The Babas, Media and Us

[We as a society show extreme reactions while dealing with matters concerning religion. Demonstrate extreme flexibility from bending backwards the rules and conventions to bending forward to flung oneself at someone’s feet - surrendering our dignity. And then at the news of someone’s lapses we turn back on the same person at whose feet we had flung ourselves few days back.

Neither do we know why we were doing that or now this........ are we a society of men or a herd of zombies or a frenzied mob?]

Odisha witnessed a charade in the name of Banajaga Yatra when the timber for the deities were scouted down and transported to its final destination. For the first time in the history of Nabakalebara this trip was turned into a relay of Olympian Torch proportions. Millions lined up to pay their respect to and shoot selfies with the wood which was to be formed into Gods. And on the side millions were earned by the main actors and the trade it spewed. This yatra kicked up it’s share of controversies till the Brahma was transferred.

Barely had the dust settled on that controversy, news of alleged vast financial empire and private lives of the self styled god men and women deluged us. Last evening, we were treated to one such fare through Sura Baba of Jhinti Sasana. TV screens were filled with the images of angry public and disgruntled faithfuls vandalising the ashram complex and police swooping in to rescue the said Baba by arresting him.

This morning I was asked by an excited friend of mine whether I knew what was happening there or not. I couldn’t disappoint him by saying that neither was I one of such followers who would mob for a darshan or be a part of a mob to pull anyone down. I don’t know what great good did these god men do for their followers, but I am sure of one thing that, they have served the public with authoring salacious stories of their kinky sex lives and the tabloid media doing their part of dishing out such stories to feed the insatiable thirst for voyeurism and gossips of the public and helping themselves with TRPs.

The behaviour of these three sets of people namely, the godmen and their followers, the public in general and the media are not only interesting but calls for a detail study.

The phenomenon of godmen started gaining momentum post 1990 in Odisha. The memory of miracles happening at Jhinti and the chief priest getting political patronage from the highest office has not faded from the memory of the people of Bhubaneswar. The roads leading to that sleepy village and infrastructure surrounding that place suddenly burst in magnitude to accommodate the rich and faithful follower of that place.  Sarathi Baba also burst in the scene from nowhere, thrusting his cherubic self onto the populace from the back of buses to from the inside of TV boxes. I at times get bewildered as to how people discover divinity in such sub human specimen. As follower grew, Babas grew in their girth both influentially, physically and financially. Usually power and money makes even the ugliest the most attractive. Hoards of ladies, some alone and some escorted by their husbands chose to take the ‘Exclusive’ queue for their priority access to God. With the crowd came many people who had many interests. And plots and sub plots were played out. All were witness to this accumulation of wealth and sin but chose to remain faithful. The behaviour of the crowd which swarms around these Babas beats the understanding of any rational mind.

Same media, which buoyed this Banajaga Yatra into a mega event for a fortnight, with its live telecast and by organising special programmes, partook what they like best – TRP and revenue, his time around had the same benefit by exposing the Babas and feeding people with semi-porn. Both the time benefiting by doing two contradicting things and feeding peoples baser instincts.

'Baba' in its connotation of spiritual leadership has always existed in its various forms in all religions, faith, sect or order since time immemorial. That individual or institution in any of the above names is desired to provide the common man and the society in general, the necessary guidance to steer through the challenges of his everyday living and spiritual thoughts. They are expected to do that through their conducts primarily and teachings through discourses and practices.

The definition of, a Baba, a Mullah or a Priest has been undergoing changes in the minds of the people in context of their immediate and historical deeds. They have historically been the reasons for providing the philosophical underpinnings to a faith the society needed at that time to bringing infamy to a faith necessitating radical reforms.

Keeping the long term interest of us in sustaining and nurturing a society based on eternal values of humanity in mind, the role of a spiritual guide can’t be done away with. We need someone who we respect collectively for his rational mind, good conduct and deed who as a spiritual leader needs to stand for humanity, rising above his faith and sect. In my opinion in our frenzied state, let’s neither generalise and burn all the gurus at the stake nor rush to them as mindless lambs cross the road.

Let us not forget the role of us and the general public to separate our selfish interests and earthly expectations and pressure from corrupting such institutions. Generalising all the gurus as bad is as wrong as terming them as Gods. If we expect our leadership to behave in certain ways the onus is on us to ensure that they do. Why we turn spiritual leaders into agents of Gods or God incarnate in something we owe and answer to the posterity and our children is it fear or greed? Let’s not blindly surrender our judgement only to be led by the unknown rather develop the faculties to discern.