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The influence that god men can and do exert on society became apparent through two separate incidents over the last week through the newspapers and television channels which  have been reporting about them first and the more constructive report was in the Indian Express where the famous Ram Katha preacher , Morari Bapu was reported as having got involved in the saving of the whale shark , an endangered species that comes to the Saurashtra coast for breeding. Invoking the imagery of a daughter coming home to her parents for confinement, he was able to persuade the poor fishermen of the coast, many of whom are his followers to desist from hunting these sharks.
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 Moving beyond preaching from sheltered stages and mandaps, Morari Bapu walked to a stretch of the coast where a whale shark had got trapped in a fisherman’s net and set it free with a blessing. That one gesture conveyed to the fishermen that the preacher’s concern and involvement to safeguard the whales was serious and newspaper reports indicate that levels of hunting of these whales has decreased dramatically. Although some sceptics claim that the phenomenon of Morari Bapu’s charisma is temporary and that the lure of money will ultimately prevail, the fact that even some progress is achieved is an indicator of how much can be achieved when people with a following, particularly a spiritual following choose to walk their talk.
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The other god man in the news was Sri Sathya Sai Baba. He didn’t get accolades of course for his remarks on Telengana and his opinion that those who talk in terms of the division of the country are actually committing a sin. His remarks led to a huge agitation and even violence. The TRS president , K Chandrasekhara Rao  commenting on the Sai Baba’s remarks suggested that the Baba stick to singing Bhajans and other dharmic activities. Apparently that statement indicates that in the political mind there is a big disconnect between the teachings and thoughts shared in discourses and the course of action that naturally follows as a consequence.
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The situation of god men and their spheres of influence has never been adequately defined and perhaps never will be ? Should they merely preach abstract religious discourses but scrupulously avoid any references to real life situations and societal contexts where the moral and ethical principles can be applied practically. That seems to be the thought of the TRS president , who feels that the Sai Baba’s job is to run schools, hospitals and sing religious songs but carefully avoid making any comment that can be interpreted as political , even though of course there is no politics without a social milieu where issues emerge and ripen. Apart from the Sai Baba , there was also the recent instance of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar , who claimed to have provided a formula for solving the vexed Ayodhya dispute though in saying that both the Hindu and Muslim religious leaders should sit together and resolve the dispute through negotiations, he has not said any thing new that has been said before.
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Although the temptation and the environment will always be there for religious figures to speak out on issues of a political nature and what they will say will often have repercussions given their mass following, there is a definite need to connect abstract religious teaching to hard social reality. But in this , I would admire the grit and purpose of Sant Morari Bapu , who has chosen to advocate for a largely unheeded cause and made a difference than join the ranks of those who speak on emotive and media highlighted issues without making any visible difference to the situation. God men in India can make a difference – but if only we could ask that they would choose issues glossed over and passed over to make their difference.
3 users commented in " The influence of the Godman "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe Ayodhya dispute is a religious one,Hence it is natural for religious & spiritual leaders to comment on it.I believe the world,especially the West is too caught up in the idea & experience of Islam & Christianity & their unfortunate experiences with religious leaders to understand the Indian concept of spirituality where there is no religion at all.The name Hindu was given by the Islamic invaders to Indian natives to whom thw Indian idea of “Ekam Satya,Viprah Bahudha Vadanti” (the truth is One,the wise call it by different names) was simply alien as they were taught to believe in “It’s my way or the Highway” type of mass fervour based path to salvation.Ditto Christianity.
In Indian Spirituality,the Guru is the revered teacher who teaches one the path to happiness & bliss based on an individual’s needs.All the followers or disciples of a Guru are individuals who come to him for different reasons.It is not surprising for people to go to more than one Guru for guidance or advice.Since the West & the Middle Eastern cultures have always attempted to put forward a “one size fits all” type of a solution to life’s problems,all those trained in the Western way simply don’t understand this & devise a very strange name called “Godman” for the saints of India.Whereas Indian spirituality of the Vedas says everybody is a part of God.By that measure everyone is a Godman.
Followers of different “Godmen” are not narrow minded,herd mentality people.People can learn a lot even from an ordinary disciple of a saint abot life & love.
Indian Spirituality is the most individualised of all spiritual methods.Whenever it has waned in India,India has witnessed communal flare ups like the much highlighted Godhra carnage where 60 Hindus inside a train bogey were burnt alive by a Muslim mob in Gujarat & the resulting backlash.
Communities are formed when spirituality dies.In a spiritual societies there are different spiritual organisations promoting different & often contrary paths to eternal bliss & they al happily co-exist with each other.By that yardstick,India is still a very Spiritual & peaceful country as compared to the rest of the world.
And by the way,it seems the author hasn’t heard of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s nationwide signature campaign against the government decision to hike common cooking salt’s prices by 10 times by making it compulsory for shopkeepers to stock only multinational company packed branded salt (or face a jail term.
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