Shiban Khaibri
Religion, generally, has proven very helpful in regulating social behaviour and has transformed societies into believing in and practicing ideal values of life based on morality, kindness, honesty and piety in dealings with one another. Politics or political governance influenced by moral religious teachings can prove exemplary in welfare and servitude of the people by those who are supposed to be in governance. We in India are rightfully boasting of the fact, though with sublimity, that we have been blessed with the highest spiritual teachings in abundance by our religious luminaries right from Vedic periods and in fact such knowledge is based on the recognition of Supreme Power from within to believe in only high values of morality, selfless service, non violence, contentment, simplicity and equity. We have historical evidences of peoples from various countries having been recipient beneficiaries of such religious and ritual order from this country.
Spirituality is of utmost importance to individuals and hence the societies and in our country, we can visualize our life sans spiritualism as very meaningless. Even in present days of emphasis on materialism and ostentatious show of wealth, mostly ill gotten, resorting to or taking refuge under some type of religiosity is noticed at some stage sooner or later not necessarily only when confronted with miseries, pain and sufferings. It is a debatable issue and no quantum of cynicism can write it off completely. It could also be argued that spiritualism or religious beliefs could be an anathema or in the hard core Marxian belief, as opium of the people. Well, religion could never be opium, it is a way to know the Almighty, bow before His unimaginable power and greatness and derive strength to tread the most righteous path, of honesty and the one, full of ethical values. Values and ethics have presently become urgent concerns in India especially in the political set up. The mind of the follower of a faith that one is born in, is transformed in the right direction if taken positively and seriously. It is up to his awakened consciousness to distinguish right from the wrong, perhaps that is why John Milton says that “the mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
When present day politicians tend to become “religious” , most of them try to make a great show of religiosity just to make sure every one is aware of how “pious” they are. It has been watched ruefully that most of the politicians do use religion in the pursuit of political power and try to influence the prospective voter. It is expected that a politician with the standard of politics with what it has presently climbed down, may not “fiddle ” with religious or spiritual matters that should make his preaching and action not tangent to each other, especially when it is made known to others. Just one instance the likes of which need debating and general awareness is worth mentioning here. Bringing into limelight and exposing the dubious and double standards of such politicians cum preachers is the duty of the media, both print and electronic. A few days back, an esteemed spiritual politician from Uttrakhand had 1.5 lac baratis attending his son’s marriage. The baratis comprised of VVIPs and VIPs, all drawn from 25 states of the country. On the day of the wedding, a TV Channel showed live, some of the clips of the big fatty wedding about which startling revelations were made. This preacher turned politician fondly called as “Maharaj Ji” is reported to have spent an amount of Rs.100 crore on this wedding. He is coincidentally an author of many books like “The true path”, “Man know Thyself”, “Bharat soney ka desh bane” etc. There was complete traffic jam on the main roads of the town for over three hours putting people to lot of inconvenience. The video clips showed that as many as 350 make shift toilets were raised around the huge shamiana for the guests. It was all a brazen show of illuminations, pomp, music etc; at the venue called Bairagi Camp where the inmate saints are known disliking and forbidding such practices. These toilets had their outlets flowing in the river Ganga about which Maharaj Ji has been espousing cleanliness drive to restore to it, its pristine glory. We in India mostly are goddess worshippers in that casting her as mother Earth, or in other words, nature based spirituality, respecting ecology and the environment in the form of rivers, forests, trees and the like. Human nature interaction and perseverance of nature has been the substance of the Indian civilization. Perhaps Indian way of life learnt it much before Western countries realized this inseparable part of human existence.
A spiritual politician has to tread on the edge of the razor as both the tenets of spirituality and the principles of politics make him or her doubly bound to set an exemplary precedence for the society so that the politician turned spiritualist or vice versa has its rhetoric and action merge and integrate. Not only this, the huge pandal and too many shamianas were all set up at a place partly on and nearest to the spot where dead bodies of infants are laid to rest. Making merry or indulging in noisy festivities is at all not even thought of at such places. The “Maharaj Ji” having remained Union Cabinet Minister and currently being an MP, has been receiving lot of reverential regard from the simple, gentle and religious minded people who are aghast over the show of such a royalty and ostentatious spending of wealth which they have not seen in decades put together in Uttrakhand while he has been preaching simplicity in life and piousness in deeds through his religious discourses. Such people wearing apparently two hats simultaneously owe an explanation to the people and merely “we are open to investigation” does not exonerate them. We in this country are passing through an unfortunate period of leveling allegations, counter allegations, shoot and scoot, low levels of political debates and the like. It is wondered as to how much are “investigations” in demand now -a- days in our country to resolve which a large force of trained professional personnel is needed.
Politicians indulging in true spirituality are expected to be morally obligated to help and serve the people and not to “fool all the people all the time”. Mahatma Gandhi once said that those who say religion has nothing to do in politics do not know what religion is. 500 km. pacca road could have been built with the money spent on this marriage ceremony or as many as 2000 pacca houses for the poor families built or 300 hospitals of 100 bed each set up or 1000 junior high schools opened or 10000 poor girls could have been married off with the money reportedly lavishly spent on the said marriage ceremony. Where does such a political system lead us to, where immunity is impliedly enjoyed by some top politicians, it is high time, “Aam Aadmi” must know and seek answers.
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