Of Our Own Rasputins...

Now, when the sleazy story of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has arrived at its logical dénouement and the rapist impersonating God man has been sent behind the bars - I recall this video clip sent to my whatsapp account by a friend. It was amusing to see the apparently literate, if not educated, people stooping before a leaf-monkey trained to reciprocate in a particular gesture. On my forwarding it to our family group my younger sister commented, "at least he is better than the so called babas..."

Of Our Own Rasputins from The Citizen on Vimeo.

The Baba undoubtedly was guilty and has to pay for it now, but what about his devotees in score, who made a God out of the lecherous and lewd specimen of our species? And yes, about those politicians who had been cashing upon his bloated status as a game changer? The dichotomy in between the words and deeds of politicians -- their ability to wear a thousand faces, stooping to any conceivable limits and allowing hundreds of heads to roll for the sake of clinging to the power -- is of course a well known and established truth. Precisely these politicians are the extended versions of these self styled God men as both these clans thrive on our misbeliefs, conceits and self aggrandizing attitude than on our ignorance.

In contemporary times our lust for materialistic fanfare, self assertion and aggrandizement has increased manifolds. We often vote for a particular person or a party keeping an eye not on what is right or wrong but what suits our personal interests and motives. Before casting our vote we do ask ourselves -whether it may provide us with an extra space for getting the things done (of course keeping the rules and laws at bay), lay hands on easy money or enable us to share the reflected glory from the power corridors.

Now, extend the same to the spiritual profile of life. Undoubtedly somewhere deep inside us the 'idea of God or some super power' assumes the shape of fear, in our heart of hearts we do believe in nemesis. This version of God we believe in is closer to our modern netas - for whom the country is nothing more than their fiefdom. If you have a modern neta on your side, you may earn money without doing anything substantial; may get the 'rule of law' reduced to your handmaiden so on and so of.

Being the devotee of a self styled God man gives you the same kind of an immunity. You feel free to do all wrongs, commit all sins with this inner suggestion that a quick blessing from the God man will persuade the Almighty to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to your conduct. You start vying for wealth without putting in hard labour otherwise needed to earn it; you aspire for fame and recognition without deserving it and consequently start looking for shortcuts in these silly God man. Instead of paying attention to your conduct they may even advise you to eat or donate samosas with green and not with red chutney or replace your ordinary wallet with an expansive, branded one. Blunting the edge of reasoning this process makes you a blind devotee and these God man thrive on your devotion that stems not from the spiritual needs of your being but from your misdirected ambitions.

... Is not it true that we all have our own Rasputins, simply because we generally are as ambitious, as insecure and as lusty as Alexandria, the Tsarina, had been? The saints who sin have been the manifestations of our own weaknesses -- history bears a testimony to this fact.