Was surprised at the misconceptions of Rononjoy Sen who has written a piece in ToI (wondering if ToI is so very short on columnist to enlist any Tom Dick and Harry these days). I have to only attribute his tirade maybe to his intellectual bankruptcy making him think that he is more intelligent than Spiritual Gurus or more likely plain delusive ignorance. Why then did I read this piece – only because I happened to see 2 names Sri Sri Ravishankar and Baba Ramdev. Goes on to prove that his piece would not be worth the ink it is printed on and it attracted eyeballs only because of the names he has dropped
Even for an ordinary beginner in the spiritual path, it is evident that this writer just dished out some c**p in the name of article – maybe a deadline imposed before the publication went to print made him go rabid in his thoughts (wondering who in ToI lent him the space). Would give this Editor a nice tight slap for insulting my common sense.
For me, Spirituality is all about enriching and enhancing values in society. It includes everything that concerns society and Politics is something that deeply impacts the society. Possibly Sen grew up reading a lot of Amar Chitra Katha thereby stereotyping how a Spiritual saint should be as depicted in those “comics for Kids” (agreed it helped me lot in this path, but the only difference is that I grew up beyond these lovely & informative comics). To him, they must wear saffon robes, be somewhere up in Himalayas and sit in a trance, in blissful ignorance of the happenings in the world.
How can any responsible social being nurse a hackneyed thought that anyone part of this society should be above politics especially such Spiritual Siddhis who have chosen to reform this very society which is impacted by politics. What does “they should remain above politics” mean. By voicing their popular voice in the interest of common good, they are playing the spiritual role that they have set out to play. Didn’t he read about the proactive roles that a lot of saints played even in those comic strips. Chanakya, Vivekananda, Dalai Lama are examples of spiritual leaders along with the names he has mentioned especially Sri Sri Ravishankar who assumed seemingly what appears to us as Political responsibility but without politicking – If we look without any prejudice, this participation was limited to spiritualizing Politics to improve responsiveness of this class.
Now coming to these two penny Columnist – is he playing the larger role that he is expected to? Or do we see a sinister design or promotion of something more vested? He has confused Religion and Spirituality yet embarks on some psuedo intellectual adventurism. After all they were not promoting legalizing black money or spying against our nation. They fought against the biggest bane of this nation, “Corruption” which to my surprise ticked you off! (probably your brand of writing doesn’t subscribe to such noble goals. It is doing the bidding of your political masters)
Finally, you should be well aware that you could reach a very few of us who cared to even give a glance to this article because of the names you have dropped to sell it (apparently at the behest of some corrupt sections of the society you have articulated some perverted idea which you need because it apparently feeds you) but please note these Masters don’t feed off Politics or the so called newsmakers.
And! Let me know when your word processor is crashing (or you still use the Quilled Writers as seen in Amar Chirta Katha?). I declare a celebratory party for myself on that day.
Happy Navratris! And Vijayadashami. Let us win over these narrow minded, selfish agenda driven columnists.
ensures 