Nirmukta » Siddharth Singh

My Name is Swami Baba and I am Not a Fraud

Siddharth Singh — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:50:44 +0000

“There is no such thing as a good Muslim or a bad Muslim, and a good Hindu or a bad Hindu; there are only good people and bad people”.

These lines are from the recent super hit Hindi film My Name is Khan starring Shah Rukh Khan, and were spoken by the mother of the lead character to him when he was young. These words have been hailed by moderates among Hindus and Muslims alike.

As a humanist and an atheist, I personally think this is a positive statement, and hopefully it will seep into the popular culture of India enough to unite moderates across the spectrum. After all, only when the moderates unite can the fanatic fringe be restrained.

However, this statement grossly simplifies a multifaceted issue. It is true that people are ‘good’ or ‘bad’, regardless of whether they are of one religion or the other, or of no religion at all. Atheists too can be ‘good’ and ‘bad’, for we are human beings too. In fact, one of the arguments that religious apologists often give is, “Mao and Lenin Were Atheists too, and they killed millions”.

Why then, do atheists criticize religion? Why do we propagate a society based on reason rather than faith? Aren’t there always going to be ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people, regardless of whether there is religion or not?

The System

The foremost reason why religion is detrimental to the society is that it creates a ‘system’ that enables the ‘bad’ amongst us to exploit the people above and beyond anything possible in a society based on freethought. To help you understand what I mean by this, allow me to illustrate how a ‘system’ can alter outcomes drastically, even though the mix of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people remains unchanged.

An Illustration

Take the case of the bureaucracy; specifically that of a department working for a certain ministry in the government. Say 3 out of the 10 people in the department are ‘bad’ (the kind who would use their positions to amass wealth and power, and wouldn’t work if given a choice), and the rest are ‘good’ (fairly efficient people who just want to do their work and get on with life as ethically as possible).

Case 1

The department where they work is such that there is no accountability and no deadlines. There are no rewards for good performance, and there is no punishment for failure. Everyone has a job for life, whether they work or not.

The work output of such a department would be fairly predictable. The 3 of the 10 can hold the ministry to ransom. They may amass wealth, harass the common man/woman, and delay regular work. If files are to pass through each of the 10 people, the 3 can hamper the working of the whole department. Hence most of the people who deal with this department would be harassed, even though 7 are doing their work well.

Case 2

Now imagine instead a department that has a carrot and stick policy in place, with accountability and an enforceable deadline for every task delegated to it. The bosses have the power to fire anyone who doesn’t perform, or is corrupt. The boss is herself monitored for performance. Even though there still are 3 people who are ‘bad’, we can imagine how efficiently such a department would work. Work would be completed faster, there would be negligible corruption, and the morale of the ‘good’ people would probably be higher. The output is drastically different from the previous case even though the composition of workers assumed is the same.

The System, as we see, is the differentiating factor. It can create enabling conditions that can radically change outcomes, ceteris paribus.

Applying this Method of Inquiry to God-men, Yoga ‘Gurus’, and Religion

Let us assume a certain Sri Swami Baba is a yoga, lifestyle and spirituality ‘guru’. For the sake of this essay, let us assume that this God-man is ‘good’ at heart, and only wants to see you happy and wants world peace. He preaches that ‘God’ loves you and he wants you to pray to ‘Him’. He tells you how prayer can be effective, and also about the harmless but effective traditional medicine and yoga techniques that can cure you of certain diseases. Money isn’t his concern, and he pumps a large part of the money donated to him by his bhakts into philanthropic activity. He does not aim to acquire political power either.

Is there any reason why such a person would be detrimental to the society? The answer is a resounding yes.

