Posted by Eternal Muser on December 17, 2009 at 11:44pm
A conversation with my friend brought back a controversial event that took place in the state of Maharashtra, India, early this year.An eminent, award-winning author, Mr Anand Yadav wrote what he described as a well-researched novel on the great Vaishnava Saint from Maharashtra, Sant Tukaram.For those who don’t know, Sant Tukaram was fortunate to have received initiation from none other than SriKrishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself!In his book ‘Sant Surya Tukaram’, Mr Yadav allegedly wrote in a deprecating manner about Sant Tukaram suggesting that the great Saint was, in His formative years, ‘mischievous’ and habituated to visiting Gambling dens, gossiping with His childhood friends about their affairs with women etc. Mr Yadav does mention however, that Sant Tukaram regretted it and then decided to devote His attention to Lord Vithoba (Krishna).I have not yet read the entire book so I cannot comment first-hand on its content. In any case, the book earned the ire of the ‘Varkari Sampradaya’, the followers of Sant Tukaram. They asserted that the material in the book about Sant Tukaram is not authentic and entirely fictional. They succeeded in making the author withdraw the book from the market and tender an apology for writing the book. They also made the author resign as President of the Marathi Literature Academy etc. The Sampradaya have even demanded that here onwards, any book written on any Saint in Maharashtra should be scrutinized by a ‘censorship board’ which should include some of their members.The issue had stirred up the hornet’s nest and brought to the forefront the debate about the Freedom of Speech & Expression on one hand, and Traditional Religious Sentiments on the other.My take on the issue is that using Freedom of Speech to challenge and put an end to social malpractices like dowry, corruption etc is quite all right, even necessary.But to bring out intellectually and socially unproductive, inflammatory trash, all in the name of Art and Literature is something else.This incident is indicative of an undoubtedly unhealthy and growing trend in Society today. Using (or abusing?) their Freedom of Speech and Expression, some Authors, Artists (e.g. MF Hussain and his infamous Deity-paintings) etc. denigrate and malign Saints, Gods and Scriptures as they please.I am neither an expert in Marathi Literature nor on Sant Tukaram to comment on the content of the Mr Yadav’s book, and consequently whether he was in the right or wrong. But a few thoughts did strike me regarding why writers and artists are increasingly bringing out material that offend religious sentiments of others.It’s all about the money, honey.These ‘artists’ are after all, well aware of the fact that more the controversy their work creates, the more their work will be in the limelight and sought after. In short, the more it will fill their coffers. The world is bored by the ordinary. People want something extraordinary to chew on. And they are often willing to pay for the same. In India, this formula works even better where Religion and Morality are concerned. After all, people in India are very sensitive about their religious beliefs. So what better way to attract everyone’s attention than to malign a certain revered God, Saint or Scripture?The more shocking, the better.God? What God?I also find it difficult to believe that these people produce this material for the sake of Art alone. For I have been in touch with genuine artists and writers. Creating a beautiful painting, or writing a richly language-textured book is actually a spiritual experience for them. Let us not forget, that apart from a very few, most of the great writers, painters and poets of the past were deeply spiritual persons, often trying to seek out the deeper meaning of Life through their work.True Art and Atheism don’t mix.But an atheist who disregards God and Religion wouldn’t mind hurting religious sentiments. Simply because he does not have any himself.I am not a Muslim, but I do acknowledge that any person who prays sincerely to God through any religion, will ultimately find his path to Him. So I would not criticize, much less try and make money out of publicly maligning Islam.Not so, with an atheist.I, Me and MyselfMany Writers, Artists and many other intellectually gifted people are known to have highly inflated egos. They feel that their skill and knowledge, their perceived ‘correctness’ of their views and opinions, and their penchant to look at the world in a supposedly ‘unique’ and ‘original’ way (harmful as it may sometimes be!) gives them the right to destroy traditional Religious beliefs, however cherished and authentic.In their ‘well-researched’ work, authors/ historians often tend to fill up gaps in their stories with figments of their own imagination, rather than admit that they don’t understand or have the complete information about their subject of discussion.For e.g. when writing about the life of Saint, an author may come across a certain period in the Saint’s life about which evidence is unavailable. An egoistic author may easily concoct and/or ‘spice’ up that missing information to increase the authenticity and completeness. This would be easier to do than eat humble pie and confess that one does not know everything about the Saint (‘what would my colleagues say if I admitted my ignorance?!’).Yes, I am of the opinion that violence is not the key to oppose such people who wilfully hurt religious sentiments, as what happened with MF Hussain. But I also feel that material that has the potential to hurt the religious sentiments of people must be screened or ‘censored’ in some way. But then the issue of Freedom of Speech comes into the picture (after all, the author can always declare that he never forced anyone to read his book!). Truly, a Catch-22 situation.Perhaps the best way to deal with this is to educate our children and loved ones about the ‘wrongness’ and avoidance of such material, much like we’d warn them about alcohol, smoking and the like.And of course, Krishna Consciousness, which will prevent such material from affecting us!! :-) :-)But nevertheless, it hurts. It hurts inside, to hear an ignoramus criticize Someone, whom one reveres and worships. One who has sacrificed His life in order to teach people like us how to become Immortal.But having said all this, such incidents are only to be expected, for this is Kaliyuga, a far cry from the time when maligning God and His Devotees were considered so offensive that Bhima had to be restrained from killing Shishupala for daring to verbally insult Lord Krishna.Comments, anyone?
A truly wonderful article exposing these rascals who think they have the right to write anything and hurt peoples faith. Such people destroy the faith of people. and we should stop them. we must protect the Hindu and vedic religion from such plunderers. a new side site called Arise India Forum.org which is geared towards exposing such rascals. you could put up your article on this site.
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