Sainthood in a Materialistic Society

(By V.R. Talasikar)

"The final mystery is oneself. When we have weighed the sun, in the balance and measur­ed the steps of the moon and mapped out ....  the seven  heavens star by star,  there still .      remains oneself."

— Oscar Wilde1 — De Profundis

On the occasion of Saibaba's 50th anniversary of Samadhi, I propose to examine one of the disquieting sociological problems in our society against the back­ground of the wave of Baba's posthumous popularity during the last two decades. The question intriguing social thinkers is whether saints are now an anachro­nism and what is the purpose or function of sainthood in a mechanistic society surcharged with Epicurean values.

Macaulay  felt  that  poetry receded  as  science progressed.   Many   are   convinced   that   astounding advances in natural sciences caused moral values to wither away.   Discoveries in  material  sciences and gadgets invested men and nations with power and opened avenues of acquiring fabulous wealth.    Man knows that power corrupts and wealth demoralises; but he does not want to realize this tragic truth. Manu purposely kept the selfless intelligentsia in the society away from these two forces of destruction, by incorporating suitable behaviour patterns (achara) in the social structure, in the interest of individual and national welfare.   Against the setting of an industrial and mechanistic society priding itself of a rationalistic outlook, we are now witnessing a bizarre spectacle of stark poverty in the midst of unlimited plenty, fifth and squalor as foils to skyscrapers and hippies nestl­ing in Himalayas, the seat of penance of ancient sages. Juvenile   delinquency  is   rising   despite   compulsory education and relaxation of divorce laws for bettering the  prospects   of  marital  happiness.    Personal  and social security is becoming illusory despite loud as­surances of fundamental rights.   There is a spurt in white-collar   offences   and   other   crimes   despite   an unprecedented rise of visitors to holy    shrines and devotees   seeking  absolution   before  the   images  of Baba and other saints.   From the lofty ethical norms set up in a constitutional   democracy, we are fast slipping into debasing hypocrisy.

The reason of this widening gulf between precept and practice, professions and actual behaviour is apparent. Knowledge is, no substitute for virtue. The pursuit of natural sciences is mainly motivated by a desire to acquire physical supremacy over others and sensual pleasure. This necessarily leads to a purpo­sive neglect of the sciences of mind and the regula­tion of individual and social behaviour. Natural science never provides us with the ends of life. The astounding advances in the field of technology have catered only to material comfort and sensuality, without a corresponding ennoblement of the moral plane and a rise in the standard of moral values. The pursuit of technology and the introduction of robots cannot be ends in themselves and if they do not sub serve individual lasting happiness and social well being, the time has come to look back on our mechanistic civilization, pause and consider and have second thoughts whether we should allow ourselves to be devoured by the machine. We are nearing the Moon but going farther and farther away from our neighbours. Billions of rupees are being spent in manufacturing deadly antibiotics as weapons to kill germs but at the same time environment is being created to undermine innate individual resistance and foster a social environment  leading to the growth of mental imbalance and social pathology. Law courts in this State are subsisting mainly on criminal litigation.

There are only two known deterrents keeping a man away from moral lapses and crime. The first is the physical force of the State enforcing legal punish­ment and the other is the deep imprint of moral values on the human mind. Rational thinking is not enough to compel a man to the righteous path be­cause man generally acts as he feels and not as he thinks. In. a futile bid to sublimate the erring mind with the help of literacy and technological develop­ment, both these pillars of social and moral stability are being systematically undermined, in the name of democracy and equality of opportunity. Jails are be­ing made more and more comfortable and many cri­minals are much happier in them than outside. They have ceased to be objects of fear to culprits and too tame to keep the erring folk on the path of virtue. Jails and reformatories are aspiring to be houses of correction and mental adjustment on the hypothesis that crime has its origin in economic ills. Offenders having scant regard for law and prevailing moral norms are finding good opportunity to justify their sins, blame everybody else except themselves and trace the cause of their sins to the rules of social behavior which do not admit of moral depravity.

