Maha message of Maha Kumbh
The recently concluded Maha Kumbh Mela is not only a trigger for celebration but ought to be also one for robust and candid reflection on the role of religion in India. The cause for celebration is obvious – its stupendous and stunning scale and numbers (over 60 crore people), cutting across all divides and divisions – and India’s ability to create and manage such a stupendous event.
‘Reflection’ arises when we witness the ardor and sincerity of those who take the Amrit Snāna in icy waters and juxtapose it with all the horrid things that happen in society. Their devotion is palpable; it is their deportment that is problematic. If having a holy dip in waters, as scriptures profess, is infused with divine energy, and they are “cleansed of sins and negative karma, and purified of the soul”, then how will that sway their conduct – personally or professionally? This issue extends to all other religions and rituals, be it Islamic Haji or Hindu Char Dham. Sadly, but surely, it is not having any uplifting influence on their day-to-day life. Nor are they aiding in any way transforming our multi-faith society into a synergistically religious society. Effectively, religion manifests in public space as a political tool and handmaiden of everyday evil.
People with strong religious affiliation, one expects, will fear the wrath of God and will be morally circumspect and sensitive to social suffering. Defying the dictum of Christ, they are serving God and Mammon simultaneously and so far seemingly successful. Spirituality, too, has taken a beating, replaced by sensuality, despite, or because of, the motley mix of gurus and swamis and their ilk in our midst. What makes it worse is that an avowedly religious but morally unhinged person can be more socially toxic. This is all the more tragic that this was the same soil that gave birth to four great religions and the one which gave to the world a great doctrine of dharma.
According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 97% of Indians say they believe in God. This includes 80% who are "absolutely certain" that God exists. That opens the door a bit ajar. If at least 1 of 3 of 80% can consciously seek to be faithful to their religion in action, that could act as a rising boat that lifts all boats. ‘Being faithful’ also means doing what ‘their God’ tells them to do to be, and do good. While inter se emphasis differs, the menu of all scriptural precepts and principles includes qualities like honesty humility, modesty, truthfulness, tolerance, sensual control, loving kindness, caring, sharing and compassion. Regardless of what one chooses from the menu, if they are practiced in daily life, that alone will have a cascading effect on communal peace and harmony.
The task ahead, therefore, is to induce every religious person to be wilfully habituated to the behavioral ‘dos and don'ts’ of his chosen faith. A habit once formed doesn’t discriminate. If tolerance, kindness and compassion become reflexive and routine, he will then be incapable of withholding them to others of a different faith. To make it a habit, we must salvage the strident ‘believers’ from their smug belief that their observance of religious rituals saves them from the ill-effects of their hurtful behavior. Most of them labour under the mistaken thinking that human relationships are insignificant if only they go by the book as interpreted by their mind. In other words, they think that God is as ‘selfish’ and bribable as they are. Such a deluded perspective must be morphed. That is a daunting challenge and requires multi-pronged effort.
Some kind of a lead has to be taken by religious leaders, preachers, popular commentators, and public intellectuals with some credibility still left. They should din into the ears of the multitude of their fervent followers that there is no hope in hell that they can be in the good books of God by ripping off and ill-treating a fellow man, particularly someone who can’t pay them back in the same coin. Mostly, they now tell them what mantras to recite and what rituals to do to please God and get out of the coils of samsara, but not that the shortest route to what Greek poet Aeschylus (Agamemnon) called ‘awful grace of God’ is serving the disadvantaged and disempowered, whom Swami Vivekananda – later Gandhi – called Daridra Narayan. The same spirit is implied in the adages ‘Manava Seve Madhava Seva’ (Service to man is service to god). It is said that ‘To reach Narayana, we must serve the Daridra Narayana, the starving millions of the land. Feel for them, pray for them. Strive for the relief and uplift of the suffering and miserable brethren – the only God that exists, the only God in whom we believe ...my God the miserable, my God the poor.’ A famous spiritual master Satya Saia baba expanded on it and said “think only of service to Daridra Narayan. If the hungry are fed, they are easily satisfied. Service to Daridra Narayan can never go waste. It is the highest form of sadhana. Man is the product of the society, and service to society is real service to God. Such service should be rendered without regard to caste, creed, race or nationality.”
A practical question is: what kind of activities should be funded with what devotees offer to a deity in a temple? It is narrow thinking that argues that ‘temple wealth’ is God’s property and must be used for direct benefit of the presiding deity. First, God doesn’t need it and then every creature is His replica. If it is righteously used to make the lives of less fortunate less difficult, we will be serving Him better than paving the gopurams with gold.
To sum up, religion, rather its misdirection, is responsible for much of the moral decline in public place in India. And it is religion again that has to give a hand in its moral renewal. The base line is behavior – in naked terms, how we relate with other persons.
The problem is that few, if any, believers are now capable of bringing to bear on their conduct the very qualities that their belief system requires them to do, like integrity, tolerance, humility, kindness, forgiveness, compassion etc. If we can ensure that, it can have a tremendous cascading effect. If a person behaves socially well, it matters much less what his theological beliefs are. So long as we are able to treat another God’s creature with dignity and empathy, it doesn’t mater whatever is anyone’s conception of God. We may call it the bottom-up approach to renewed religious relevance. The hard truth is that however much it is immediately imperative, there is no one in our time with the required spiritual stature like Adi Sankara or Vivekananda, let alone Buddha, to lead the way. The only alternative is collective effort of like-minded common folk. While everyone should contribute, the lead ought to be taken by religious pundits, preachers and public intellectuals. They should stress that religiosity without righteousness is direct defiance of divine will, that worship and worldly life are intertwined, and that salvation cannot come at the expense of other’s suffering.
At the end of the day, the message from Maha Kumbh is simple: any believer, with every passing religious ‘going and doing,’ should follow it up by implementing its ‘dos and don’ts,’ and be certain that nothing hurts anyone else, no matter who says so. If we, as a bare minimum, do that whole-heatedly, that will not only greatly advance religious harmony but also make India a little better place to live and die.
(Writer is a retired IAS officer of 1958 batch)