I am compelled to write this column because a lady shared her plight form her car, she was travelling in along with her family that was stuck, rather is still stuck, for almost 12 hours near Bhopal in a jam, that was caused by lakhs of people that have come to receive a magical Rudraksh necklace from a Swami.
There is already a news going round that a lady has lost her life in this messy situation.
Do not question the Faith? That’s what we are being told these days.
There is a long list of such sadhus and swamis who have been claiming of miracles but in last few years they have gained prominence. Some monks exhorted Hindus to kill Muslims and Christians and they are still not behind the bars, a month ago a Swami talked of reading the minds of people and his followers demanded action against those who opposed him, a year or so ago some washed the feet of brahmins when they entered temple and now this traffic jam of almost 20kms near Bhopal , all this is happening in the guise of Faith.
If we introspect dispassionately, we will find that thousands of those stuck on the Indore-Bhopal Highway is purely because of our deeds of last few years. We are surely being driven towards medievalism by a nexus of swamis, politicians, and many other stake holders. And if we do not mend our ways even now, things would further slip out of our hands and we shall take India to medievalism. Instead of routing out the practices of medieval era we are in the guise of culture and faith are encouraging them. We have stopped questioning them and rather humiliating those who are questioning those medival practices and irrational beliefs.
As a society we need to remember, our freedom fighters had to do toil hard to get us freedom because first they had to fight the social evils of medieval era that had got ingrained in the society. Rather , we should be careful about these medieval era practices because it were they which made us lose our political freedom.
The job of the leader is not to make a society conservative but to inculcate a scientific temperament.