All centres of authority are being demoralized. Teachers are being flouted and some times beaten by pupils and their guardians. The home has ceased to be the fountainhead of humility, obedience, restrain, cul­ture and a sturdy moral fibre under the love and affec­tion of pious parents. Administrative heads of offi­ces and police are being confronted with the same upsurge of indiscipline, defiance and lack of sincerity, honesty and industry in the population. Religion, the integrating force behind moral values, is stig­matized as an opiate of the people and to parade oneself as being secular and rational has become one of the showy features of modern sophistication in a space age. The mortal fear that a man is answera­ble to his creator for his lapses for which he would be condemned to utter perdition, made men cling fast to moral values which became ingrained in the nature itself. This cohesive force in religion is being under­mined in the name of natural science and technology. As an inevitable consequence we are now facing a flood of individual and social disease. And even then we are brazen facedly justifying the growth of social pathology as an unavoidable outcome of an industrial age!

To keep unsullied the respect for law, to guaran­tee the proper functioning of the rule of law and to see that the physical force of the State acts as a deterrent to crime and violence are the sole business of the State and leaders of public opinion. Owing to the disintegration of moral values, people are deve­loping a hardened conscience ready to perjure itself for selfish ends. The voice of conscience is being drowned by the jingling of coins and the din and bus­tle of industrial comfort. Conscience has ceased to bite as before, giving birth to a crisis of individual and national character. There is no hope for the na­tion unless the conscience is salvaged and moral values resurrected.

It is in this context of a resuscitation of moral values that sainthood plays a significant part. Saints possessing a part and parcel of Divinity did yeomen's service to the nation in the 15th and 16th centuries when moral and social security was at the lowest ebb and brought about a resurgence of moral values. What we badly need today is a few Saibabas having a real spark of Divinity, potent enough to rouse the conscience of the masses, make it shed the mud of temptation and regain its innate purity. These em­bodiments of Divinity by their exemplary character, selflessness and moral sublimity, would be able to in­fuse the nation and teeming millions of India, with a spirit of national service to the rejuvenation of moral values. Sainthood has thus a national function to per­form, of vital significance.

There are black sheep in every walk of life. Some lawyers and doctors may have turned their profession into a trade and some selfish souls may be mas­querading as saints and yogis. But saints who have attained self-realization would continue to emerge among us, as if sent by the Supreme Being to breathe fresh life in our moribund conscience and for the uplift of moral values. Baba laid down his mortal coils but if his memory and imperishable Soul are capable of purging the conscience of its dross, let us not discard them. Let us not worry being called cre­dulous. Even stark materialists, communists and socialists have their patron saints, though they are in China and Russia. Communists fondly justify Mao's miracles in a fit of "happy suspension of dis­belief" and they distinctly hear voices from Com­rade Saints in red countries. As G. B. Shaw4 observ­ed in his preface to Saint Joan, today when the doc­tor has succeeded to the priest, credulity or intolerance in this atomic age is grosser than that of our ancestors. The need of pious, selfless and devoted men on a higher moral plane capable of enlivening the moral conscience of the society, was never more keenly felt than now.

Miracles were never the singular attribute of saints. Now rope-tricks and miracles are being per­formed by politicians, educationists and thinkers of social legislation. Telepathy and action at a distance are now accepted as realities even by those who are credulous of the infallibility of reason.

Hypocrisy has been the bane of us all. With countless persons, visiting shrines and holy places is a ritual, just to be in the fashion, a piece of snob­bery, for displaying their religious devotion. The moment they are out of the shrine, their feet are in the clay and the mind engaged in deception. Let Baba's spirit disengage us from this cupidity and duplicity. Let Lord Shri Krishna as proclaimed in the Gita send amongst us his own Image, another Ramdas for forcing us to a higher moral and national plane. For,

"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us"............

—Shakespeare.

1 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish author and playwright of repute, leader of the cult of art for art's sake. j

2 T. B. Macaulay, Lord  (1800-1859)   A  brilliant, Victorian, historian;   member  of  the  Supreme  Council in  Calcutta. :    M.P.

3 Manu — mythical author of Manusmriti, the text of which was finalised by 2nd century A. D.

4 G. B. Shaw (1856-1950) Brilliant dramatist known for his pungent wit and devastating exposure of hypocracy. Nobel award winner for literature (1925).

5 William Shakespeare (J564-1616) Greatest British poet and playwright (37 plays!) Perhaps the lone writer of olden days who earned enough to build a house for himself.