Suckers for Punishment

Self-styled messengers of God are being deified as reincarnations. Even those with criminal convictions are being celebrated, almost as if India has gone blind

- RAJEEV NARAYAN

"Your only obligation is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah." -Richard Bach

This weekend gone by, I was treated to another glimpse of Delhi's exasperating traffic. Caught in a vicious snarl of honking vehicles and jaywalking people, I looked out of my driver's window and recoiled when I read the road sign. I recalled Richard Bach and his quote on how shallow and obdurate mankind can be. I was at Delhi Ridge, on Asaram Bapu Marg, and the melee around my car was made up of the thousands who had descended on the Ashram of a Godman with the same name as the road. I found myself seething and grinning all at once, declining me perhaps to the same mental nadir as the one engulfing the blighted souls around me.

Clearly, the latest fad in India seems to be to live life holding the bull by the horns; till you are butt-headed or nut-headed by the very same bull.

My grammatical turpitude aside, the fact is that God-men exist in every part of the world where people are less literate and rationality is yet to become mainstream. India is underdeveloped and teeming with illiteracy, both academic and moral. It is this that spawns Godmen in our nation. We deify some so-called emissaries of God as if they are reincarnations. Even those with proven criminal convictions are being revered, almost as if an entire nation is going blind.

Anshu Garg, a young chap I bumped into at the Delhi Metro recently, said this: "I am mightily incapable to comment on a genuine Guru, but it's a no-brainer to spot a fake one after speaking to that person just once or twice. I can't understand how people waste their time in pandering to frauds, unless these people are looking for a crash course in becoming fake Gurus themselves?"

Rise of Criminal Godmen