It happened sometime back. I was visiting Benares-Varanasi, the holy city of the Hindu religion. There I met a lady, a Swiss citizen, who had come to India to learn and experience the art of prayer and meditation. She would have been in her late 40’s or early 50’s. I was very impressed by her eagerness to talk about, and to learn, Indian Spirituality. 

She told me that she had been there for quite a while, and that prompted me to ask her the question... “In the time that you have spent here now, have you come across anybody whom you would truly consider to be a spiritual person, one who could be a spiritual guide to you?” 

Her answer came to me as an anti-climax because I was expecting her to be excited, even ecstatic telling me about the many masters she had met. But no! I could see her enthusiasm and excitement going down, as she shook her head in a negative signal. “None at all”, she said. I was just as disappointed as she was. 

Seeing my disappointment, she hastened to repeat that no one in Varanasi had impressed her as a true spiritual master. But she added that up in Gangotri town she had chanced upon a Swami who had the airs of a spiritual man. Only one, and he, too, not in Varanasi but in Gangotri!

Sometime later, I happened to be talking to a professor of Indology, who holds a doctorate from the Benares Hindu University. And I shared with him my experience with the Swiss lady. I asked him what he thought about that experience of hers and mine. He brushed the whole thing aside by saying that Benares has become highly commercial, and that he was not at all surprised that the Swiss lady did not find anyone who would help her in her spiritual quest.

I was surprised at this reaction of the Indologist, just as I was nonplussed at the disappointment of the Swiss lady. Who would not? Having been born and brought up in this country, which is the cradle of so many ancient religions, we have always known that many people from other countries come to India with the hope of finding God in Meditation, Prayer and Yoga. But now, I wondered, is this reputation of our beloved country being taken away from us? 

My thoughts flew to all the things that are happening in our country nowadays. With the many indices like rule of law, women’s safety, curb on freedom of the Press, curb on the freedom of religious practice, etc. showing a downward trend, are we passing from being spiritual masters to religious persecutors? This would be the worst of all tragedies to hit our country.

Land of godmen, gurus

We know that India has now become a centre for medical tourism, with people from other countries, especially the Arab countries, coming here to get their medical problems solved. Similarly, and with more and better reasons, India could well become a centre for spiritual tourism, with people coming from other countries to seek spiritual help. In fact, we had already acquired this reputation.

We remember the famous “pilgrimage” to Rishikesh of the legendary Beatles, who came to Rishikesh to be with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to learn the art of Transcendental meditation. It was a very big event at that time, because the Beatles had become a world-wide phenomenon. 

Unfortunately, that greatness boosted their pride, which made them say that they are more famous than Jesus Christ! They did not realize that God is the one who “scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts, and puts down the mighty from their thrones...” (Lk. 1:51-52) And that is what happened! Where are the Beatles today? It seems that their Rishikesh experience also did not have a very happy ending.

Then there was Bhagwan Rajneesh, who had hundreds of followers, mostly young foreigners, surrounding him, supposedly, to learn the art of praying and meditating. I had had the opportunity to listen to one of his discourses, which he used to hold at his Centre in Pune. Great speaker who attracted hordes of these youngsters and held them spell-bound with his oratory. That experience also did not have a happy ending. I remember meeting a sorrowful mother in Pratteln, Switzerland, who could not stop crying as she told me the story how her beloved daughter’s life was destroyed in the Rajneesh Ashram in Pune.

The fact is that, as reported, both Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Rajneesh ended up losing the cult they had built up around themselves. As a matter of fact, Bhagwan Rajneesh eventually moved to Oregon, in the United States of America, where a grand, big commune of his arose, called Rajneeshpuram. Things did not go well for him there, too, and he ended up being deported to India. He died in Pune on 19th of January 1980. 

There is yet another one about whom I would like to say a word, leaving aside many other god-men our country has produced. This is Satya Sai Baba, who was at Whitefield, Bangalore. He became like a magician god-man, who produced watches and other interesting items out of thin air! 

