning devotion from legions of frenzied admirers are contributing to superstition and bigotry rather than plugging the prevailing spiritual vacuum
As many as 25 people were killed in a stampede near Rajghat bridge on the border of Varanasi and Chandauli districts Saturday when followers of Jai Gurudev were walking in a huge procession at an event organised to create awareness about vegetarianism and prohibition. It is not the first case of a religious gathering facing tragedy. In Orissa too devotees have met different kinds of accidents at religious ceremonies in the not-too-distant past. People have been cheated by self-proclaimed religious leaders like Sarathi Baba and Sura Baba who are now languishing in jail. Devotion is pure, but when the same gets mixed with bigotry and people start acting according to the precepts of so-called religious leaders without caring to think rationally, the situation can turn a tad odd. Orissa POST seeks opinions of youngsters on the issue.
Ashis Kumar Sahu is a banker based in Bhubaneswar. He is deeply religious but his devotion is limited to the doctrines of Hindu philosophy. He says he doesn’t have time to run behind a guru. “My father is my Guru. Whatever little I have achieved in life is due to the blessings of the Almighty and my parents. I have not seen god, but surely my parents took a great deal of pain to bring up me, and their act is like the act of God. I think people who want success overnight visit a religious leader expecting a miracle in their lives. But the truth is that god provides us pleasure and pain in equal measure. I am not against those who visit a religious leader, but they should act rationally, which they often don’t; as a result accidents take place,” says Ashis.
“There is nothing wrong to live life as per the teachings of a religious leader. Such people know much more than mere mortals like us. So the urge to seek good lessons from such a leader is perfectly justified. However, we should keep in mind that we belong to the 21st century, the age of science and technology. Recall the incident of Sarathi Baba, who used to fool devotees by milking a concrete statue of a cow. You visit a sophisticated hotel or airport, you keep your palms upon under the tap in the basin, and water automatically streams out. It is not religion; it is science. It is the work of a sensor. So we shouldn’t blindly accept anything,” said Alisha Mishra, an Oriya software professional based in Bangalore.
Vedvyas Das is a young entrepreneur from Sambalpur. He says: “I am from a stern Hindu family. My father himself knows many deep rituals of worship and I have mastered most of them. I don’t think I need to visit a religious leader for lessons. Like the five fingers, all religious leaders are not the same. We can’t claim that all of them are good or bad. There are swindlers but also good people. Hence we should keep our eyes and ears open before blindly accepting any rule established by a religious leader.”
“A king is nobody without his subjects. Likewise a religious leader is a nobody without his disciples. Most religious leaders today are self-declared gods. But we know not human can take the place of god. A spiritual leader is a social worker with deep interest in spiritual and religious issues, but not a god. We should not ignore science. The religious mentor-disciple relation is an emotional one, and people often act without much reasoning. They should avoid believing people who claim they are god,” said Ipsita Mohaptra, a student.
