East Is East and the West Is Decadent

ISN'T THIS PAINFUL?

There is this gentleman—let us call him Rajan-- and family whom I know to be followers of a certain Godman. I happened to accept—rather foolishly I realised later— his request to accompany him to have a darshan of the Godman..As we entered the road where the function was to be held I noticed a huge crowd following a man walking on the road.My host Rajan dashed to the crowd and barked to me to follow him which I did. The crowd cleared to let Rajan and and me enter the inner circle .At this point Rajan did a shashtanga pranam at the feet of the Godman right in the middle of a busy street. I hesitated .Seeing me hesitate he beckoned me to folow his example but I pretended not to hear him in the din of the street. ..

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What followed was even more bizarre. After a discourse by the Godman Rajan carried a bucket of water, , washed the feet—paduka as he referred to them-- of the Godman —and DRANK THE WATER THAT FLOWED OFF THE 'DIVINE' FEET .

I was aghast and left the venue in silent protest at what I felt was a total renunciation of common sense and total surrender to superstition and irrationality.

Now as it usually hapens to me I came across a paradoxical news item. The day after I experienced this ghastly episode I saw another facet of spirituality—an aspect that I suspect Rajan and some others like him never even gave a thought to.

Warren Buffet has donated to charity another $ 1.93 billion and has committed to donate to charity 99% of his wealth before his death .What is more at a gathering of billlionaires in and from US a commitment was made by ALL THOSE WHO ATTENDED that they will emulate the examples of Gates and Buffet and give away to charity almost all their wealth.

I recollect a friend of mine Renard inviting me to attend the Annual General Meeting of Berkshire Hathway in the US where the 'Oracle of Omaha' Warren Buffet would address shareholders for the whole day on matters concerning his company and on any other subjects that the audience chose to ask him to talk on. I could not attend but Renard told me later that he got talking with his neighbour at that AGM and enquired what he was doing. He noticed that the man was less impressively dressed than my humble friend . The neighbour shocked Renard by informing him that he was Buffet's son !

At the lunch break my friend had a meal and went to the sports room only to be invited by Bill Gates for a game of table tennis. Renard said that he was struck by the simplicity , approachability of the great man.

Now there is a lesson in all this for many of us who talk glibly and simplistically of the 'materialistic and decadent ' west and the 'spiritual' east. I am sure the Indian rich are doing their bit for charity but in view of the privations that the poor in India and elsewhere face there is much more thay they and all of us can do .

For instance I saw a report that the husband and wife team of TV magnates in India EACH EARN A WHOPPING RS 37 CRORES SALARY EVERY YEAR. Is it possible that the two declare that they will donate even 10 % of their salary—let alone 99% of their wealth-- for the poorest of the poor ? Will our Indian members of the Forbes list of Billionaires pledge to donate 99 % of their wealth the way their American counterparts have done ?

And as for Rajan I can predict that he will refuse to drink a glass of water if offered by a dalit. Rajan is a forward caste man and how can such a man drink water offered by a dirty dalit?

I believe Mother Theresa summarized best what practical spirituality meant. She said that when you have your final meeting with your maker He will not ask how many times you have read your holy book or how many times you went to your place of worship. He will simply ask—did you do your best for those less well off than you were?

I believe it is this understanding of spirituality that makes people like Mother Theresa—and others like her-- wash the gruesomely wounded feet of a leper, whereas Rajan and his ilk wash the feet of a Godman and drink that water.

There is an even bigger irony--Buffet and Gates are agnostics.

K.R.RAVI

www/krravi.com