CALCUTTA: When Hindu believers flocked to temples across India and as far away as the United States in September to witness the “miracle” of religious idols that appeared to be drinking milk, it came as a clarion call to another group of Indians who have assigned themselves the quixotic mission of debunking all gurus, swamis, yogis and others claiming mystical powers.
Since 1949, members of the Indian Science and Rationalists’ Association have been busy exposing fraudulent “godmen” who whisk gold watches out of thin air,. levitate, give off electric charges, and even claim to have conducted erudite discourses with tigers in the wild.
The “guru busters,” as they have taken to calling themselves in recent years, include activists raised as Hindus, Muslims and Christians and as members of other religious groups.
Most are now atheists and use their attacks on India’s more egregious mystics as the spearhead of a broader assault on all religions. In the process, none is spared, not even Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her relief work in the slums that have made Calcutta a byword for urban misery. Mother Teresa has a clean image, and there is no doubt that she has helped the poor,” said Debasis Bhattachariya, a 28 year-old law clerk who has been a leading protagonist in the rationalists’ campaigns. “But in the end, we believe that Mother Teresa is not at all any better than all the other godmen and godwomen, because she helps to place a more kindly mask on the overall exploitation in our society.” Similar arguments have been used against holy men and women in India for generations, especially by the country’s Marxist parties. But none of the efforts have made more than minor inroads into Indian mysticism.
Although the rationalists say they have 86,000 members in 300 branches across India, nearly as many Indians can be seen at dawn each day dipping themselves in the muddy, garbage-strewn Hooghly River, a branch of the Ganges that flows through the heart of Calcutta, in the belief that washing in the water cleanses the spirit.
Lesser souls might be discouraged by this evidence that India, perhaps more than any other nation, remains resistant to the appeal of rationalism. But Prabhir Ghosh, the rationalists’ president, believes in tilting his lance at every form of whathe calls “religious trickery.
“See what a fraud it is!” Ghosh exclaimed one recent evening as a crowd pressed around him in the dimly lit concourse of Calcutta’s Howrah railway station.
In one hand, he held a statue of Ganesh, the Hindu god with an elephant’s head and a rat for an attendant. In the other, he held a spoonful of milk to Ganesh’s mouth. As the milk rose toward the idol’s mouth, Ghosh positively shimmered with triumph. “See what it is that the gurus and swamis are up to!” he said.
Ghosh’s purpose was to demonstrate the scientific principle that the rationalists, and many scientists in India and else- where, say explains the phenomenon of milk-drinking idols.
After the reports about that phenomenon began, millions of Indians stayed away from work September 21 and on the days that followed to line up at temples to watch. Ghosh set out to show that any liquid, including milk, can be made to rise from a spoon through the porous ceramics used for the idols through capillary attraction.
At the railway station, Ghosh and his assistants attracted friendly laughter, suggesting that milk-drinking idols strained the credulity of many Hindus.
It may have helped that Indian newspapers had begun to suggest that the milk miracle was a stunt organized by a New Delhi-based guru, Chandraswamy, whose ties to Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao have been front-page news after accusations that he has wide influence over the government as well contacts with Indian criminal gangs.
Rao’s contacts with swamis have brought him embarrassment more than once. In 1993, he seemed moved during a visit to his native state of Andhra Pradesh when a well-known guru, Sai Baba, appeared to produce a gold watch out of thin air.
But Indian newspapers had considerable fun at Rao’s expense when film of the event that had been taped by an Indian state television team was played back in slow motion and revealed that the Baba had employed sleight-of-hand techniques commonly used by magicians.
Before Rao, several Indian prime ministers had close links with gurus. Jawaharlal Nehru had a guru, as did his daughter, Indira Gandhi. Gandhi’s favorite, Dhirendra Brahmachari, fell from favor after his habit of having holy messages appear on blank sheets of paper was ex- posed as a new application of an old high school science experiment involving in- visible ink.
When the guru, attempting a comeback, greeted devotees with electric shocks, the rationalists stormed his ashram and ex- posed a car battery with wires beneath the guru’s throne.
In 1993, the rationalists in Calcutta held a weeks-long vigil outside the home where the body of a prominent guru, Balak Brahmachari, was laid out. The guru’s disciples contended that he had not died, but had instead gone into a deep trance! After 55 days, and no sign that Brahmachari would revive, police carried the badly decomposed body away for cremation, setting off street battles in which scores were hurt.
The rationalists have challenged not only practitioners of Eastern faiths, but also Christian evangelists, including an American who claimed to have made a child presumed unable to hear or talk since birth to speak during a rally in Calcutta. Ghosh stormed the platform and persuaded the 10-year-old boy to confess to the crowd that he had grown up speaking Bengali, the common language in West Bengal. Dear Readers,
Each year, students of South Asian origin from around the nation gather at the national South Asian Students Alliance Conference. Designed for college-age students, the Conference is a three-day program where issues pertinent to South Asians in America are addressed. In the Spring of 1996, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, will be hosting this Conference. Brown University will be accommodating the largest number of students in the history of the conference. Nearly 1,000 in number, these students will represent colleges and universities from around the country, including those that have been overlooked in the past. In order to reach these students at an affordable rate, while maintaining the quality of the conference, we must raise over $5,000 for the cultural show of the conference. We cannot do this alone. Your contribution is essential to the success of the conference. All contributors will be recognized at the conference, with special honor given to those who donate $150 or more. S.A.S.A. is a non-profit organization, and all donations are tax deductible. In planning this conference, we want to create an experience whose impact will remain long after the conference has ended through speakers, forums, workshops, and cultural events. By drawing together South Asian youth from varying backgrounds, we are hoping to build a strong and cohesive community active in the welfare of South Asians. In a nation where it is easy to lose one’s heritage, it is important to establish a support base for current and future generations. In order to do this, we must begin with the youth, for the future depends on them. The South Asian community at Brown University, while active, does not have the resources to do this alone. The universal participation of South Asians is vital to the conference, as well as to the future of the entire South Asian community.
Only through the support of those outside of Brown University will this conference be possible. Thank you for your effort in building a foundation from which all South Asians can flourish. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Conference Co-Chairs.
1996 S.A.S.A. Conference Co-Chairs: Victor Karkar: 401-863-5704; email: victor_karkar@brown.edu Devinder Singh: 401-863-5210: email: devinder_singh@brown.edu Please make checks payable to: Brown University S.A.S.A., memo conference
Send to: Brown University, c/o Stu dent Activities Office-S.A.S.A., Box 1930, Providence, RI 02912.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 20, 1995