The problem isn’t Sri Swami Baba himself, but the System that he promotes and legitimizes. Because Baba is a ‘good’ man, and people perceive him to have a ‘positive’ impact on the society, God-men, Yoga Gurus, etc, in general gain legitimacy and are conceived to be good for the society by the people at large. Such gurus are welcomed into the daily lives of the bhakts, monetary donations are made possible and full unflinching trust by the followers is ensured. Blind, unquestioning faith is encouraged, and fiction gets masqueraded as fact. People are made to believe that there are ‘forces out there’ beyond the comprehension of science that for some peculiar reason these God-men understand very well. The society begins to accept that such God-men are a way to attain success and happiness.

Ripe conditions are hence created for anyone to exploit for his or her own benefit. Such trust and faith in spiritual religious gurus can be made full use of by anyone willing to do so. When God-men are caught doing something wrong, people dismiss them as aberrations that deviate from the ‘norm’. But in fact, there is no deviation from any norm; it is built into the system. The ‘bad’ people can exploit such unquestioning trust by the people at large for their own aims (power, money and sex) because the ‘good’ ones, such as our Sri Swami Baba, have legitimized it.

Such exploits would not be possible if the social consciousness of the people encouraged critical thinking and reason. If healthy skepticism was encouraged and no one was trusted blindly unless he or she made sense to the individual, such ‘bad’ people would never be able to make use of the society at large for their nefarious purposes to such an effect. People would then begin to treat individual claims on their own merit, and wouldn’t have to defend something they don’t agree with just because they ascribe to a particular label.

Certain ‘gurus’ exploit the common man and the neo-rich alike. In India, followers of such gurus show unflinching support even when a scandal comes to light indicting them of several misdeeds. They are able to get away because of their political connections and by using their wealth, which they are able to amass from their supporters. This has been seen in the case of several God-men, the most famous case being that of Puttaparthy Sai Baba. This is also a consequence of the system that is held together by the ‘good’.

This is not to say, however, that ‘good’ God-men cannot have a positive impact on the society. They most certainly can instigate social change for the positive. There have been instances of God-men working towards causes such as curbing female infanticide. Social change, however, can be lasting only when it is instigated by reason, science, empathy and humanism, and not because of inherent claims made in the name of religion or ‘God’. Promoting more superstition to curb a practice is terrible for the long term, because it only gets rid of one problem, and completely ignores the root cause which is the substance that superstition is made of. However, such short term solutions are essential towards ending much imminent suffering, until the long term solutions such as education and women’s empowerment can begin to take effect.

In a society, beliefs about ‘God’, ‘morals’, etc are organised to form religion. Religion too is a system. The masses are trained to have blind and unquestioning faith in religious leaders. Perversions such as the above hence emerge from the nature of religion itself and not only because ‘bad’ people exist in any population sample. This is true of all religious systems, although some religions, such as Islam, demand more unquestioning faith than others, such as Buddhism. When such blind faith of the populace is secured, it becomes easier to exploit this power for personal benefits or political mileage. If coupled with violent scriptures, it becomes a perfect recipe for war and bloodshed.

Mao and Stalin Were Atheists

Analysed this way, we see why the fact that atheists such as Mao and Stalin were involved in the killings of millions of people does not point to such cases occurring in a purely freethinking society: Mao and Stalin were a part of a system in which they were unquestioned leaders of their ideological parties. The violence resulted from their attempts to secure political hegemony, and not because they disbelieved in the concept of god. This is different from a religious extremist killing in the name of the god and religion.

A freethinking society would reject any ideology where a ‘leader’ asks for blind faith and unquestioning support. The so called ‘New Atheist’ movement is out to promote a society based on pure reason and humanism. It is not a political and economic movement.

Irreligion: from a ‘Luxury’ to a ‘Necessity’

The unfortunate socio-economic, political and geographic realities of our society have led to a world where a vast majority live in heartless conditions. In spite of toiling in order to make ends meet, people have to deal with insecurity, exploitation, family problems and other issues. People hence understandably are quick to turn to religion for succor. The well-off also feel the need of religion to give them the comfort of ‘security’, economic and otherwise. That religion is fed to an individual right from birth and it is difficult to break out of this bubble is a different matter.

