The Preachers

The title to this passage might seem a little abstract at first look. What can i possibly mean by Preachers? Well, it means exactly what you are thinking, the one who imparts religious instructions to the society. So, what do I want to write about them ? Well, for this I would have to develop a context for you to understand how I ended up writing this particular piece.

Lately, with this ongoing Narendra Modi hype in India, I have been quite interested in understanding the dynamics of Indian Politics which had never really caught my attention earlier. On reading about several of his achievements in Gujarat, about both sides of Na-Mo rule during Gujarat riots and a great muslim support he has in Gujarat, I felt pretty impressed by his personality. But what this Na-Mo wave made me think was whether it was possible for a single man or just a group of men to bring swift and fundamental changes in India. I realized that it is quite difficult to bring about radical changes in the system through a political setup. Politics comes along with a lot of addendum and that makes it difficult for one person to do some real good. To remain in power the person-in-charge has to keep in mind the benefits of all factions of his government. Given all the democratic rights, people will rebel against anything they feel might cause them harm in the short-term, sometimes failing to understand their long-term impacts. During this time while I was contemplating about these thoughts I got an opportunity to visit Jodhpur, the sun city in Rajasthan. Our 'Acharya' was residing there for a few days and my family decided to visit him to gain his blessings.

Frankly, I believe in God but I am really skeptical about the idea of some intermediaries, such as, Acharyas, Pandits, Maulvis, Padre, etc. Sometimes, I fail to understand how by touching the feet of these learned men can bless my life as though they possess some magical powers. I bring this specific point as there was a separate full-hour session that was just meant for people to touch his feet when I was in Jodhpur but this also made me realize the devout devotion of public towards these leaders.

Now, I have digressed enough to set the base for my pitch. I am in search of a force strong enough to bring radical changes without fomenting a rebellion in India and during this time I happen to visit the leader of our religious community. There, my mother told me that our new 'Acharya' has brought about some important alterations regarding the social functions held in our society. People follow his ideas without question and similar is the case with other saintly figures in India (there are quite a few of them). Our holy figures preach about several things related to our religion and people try to imbibe them in their lifestyle. But I have never heard anyone really stressing on some very vital points, on how to live in a community, on how NOT to judge people by their family name, on how NOT to belittle someone else based on his caste, on how to be more tolerant of the religious beliefs of others. I wondered, if our leaders emphasized on the importance of this behavior will it really affect our community?

Religious followers will be happy to listen to the instructions of their leaders and here was my answer to the force strong enough to bring change. What can happen, if our religious leaders came together to eradicate some very profound problems in Indian society. Whether rich or poor, most of the Indian population follows a particular guru and will tread the path along with him wherever it lead. Can we use this religious blindfold to show light to our Incredible India?