A few days back when I picked up the newspaper I found a flyer inside it. It showed the picture of a bearded man in saffron robes. There was a description of the wonderful and miraculous deeds he had performed and urged the public to have a "darshan" of the "gurudev". I have forgotten the name, except that it ended with 'ananda'. Now there are so many fellows having their names ending in 'ananda'. He was staying in a marriage hall nearby. There was no mandatory fee to go to his 'presence'. You just go in and sit at his feet and think of the problem that has been vexing you. Gurudev will write the solution to your problem on a piece of paper and give to you. You may or may not give a donation' depending on the satisfactory nature of the answer. I wanted to meet this fellow and find out how he was going to apply his version of "M.R.I." on my innermost wishes. But I am a lazy person and missed the opportunity of putting something on my blog.
Now there are so many swamis, gurudevs, ammas and babas traversing our ancient country of believers. They have millions of followers, who are ready to be their servitors. There are a few larger figures who have international connections. Their financial empires are larger than the budgeted revenue of our country. Invariably their names are involved in scams of all kinds, more particularly of murder, rape, abduction and financial irregularities. But nothing comes out of these cases. These individual cults have become sub-religions under the larger umbrella of Hinduism. Hinduism can absorb all kinds of beliefs. That is why the three monotheistic religions, Islam, Christianity and to a lesser intent, Judaism try to convert Hindus into their folds. The entire history of these cults from their initiation to expiry can be wrapped up in living memory. They come and go; that is it.
It is a pity that even educated people fall victims to these charlatans. People believe that these gurus have miraculous powers. They are terribly impressed with their appearance - invariably they have beards - and their speeches - mostly incomprehensible - made by these 'demi-gods' Their fame is spread through word of mouth and also Internet which is making it easier for them. People want instant relief from their financial problems, instant cures for their chronic illnesses and quick marriage prospects for their daughters and successful careers for their sons.
Most people do not know that nothing supernatural can ever take place. Everything in this universe must obey the laws of physics and chemistry. Chandrayaan could be sent to the Moon only by making it obey physical and chemical laws and also involving incredible mathematical calculations. There is nothing supernatural about it.
4 comments:
This is very interesting. I know many people who fall victims to demigods like these. Ultimately, instead of finding peace and prosperity, they lose everything, even their own identity. it is a pity, but we can do nothing about it. But why the name "Cargo Cults"?
Sir David Attenborough, the famous explorer and scientist, in his “Quest in Paradise”, describes how most of these cults grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War, when soldiers and missionaries landed on these far-flung islands in the Pacific. The islanders were bowled over by the wondrous possessions of these white people. There were even black people like them, but they also had these nice things. They were seeing for the first time things like radio sets, wrist watches, cigarette lighters from which fire came out just by a flick of the thumb. They had not seen jeeps and speedboats, planes and big ships. They were victims of the Third law of Arthur C. Clarke: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. The islanders noticed that the white people who enjoyed these wonders never made them themselves. When articles needed repair, they were thrown away or sent away, and new ones kept arriving as ‘cargo’ in ships or planes. No white man was ever seen to make or repair anything, nor indeed did they do anything that could be recognized as useful work of any kind. Sitting behind a desk shuffling papers was obviously some kind of religious devotion. Evidently, then, the ‘cargo’ must be of supernatural origin. “The white men built tall masts with wires attached to small boxes that glow with light and emit curious noises and strangled voices. It is these incomprehensive actions that are the rituals employed by the white men to persuade the gods to send the cargo”.
Anthropologists, including David Attenborough have noted two separate outbreaks in New Caledonia, four in the Solomons, four in Fiji, seven in the New Hebrides, and over fifty in New Guinea, most of them being quite independent and unconnected with one another. The majority of these religious cults claim that one messiah will bring the cargo when the day of apocalypse arrives. One famous cult on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides (known as Vanuatu since 1980) is still extant. It was formed by a messianic figure called John Frum, whose apocalyptic vision included a ‘great cataclysm; the mountains would fall flat and the valleys would be filled; old people would regain their youth and sickness would vanish; the white people would be expelled forever and cargo would arrive in great quantity so that everybody would have as much as he wanted’. Suddenly John Frum vanished from the scene, after telling the islanders that he was going back to his ancestors and he would return on the day of apocalypse. That was way back in the 1940s. There is no one alive, who has actually seen John Frum. Some say that he was white, while others say he was black. The cult members still expect that Frum will return, and that the day of his arrival will be 15 February, but the year is unknown. Every year on 15 February his followers assemble for a religious ceremony to welcome him. Hundreds of men clear the bush in the centre of the island so that Frum’s plane might have an airstrip on which to land.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the area in 1974 and the Prince subsequently became deified in a rerun of a John Frum-type cult. The cult members were impressed with the imposing figure of Philip wearing his white naval uniform and plumed helmet. It is not surprising that he was elevated over the Queen, quite apart from the fact that the culture of the islanders made it difficult to accept a female deity.
I think that all religious cults making the rounds in our country originate in such circumstances. These have become sub-religions under the larger umbrella of Hinduism. People get terribly impressed with the appearance and the speeches – mostly incomprehensible - made by these ‘demigods’. People believe that they have supernatural powers and that their blessings will be precious. Their fame is spread by word of mouth and now there is Internet making things easier for them. Our people do not want ‘cargo’. They want ‘spiritual uplifting’, whatever that means.
It is fantastic to know how such "cargo cults" originate. There are so many gurudevs in the world to exploit the people. But at least the Pacific islanders can be excused for believing in "supernatural" events, 60 years ago. The Indians are supposed to have highly developed philosophy and traditional learning, but still they fall victims to such charlatans.
As a neuroscientist, I can say that the mind is predisposed to having mystical experiences. Michael Persinger, a Canadian researcher has studied patients suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy and found a connection between visions, inexplicable voices and smells. But this is not fully verified. I think that there is a biological root to all religious experiences.
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