Irreligion, and in particular ‘atheism’, requires inquiry into history, science and philosophy, which in turn requires time, capacity to study, and patience. Freethought is hence a ‘luxury’ to most people in India and indeed the world for obvious reasons.

However, we see that religion itself contributes to the misery of the people at large, although the victims themselves do not realise it. Individual factors are blamed, but the structure itself goes unquestioned. This is a vicious cycle where misery is turning people to religion, which is adding to the further misery. Religion hides behind the smokescreen of ‘morals’, ‘values’, ‘peace’, etc, but gives rise to a behemoth due to the nature of its very structure.

It is hence imperative that this structure, or system, is transformed and replaced by one where humanism, and “atheistic spirituality” (for the lack of a better word), become the guiding philosophies in order to lead ethical and fulfilling lives.

A Comment on Religion and India’s Poor

Siddharth Singh — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:57:54 +0000

In the last week of 2009 I happened to visit a site where NREGS activities were being carried out, and I happened to talk to the workers employed there about the economic, social, and religious issues that impact them. While my purpose of the chat with the workers was mainly economic, a few issues relating to religion emerged, which I purpose to bring to light here. (For those interested in the economic issues we discussed about, look out for the article on my blog, which I intend to put up in the near future).

For the unacquainted, ‘NREGS’ stands for ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’, and it promises to provide work for the rural unemployed workers in India for 100 days a year, and pay them up to Rs 100 a day, subject to completion of work. The workers who seek jobs under this scheme are usually the poorest who have no other alternatives.

I was in the Pali District of Rajasthan when on my way to a farm in an oasis in the dry state, I ran into public works of the NREGS, where about a 100 workers were working on a road. A quick scan showed that about 80% of the workers were women. It was about 4-5 PM and their work day was coming to an end. I interacted with them for about 30 minutes.

I was fortunate that they were willing to chat with me and my father, a retiree, although I was apprehensive that they might not appreciate the nosy questions we were about to ask. But I was wrong, and they were more than willing to talk about their problems.

About 90% of the women workers claimed to be illiterate (the question asked was, “how many of you can write your name?”). The only literate ones were below 20 years of age. However, all of them claimed that all their children (yes, girls included), were in school, or had completed education.

After a long chat about their economic constraints, we moved to the issues of caste, religion, and the politics of religion. Most claimed to be of lower castes, and claimed that they were often denied jobs where existing workers were of higher castes, for the fear that the existing staff would refuse to work with them. One young man claimed to have a first class graduate degree, but said that he applied in several private sector companies, and he was refused posts at the officer level and was only offered work as a labourer, and he claimed that most of these prospective employers explicitly stated that his caste was an issue (he was an SC).

It is rather sad that caste plays such a role in Hindu society even today. The Hindu right wing organisations cry foul when these lower castes attempt to convert should look at the issue beyond the narrow-minded approach that they are only forced to convert. Here, I would like to explicitly state that I am against all religion and that I don’t believe this problem will end by conversion. I target all religions for their regressive practices and here it happens to be that of the Hindu majority in rural India. I would like to see irrational and regressive religion to be comprehensively replaced by humanist and rational individual beliefs.

Moving on, when asked if they celebrated Diwali, none replied in the positive. This came as a surprise to us. They claimed that they didn’t even make a special meal for the day, or lit any lamps (which is something even the poorest can afford to do, economically speaking). One pointed out that she earned about Rs. 40,000 a year, of which she spent half of it on her health care alone. She said that Diwali was relatively inconsequential, and the only religious practices that their community follows in the village nearby was what we would term animistic, although they did ‘believe’ in ‘Lord Ram’ etc.

