Why The Cynicism About Indian Gurus?

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Why The Cynicism About Indian Gurus?

 

FROM REDIFF ON THE NET

"Does India need the West to realise what an inconceivable spiritual

inheritance it has in its hands?"

 

INDIA, Mar 30 (VNN) — By Francois Gautier

 

Westerners have often a deep suspicion of 'gurus' and are wary of

anything which has a 'Hindu' flavor. It is true that some of the

gurus teaching in the West might have brought a bad name to Hinduism;

but is this a reason to clamp them all together under the same 'fake'

label?

 

Indian journalists unfortunately share often the same resistance to

gurus as their Western counterparts. And one can also understand

their misgivings, given the problems there has been in India with

certain gurus having political connections. But these are the

exception to the rule. Why then brand all gurus as 'godmen,' a

negative and slightly cynical term, as many Indian journalists do? Or

why always ask gurus the same pointed and devious questions about

their opinions on Ayodhya and 'Hindutva?'

 

Isn't it also strange that Indian journalists do not display the same

aggressiveness towards Christian bishops or priests, whom they never

call godmen, but 'holy father?' They also like to question

the 'miraculous' powers of Indian gurus, as it was done a few months

ago in an issue of India Today targeting Sai Baba. But is it less

rational or Cartesian to think, as the Christians do, that Jesus

Christ multiplied breads, or resurrected the dead?

 

Running down Hindu culture and Hindu gurus is fine -- but a huge

majority of the Indian population -- which, let us remember, is 85

per cent Hindu -- sees nothing wrong in this culture: ordinary

Indians meditate, do pujas, perform asanas, chant bhajans, or

practice pranayama.

 

There is no sectarism here, no fake mysticism, no pagan obscure

rites. The irony is that this very spirituality on which Indian

intellectuals tend to look down, is taking root in the West: more and

more sportsmen, for instance, are using pranayama to enhance their

performances; ordinary Americans are meditating by the millions (see

this week's Time magazine showing American children learning

meditation); hata-yoga has long taken Europe by storm and has been

copied by all kinds of gymnastics or aerobics.

 

Does India need the West to realise what an inconceivable spiritual

inheritance it has in its hands? A knowledge which once roamed the

shores of the world, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, from Greece to

Babylon, but which today has disappeared in a world peopled by

intolerant churches? Do Indian schools have to wait for the United

States, before they start teaching Indian children their own culture?

 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, for example, the founder of the Art of Living

has also been catalogued as a 'godman' by The Deccan Herald. Yet, he

too is helping to spread both in India and abroad this wonderful

spiritual inheritance, promoting as much the revival of Sanskrit and

Vedic knowledge, as an ecological concern for plastic disposal, or

trying to save the centenary trees which are in danger of being

chopped down on the Bangalore-Kanakapura road, as it is being

widened.

 

His numerous associations prove that he is not only a "guru of the

rich," as he has been accused by The Indian Express: his village

schools, for instance, do so well, that children have a 95 per cent

rate of success in exams; his youth training programs bring to

India's remotest hamlets in Karnataka or even in Naxalite infested

Bihar, Housing, Hygiene, and Human values. His volunteers work with

their own hands in villages to clear the garbage, clean the sewage

infested roads and generally renovate the place. Finally, the

medically- tested Sudarshan Krya technique is today taught in Tihar

jail, or in corporate offices in California.

 

The Kumbh Mela has just concluded. It was an extraordinary event:

probably the biggest spiritual gathering in the history of the human

race. At a time where the West has lost its spiritual moorings and

when, even Eastern countries such as China or Japan are submerged by

Western culture -- MTV, Coca-Cola and McDonald's -- India has shown

that in spite of tremendous odds, she has succeeded in keeping her

spirituality alive. But once again during the Kumbh Mela, the Indian

media coverage showed the same Western slant against gurus, saints

and sadhus.

 

Instead of highlighting the remarkable degree of cleanliness,

orderliness and efficiency demonstrated by the organizers, the UP

Government and the police, it chose to focus on naga sadhus smoking

ganja, or the VHP "hijacking the mela," or on Western "hippies" in

search of enlightenment.

 

Indian journalists could have shown a little more pride in their own

culture by saying, for instance, that it is miraculous that there are

still men in the world who are ready to give-up everything, including

their clothes, for the love of God; or that as long as Indian

villagers were smoking ganja, they did not beat their wives, gobble-

up their salaries and drink themselves to death, as they are doing

today, now that (foreign owned) alcohol has invaded India; or that

any religion worth its name tries to protect its own interests, as

the VHP is doing (the VHP is not trying to convert other religions,

yet they are subjected to a much greater bashing by the Indian press

than Christian priests or Muslim mullahs); or that it is to India's

credit that Westerners come here searching for the spirituality they

can't get any more in the West.

 

It is part of the freedom of the Press to be able to criticize

anything and anybody. And we must acknowledge that Indian journalists

have often played a positive role by highlighting injustice or

corruption in public life.

 

But the spitefulness that they sometimes display towards the saints,

sadhus and gurus of India seems a little bit unfair. For however much

poverty there is in this country, however many problems it is facing,

India's gift to the world in the 21st century will be its

spirituality, this eternal knowledge which alone She has preserved.

 

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