Godmen and the followers

Last evening, my father and I met a neighbour of ours near a store. As usual, I stopped with the usual hello smile and stood a few feet away, while my dad went on to catch up with him.

The subject that he opened up was "enna, ella sevaiyum mudichaachaa?". This apparently, was in reference to my neighbour's activities during Puttaparthi Sai Baba's recent visit to Chennai.

I didn't realise that this guy - the neighbour - was a devout bhakta of the Sai Baba. What he was telling my father really caught me unawares. He told my dad in a passion-choked voice about how his interactions with the "great one" were.

One of the main things he was harping on was how the Sai Baba, before leaving his holy abode "Sundaram", mingled with the volunteers and actually touched the hands of a lucky few. My neighbour was one of them. Turns out, that the Sai Baba's finger tips brushed past the finger tips of my neighbour.

So this guy was all gaga about the whole thing. And during the 2-3 minutes that he spoke to us, this was the only thing he was saying. My dad tried his best to close out the topic with generic statements, but in vain.

But thankfully, before I could start saying anything, we somehow managed to bring the conversation(!) to an end.

But it makes me think about one thing. So many educated people are staunch believers of such Godmen. Irrespective of whether he has done something good to the society (like the Puttaparthi Sai Baba) or something different (like Premananda), the bottom line is that, they are all men. Human beings. Like you and me.

If you can see God in them, what gives you the right to question the average movie fan, who sees his thalaivar as God. On seeing him on screen, he too enters a state of trance. He is willing to go any lengths to appease him by doing paal abishekam or showing camphor when he comes on screen. Or showering hard earned money at the cinemas.

How different is his behaviour from the devotees of Godmen?