I then moved on to the issue of the Ram Mandir/Babri Masjid. I asked if they were aware of the issue. Going by the response to the Diwali question, I was doubtful they would be. But a few were. The ones who were, when asked if the issue mattered to them, said that their only priority is food and shelter, and anything else didn’t matter. They claimed that politicians came about asking of votes on several issues, and they didn’t care about it. All they wanted was food and shelter. When I asked them if they would ever join a political march (a ‘yatra’) to build a Ram Mandir, one woman retorted, “they should have a yatra to make houses for us”. On being asked about the Ram Setu/Palk Strait issue, they all claimed that they had never heard of the issue.

They were indeed bitter about their state of affairs and even blamed the higher castes, the ruling classes of the villages, who they claimed were the cause of their backwardness.

Also interesting to note is that they all barely knew about the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai by Pakistan based jihadists. They said something had happened, but didn’t know exactly what, who did it, or that the lone captured terrorist named Kasab is alive and being tried. Surely, if Hindu-Muslim riots had followed the attacks, as they have in the past, people such as them would have been victims of an issue that they understand not.

There also happened to be two women among this group who were Muslim (they claimed they were ‘Mohammaden’). They both knew of the Babri Masjid destruction, but didn’t seem to know much else about the issue. When asked why so many Muslims choose extremist jihad, they claimed that there are bad apples in every group. Of course, as is the case of casteism (see below), I believe that extremism in the name of Islam is a result of the nature of the religion itself, and not a case of “bad apples in every group”.

It is a fact that 75.6 % of India’s population lives on less than $2 a day. The workers I talked to surely form a small unscientific sample of this majority. If right wing Hindu political parties (and right wing Muslim parties) claim that concerns of religion are primary, they are sadly deluded. Of course, liberal parties in India pander to religion too. But the scale and degree of the same is minuscule when compared to the right wing parties.

I have heard many Hindu apologists claim how the caste system wasn’t intended to be hierarchical and how it was made for the smooth functioning of the ancient society. They tend to pick and choose any text that confirms with their beliefs, and reject any that doesn’t. This of course, is something they do with scientific studies too. I once even heard a professor with a double PhD claim that “casteism is the will of God”. We all see how blatantly the caste system comes out in full colour every Sunday with the Matrimonial sections of our newspapers.

I strongly believe that casteism isn’t the result of a perversion by a fringe within Hinduism; it is instead a result of the nature of organized religion itself. When 1., people are trained to have “faith” in the religious leaders, 2., when scientific inquiry is shunned, and finally, 3., when dissent is opposed, perversions such as the caste system emerge from the nature of religion itself. (For those who will point out that the ancient Hindu practices encouraged scientific inquiry, there are two points to be made: one, ‘Hinduism’, as it is today, never existed then. The practices of scientific inquiry have now been absorbed in the fold of ‘Hinduism’ when it is in fact outside it. Two, try telling your neighbourhood sadhu that you will now test every claim he makes scientifically and wait for a response). Casteism can only be defeated when religion itself is made to take a back-seat, and when people adopt humanistic life philosophies to lead an ethical and fulfilling life.

How the right wing Hindu political parties and organizations are ensuring our society moves closer to regressive states of being is another matter. I once heard a sadhu say on national TV that matters of religion are prime, and that roads and water can take a back-seat. Even Islamic leaders put their rabid and regressive beliefs ahead of the liberal democratic system that we call India. Political parties only exploit this irrationality of the religious beliefs people hold, for their electoral benefits.

It is time we say no to religion, and adopt scientific and ethical lifestyles, and work together to make India, and indeed the world, a country of progressive people where religion doesn’t exploit the weak.

Disclaimer: I have no recorded proof of the above conversation, as it was unplanned. I plan on videotaping such conversations in the future. I suspect that some of you will allege personal biases and inaccurate reporting. I understand that, and have nothing more than my word to offer as proof of accuracy.

Atheists And Believers Finally Reach Consensus

Siddharth Singh — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:32:40 +0000

After years of debating over the Internet (they rarely debate outside), believers and non-believers have finally reached a consensus on something about God: God is incredible.

The Learning Curve is a comic strip published by Siddharth Singh. The above work was originally published here.