Disclaimer and warning :- If you are some one who likes or follows any holymen-godmen, plz dont read the following. It will probably piss u off. and i dont want to offend anyone. this is just my point of view and thoughts, and i dont intend to be harsh or rude or hurt anyones feelings. ( i keep imagining that atleast 100 ppl read this daily and i need to be careful abt not offending em. ) anyway. i did my part now dont go ahead read and say that my words hurt ur feelings, coz i dont realy care.
Here we go -
Am not a religious person, and hence have a problem with all the rituals and superstitions that people around me hold dear. But I can live with that. There is one thing I cant stand, and that is the human incarnations of gods, the messengers, the divine, the holy, The Godmen and the Godwomen( this is perhaps one scene in India where man and woman are very equal). Maas and Ammas, swamis and mantriks. If it wasnt really a sad thing, I would feel funny living around these people.
To start with there is the most important of them all, Sai Baba. He spots an afro hair style of the 70s and wears saffron(inevitably) but has got more followers than the very fashion concious sports, music and movie stars. Because eventhough he doesnt really have any talent (par Magic) he is said to be closer to god than the rest of us. Must be pretty special. He was accused of homosexualtiy by a multiple of disicples, his fraudulent magics were caught on tape, his special bhasma was proved to have materialised not from thin air, but from a capsule he holds between his fingers. Oh! But he lives in India, here godmen can commit murder and getaway with it, so there defintely is nothing wrong with a little magic. Kids love magic and we all love kids, so lets forgive that.
No one knows better about not being forgiven than the ex-great Chandra Swamiji Maharaj, popularly known as Chandra Swami.Its a shame on our country that the time for swearing in of the whole nations prime minister(PV Narasimha Rao in 1991), was picked by a godman, and not by anyone related to the administration, and without any respect to the convenience of anyone else in this whole nation. But it was the least important issue related to this holy guy. So famous was this Guru and disciple that, Chandraswami was considered the second most powerful man in this nation without even standing in a municipal election. He could walk around metal detectors(this time without magic) and into the PM residence without even a minor search. The man who thus literally ruled the PM, went down the drain with more allegations than even God can handle. The honoured swamiji was then called the " con man in saffron " , who was literally conning money from people. He spent his time in Tihar Jail while the beloved disciple had to run for cover. Narasimha Rao who was accused of more corruption than anyother prime minster, had his gurus blessings in everythinghe did. But we, the people still didnt learn.
Then there comes the Amma who hugs everyone, the maaji who places her foot on everyones head, the prema sai who was found to be living the way his name suggests, sleeping around, making love. There are tons of them. Maybe there are more Godmen than engineers here. And its not only in hinduism. There are the same kind of people among muslims, jews and christians. Fake fakirs and conning missionaries. And not only in India, but all over the world. But by far India is the worst affected.
I know there is another side to this. The free hospitals and schools run by these godmen's ashrmas. The big projects for the upliftment of people. The lots and lots of good things done by them. I am not forgetting it. Maybe its a kind of business where they give belssings, earns money, does charity and lives on fat profit. A perfect ideal business. Everyones a winner , because they share their wealth. But then nobody asks them where their wealth comes from. I wonder whether income tax has any laws for money earned through being a godman ? But as far as people consider them as a god and let them con the public, we are never going to change. I honestly dont expect people to wake up from this trance of holiness, but i hope someday the truth behind the gods and the bads and uglies come out to the public. Maybe some day we will be living among a few goodmen rather than a few god men.
PS- For all those people who belive and respect and love and worship any of the godmen, i know you all must be very upset reading this( Like a 1000 people read my blog...hehe...i must b out of my mind). But this is my point of view, and i stand by that. No offence meant, and none gonna be taken.
