SAINTS OF MAYHEM...

                                                                                       BY-
                                                                                         ADARSH SINHA

India is known to be a country of diverse religions. A country so diverse with peaceful co-existence of such myriad religions has been tarnished by few who show intolerant tendencies.  Without knowing the true story they create chaos. There are some people who take advantage of this and become their messiah and self- proclaimed Godmen.

India is a country where nature and animals are worshipped, women are idolized and people have ultimate faith in the divine power. The countrymen with such an amazing history and culture blindly follow these messengers of God who ravenously befool them to fill their pockets and desires. This article of mine is dedicated to those self-proclaimed Godmen and their blind followers. I don’t want to offend anyone, so please read it at your own risk as it might hurt you or your values.

Whenever we land in trouble we look up and pray, pray to that almighty and run to holy places to seek peace and calmness. I haven’t seen that supreme power but still believe and worship him because I have been told by my elders about its existence and my elders have been told by their elders and this cycle has been continued since generations. The ironical part is… in today’s world, most of those preachers and messengers who tell us about God and his power may have not seen or experienced him themselves. So basically, people who follow these messengers blindly portray these people as their Gods. While doing so they forget about their worldly existence! They forget about the worldly vices that they can be filled with.

We not only believe these preachers of God, we blindly trust them. We send our children to these messengers hoping that they will instill some values inside them. May be our elders have still not realized the façade of values that these godmen carry. Even after knowing this, no one dares to question their theories, because we are scared that by doing so we will infuriate God and have to face the wrath of that supreme power. These self-proclaimed godmen have properties worth millions, but not even 50 percent is given to needy and poor, and we call them our “SEVAKS”. From getting V.I.P memberships to paying a hefty amount for their ashrams…we are just making a fool of ourselves and nothing else.

Even after seeing the disastrous consequences of our belief in those ASARAM BAPUS and RAM RAHIMS, we are not ready to learn our lessons. We need to understand that a criminal is a criminal, even if he portrays himself as a messenger or a godmen! We carry out candle marches and protests when a girl is raped and murdered and demand justice, and when finally justice is served…those same people wreak havoc!!! They burn buses, beat people and disrupt normal lives. How can they see their Godmen being sent behind bars? They really don’t care about those poor girls whose integrity was outraged. They least care about these shattered lives. What matters for them is their faith in these Godmen.

I wish if that supreme power is actually seeing all this brouhaha? I wish those blind followers could realize that the solutions to their problems lies inside them. These solutions can never be sought for through these messengers. We talk about progress and wish to adapt modernization. However we forget that modern thinking can only lead to this modernization.. We can never think of progressing if we keep on believing and portraying people as our Gods.

I am happy that our judicial system is taking steps in this direction and sending these self-proclaimed Godmen where they actually belong. While there are some people who still support these animals, there still are people who are actually speaking against this terrible practice and want to bring a change in the society. We don’t need these preachers to tell us what God wants from us because they themselves are unaware about the teachings in our holy books. We need to realize that we require to build our thoughts on rational, scientific and moral blocks. Otherwise they will continue to exploit us for their own good. I don’t know much about religions or that supreme power but I know this certainly that no religion or God would ever want us to kill or rape anyone!!! We need to realize this too and stop fighting amongst ourselves in the name of religion. It’s time for us to get together and show these saints of mayhem their real place, maybe then humanity and God, both will smile upon us…J