Faith Revisited

Khaleej Times (Issues) / 20 September 2013

 

FOR A long time as a child, I lived in the unshakable belief that doctors could never fall sick and die. How could someone who had the power to make ailments disappear ever succumb to them? This naïve conviction was however shattered when a classmate’s doctor father died of a dreadful disease, and when I sought an explanation to it from my teacher, she said, “Doctors are human beings too.”

The fact that possessing an ability to cure did not insulate doctors from the scourges of the body was a shocking revelation that I accepted only after a long period of denial and disbelief.

 Followers of Indian spiritual leader Asaram Bapu must have gone through a similar experience when he was recently held on charges of molestation. Supporters of what has now become a loose Indian coinage for spiritual leaders, godmen, must have asked the questions many times over — how can someone who administers spiritual potions and shares religious wisdom so copiously ever fall victim to something so temporal? How can someone so exalted ever fall for temptations of such carnal nature? The answer to these perhaps will be the same as that of my teacher — they are human beings too.

 Accusations of abuse and cases of other deviant acts unbecoming of men of faith aren’t new or unheard of. Yet every time it happens, the world that hinges on them for succour from their everyday travails heaves in consternation, dismissing every document of proof as concocted. The faithful firmly reject the accusations, largely because they are so consumed by creed that aberration by those they accept as their redeemer is non-existent in their scheme of thought. Somewhere in their journey towards seeking divine solace and support, they overlook the fact that the men and women that they so devoutly define as holy are human beings too, liable to err like ordinary mortals. This by no means justifies unseemly acts by them, but it gives a whole new perspective to the way we look at spiritual leaders and religious preachers.

 The primary debate is not about whether such godmen and women deserve special legal considerations because of their illustrious standing and support in the society. That they are ordinary citizens who by dint of their deeds became slightly extraordinary, and this does not absolve them of any crime, is undisputed. The debate should be on to what extent we, as thinking individuals, should place our trust on people who promise to lead us to salvation and ultimate peace. How far should we go in seeking quick fix solutions to our everyday difficulties? What, ultimately, is our objective of pursuing people who we naively assume are immaculate incarnations?

 India is rapidly turning into a land of faith factories where divinity is super imposed on human beings by unsuspecting millions. It will be harsh and unfair to paint all institutions of faith with a skeptical brush. However, it would help to remember that these institutions are not ultimate havens of bliss or eventual centres of redemption. At best, they are pathways that can lead us to an evolved existence and at worst, they can be a nemesis of the ideals that hold our life together.

 In our eagerness to find explanation and resolution to life’s mysteries, we try to find short cuts to take us out of the wilderness. In the process, we make supreme beings out of ordinary mortals and put them on the altar, and when they falter and fall, we cry foul, chagrined and shattered at being betrayed.

 There is God and there is man. Between them are infallible spiritual conduits that are above physical parameters. They are few and far between. They walk this earth to awaken mankind from its slothfulness and instill goodness. We could do with some wisdom that will help us distinguish the genuinely enlightened from the human imposters of our times.