I once met an Irish man, in the aircraft, flying from Bangalore to Goa. He had just come from the Ashram of Satya Sai Baba, and was excited as he spoke about his visit there. He held his wife’s hand to show me the very pretty ring his wife was wearing. He said it was given to her by Satya Sai Baba that same morning. He said the god-man just put his hand up in the air as if to pick up the ring from there, and gifted the ring to his wife! 

Whatever may have happened to these three famous god-men, I do not want to pronounce any value judgement about them. My point is that, like these three famous god-men, there have been, and there are, many others who are recognized by their followers as spiritual masters. 

People of silence

Our beloved India is famous on many counts. The world talks about India and Indians as being intelligent, smart, versatile etc. But what strikes me most is that they say that Indians are spiritual, meditative and silent, almost by nature. A friend of mine in the USA often says to her American friends, talking about Indians: “Never take an Indian for granted because she/he is silent and quiet. An Indian will come out, albeit seldom, and prove once and for all that it is often better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and leave no doubt.” Hence the silence of an Indian.

And that is often so, because their silence is an inner silence, which flows from their inner union with God, the One above. In Vipassana this silence is called Noble Silence. No unnecessary clutter and chatter. 

This used to be the reputation that India and Indians enjoyed. But now it looks like we have come to a point when this reputation is being taken away from us. A friend in Austria who always showed great respect and reverence for India and Indians is now deploring the fact that she cannot put that reverence side by side with the treatment that has been meted out, for example, to Fr. Stan Swamy, a Jesuit Priest, who had dedicated his life for the welfare of the tribals in Jharkhand. 

Her contention is, how can those who claim to be so closely united with God accuse an innocent human of being a terrorist? Being a Catholic, she keeps reflecting on, and quoting the text from the Bible, which says: “If anyone says ‘I LOVE GOD’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). She says she just cannot put the two things together: the great spirituality of the Indian nation about which she has read so much, and the kind of treatment the nation gave to a saintly man like Stan Swamy, as also to all the other people, who are being persecuted, lynched and killed because of their religion, culture and beliefs. 

She says that she has been reading about what is happening in our country, namely, the persecutions of the Christians, Muslims and minorities in general. “The silence of the leaders of India in this situation is deafening” she says. “Can they be called spiritual, when they are not even human?” she asks. This friend is one of the many who love our country and its inheritance, civilization and culture. For this reason they all wonder what is going on here. Has India forgotten and abandoned God?

It has been all over the world media that India has given up playing the much-loved hymn “Abide With Me” at the Beating Retreat ceremony. Dropping the hymn, much- loved by Mahatma Gandhi, against the background of all that is happening in our country, is making people think that India is now deviating from its long-held ideals, and drifting away from God, and consequently from the neighbour.

Indeed, I see many of our politician-leaders going about with swollen chests, acting as if they were gods, and hardly uttering the word ‘‘God” in their speeches. They go about as if they do not need God. They are perfect disciples of Friedrich Nietzsche, who liked to apply the title “the anti-christ” to himself. For him all what was “power” was good. And all what was weakness and meekness was bad. 

Consciously or unconsciously many of our political leaders seem to have imbibed the values of Nietzsche. Paradoxically, however, they become the weakest of all, when they fall at our feet begging for votes, while becoming stronger than God, once they are elected, and hold the power in their hands. It is high time they and we all realized that this kind of “power” only makes us weak, poor and even bankrupt before God. 

I hope and pray that the dropping of ‘Abide With Me’ from Beating Retreat Ceremony may not be an indication of the inner disposition of our leaders. One thing is certain that, even if we drop God from our lives, He will never leave us. Let us hope and pray that, even if some of our leaders have deified themselves, forgetting the one true God, the country and its citizens may not follow them. May our country hold on more and more to our traditional spiritual inclination. May many people continue to come to India to learn spiritual teachings from true and genuine gurus, shunning the company of those who are fake gurus. Unfortunately, there are too many of them. May our constant prayer be ABIDE WITH ME O LORD.