Godmen and Men of God
Desh Bir
Every land and religion has its own share of saints, but India is, perhaps the favourite home of Rishis, Seers, Munis and Saints. So much so that it was known to the outside world until some years ago as the land of levitating men of God.
The idea here is not to hold in question the Prophets of yore who showed to mankind the light of an undying search for God in everyone and everything.
Prophets appear but once in an eon and are manifestations of the Lord in physical form. In their life time they never do or say anything that might smack of an ego. They never make any claims. They don’t go seeking a following. They just do and say what is right as per the holy plan. They do not found any sect. It is their followers who build an edifice of a following after the exit of such holy masters.
India that is Bharat is a land of so many religions and has around two million Hindu temples, more than thirty thousand Gurudwaras, three lac mosques and several tens of thousands of Christian churches.
Consequently , in their private lives all Indians show utmost dedication to respective religions by visiting their own temples/ gurudwaras/ mosques or churches. Sikhs especially do donate very liberally to these places and so do Hindus at the renowned Temples.
However , in public lives, whatever be our religion, most of us are self-centered, benefit- seeking type and even at places of worship we try to buy an early darshan through payment of more money as fast-track measure.
Then where is God involved in the whole effort? Now that all such places have stayed closed to public visits for five months due the Covid 19 pandemic, God has suffered no losses. God still makes the creation move the way He wills. The only sufferers are we who think that we have not been able to render the ritual of showing our sacred allegiance through a monetary offering. However, the world created by God goes on.
Those of us who belong to the class of such temple visitors are in fact in the habit of offering bribes to the Almighty, not knowing that this currency does not buy anything in the divine territory. The true man of God sees Him in everything, every creature and every human being.
He does not have to visit temples/ churches. Kabir was a man of God. Ramkrishna Paramhans and Vivekananda were men of God. Ravidas, Namdev and Tukaram were men of God. Anyone of a very ordinary calling and social stature among us may be a man of God and yet no one may recognize him / her. A man of God has nothing to offer by way of display. He is one with the Creator and remains perpetually aware of his holy connection in every thought, action and utterance.
On the other hand, during recent decades in India, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of men and women presenting themselves publicly as dependable mediators between humans and God. These people work their way to popularity and acceptance with such deftness that the humble believers, caught in predicaments of all kinds, have no escape from their blind allegiance to such people.
These are better named as Godmen. It is no use naming them here. All of us have an idea of their clout with the electronic media which derives ample revenue from the overtly and ostensibly holy telecast of programs that seem to augment spirituality among the Indian masses. The truth, for sure, is quite the opposite. It is the gullible masses living in fear of losses, troubles, miseries and pain who get fleeced at the hands of these Godmen.
People, illiterate as well as literate, succumb and yield simply out of their lure for an easy escape from bad situations. They gather in thousands to swell the crowds of followers of such people in a hope to obtain grace and favours. The truth, in fact, is that these Godmen are very skilled businessmen. They know that their shops can keep going if people are duped with promises and expectations. In fact, a major part of human problems resolve on their own and the credit is taken by these Gurus who are actually Godmen, but certainly not men of God at all!
(The author is a Retired Principal, Government College, Hoshiarpur-Punjab)
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