Understanding the Godmen syndrome

It is true that Hinduism has survived centuries of invasions to throw enough evidence of its strength however, PK has indeed highlighted one of the rare weaknesses of Hinduism for which Hindus very easily fall for Godmen. While in other religions, the final word is awaited only from their well identified and organized places of worships, Hindus are quite unorganized in this regard. In all other religions only the pre-identified religious heads are in a position to use or misuse their status, but in Hinduism anyone can occupy the place of religious authority. This unorganized character of Hinduism allows its followers to look, on their own, for the one who can directly address to their problems/doubts. Godmen look to fill up this void existing in this peculiar religious set up of Hinduism. As a natural consequence to this, many genuine thinkers and several ace social reformists of Hinduism have often been historically pushed to the place of Godmen/God while on the other hand some cunningly exploit this weakness of the Hinduism to fool their gullible followers. The scope of having acceptability of a Godman has helped Hinduism to carry out several great reforms successfully. Therefore while asking the followers to test the genuineness of their respective Godmen must be encouraged but forcing them against having Godmen altogether will make this great Hinduism also as narrow and as rigid as other monolithic beliefs like Islam, Christian and Communism.

In addition to above, it seems to me that this 'weakness' of Hinduism is directly linked with a typical Hindu outlook wherein they can see God literally in everything – sun, moon, earth, mountain, animals, trees, stones and idols. Hindus can worship anything and therefore anyone who is able to win their heart easily become yet another object of their faith and worship. It is exactly this attitude of Hindus that make them bow even before the tokens and emblems of other faiths and religions - with highest respect and that too as almost in a reflexive manner. Developing respect for other religions comes almost natural to Hindus. It is no nonsense that while even neighbouring countries with identical background as ours chose to become non-secular state in their complete senses, Hindustan preferred 'secularism' by heart. This idol-worshipping attitude that makes Hindus prone to falling prey to even those Godmen who try to take undue advantage of their honest beliefs – also help them in becoming 'true seculars'. While there is indeed a need to caution gullible Hindus to test a person completely before accepting him/her as a Godman, it is even more important to ensure that idol-worshipping is neither underestimated and nor ridiculed ever as it helps in producing truly 'secular' persons in abundance to keep the secular character intact of this country.

PK - pure entertainment or hidden intentions?

Both OMG and PK deals with the same subject and both of them intend to convey similar messages but their treatments are entirely different. OMG was a constructive criticism but PK is out and out a destructive and derogatory in nature. In OMG, the storyteller very intelligently pits God Himself against the Godmen and God wins convincingly – fair enough. While OMG forcefully placed the point of view of non-believers, with that it also encouraged believers to go for introspection.

I just saw a panel discussion on IBN7 where everyone argued that Hinduism is so great, so tolerant, it has such a rich history of reforms and unmatched treasure of philosophy that extends much beyond any set of narrow rituals that those who are asking for a ban on the film actually do not understand Hinduism. What hurts hard is actually this – that the opposition for the film is being sought on a ground that film ‘intentionally’ refrains from conveying about Hinduism. Hinduism is equated with idol-worshiping and following Godmen only. While following mindlessly a book and its interpreters may be others’ approach but certainly not of Hindus. Very cleverly, on this ground Hinduism is ridiculed excessively as compared to other religions. The rich Vedic philosophy of life that extends beyond idols and the attention that even ‘atheism’ has received in our ancient culture of Hinduism has been completely ignored ‘intentionally’. The film puts monolithic ‘religions’ and our plural ‘culture’ on the same line – and that is what hurts those who believe in plurality. The stupidity in the treatment would become obvious when someone would ask us to avoid meeting a doctor just because a few of the doctors are caught in criminal acts. Will it be acceptable to ask people to do research themselves and invent medicines instead of going to a doctor and giving him a chance to victimize you?

There is nothing wrong till the film is taken purely for its entertainment value but when the support is given for the message that the film intends to spread then Hinduism would certainly find itself at a great disadvantage in this film. That the average film-goers in India is not as aware of our rich cultural heritage as those who are against it – thanks to our ‘secular’ approach – it only works against Hinduism. That a Hindu needs to go to a far off temple to seek solution of his problem is not universally acceptable in Hinduism and was only an advice by a Godmen, but one needs to go to Haj to book a place in heaven - is a religiously accepted norm in Islam. It was also strange to witness an unrealistic open atmosphere in a Pakistan embassy for an Indian girl. To prove a point the film goes on to show even a secular India in a poor light as compared to an out and out Islamic and terrorist state of Pakistan – and this alone raises many questions on the honesty of the filmmakers.

Just as ‘3 Idiots’ worked wonders in disorienting students and encouraged them to take studies non-seriously, this film also has similar targets against Hinduism. I just wish that the success of this film (unlike 3 Idiots) does not get translated in spreading its message against Hinduism and gets confined only against ‘dishonest’ Godmen.