Anupam- The Dreamer

In the recent past, I saw some videos which provoked me to think about the prevalent culture of hero worship in India and also abroad. First one was of a lady in the United Kingdom who was asked by a reporter that “आपने मोदी जी को देखा (Did you see Modi ji)?”. She got emotional and had tears in her eyes saying that “देखा नहीं, दर्शन हुए हैं!”. In another video, one lady in the USA was literally crying with joy and excitement and said in her trembling voice “मोदी जी को देख लिया, छू लिया, बस मुझे और कुछ नहीं चाहिए।  मेरा dream पूरा हो गया। बस मैं उनको छूना चाहती थी, touch करना चाहती थी। वो मेरे भगवान हैं”. In yet other video, in an election rally in Bihar, one youth stopped the cavalcade of Shri Rahul Gandhi and climbed on his open jeep. When he was shirked off by his bodyguards, then he ran franticly behind his car for 100m, and again caught his leader and finally managed to shake hands, and then only he let him go. The questions that come to mind are- what is the thing such people gain by doing such sort of bizarre behaviour, why they replace God by mortal humans as their hero, and the most important question- Can God be really replaced by any leader?

In our country, we have a sacred practise of worshiping our Gods, by religious rituals, elaborate ceremonies and extravagant celebrations. And there is nothing wrong in that. But, the moot point here is that what are they celebrating really? If the celebration is confined to just mindlessly following the rituals without understanding their significance, singing the songs without understanding their meaning, and wear good clothes to show-off to the society without imbibing the good qualities of the Gods, then is this the true and desirable outcome of the worship? All the hulla and the celebrations turn out to be a nullity, if we cannot imbibe the good qualities and values of the Gods within our daily lives and work towards becoming a better person! For example, if we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, we must know the cultural significance of the festival and what attributes Lord Ganesh teaches us. But, we have seen people in Mumbai thronging to just touch the idol of Lord Ganesha (because of the fomo created by society), whether or not they learn something out of the ritual and the God. The point of worship goes for a complete toss if the focus is on the “means of worship” instead of the “end goal of imbibing good values”. I am not against the “means” per se, they are equally important, but without the “ends”, the “means” turn out to be meaningless. Worship in true sense is indeed a worship of the good ideals to make our life more virtuous and better.

This practice of worship has time and again transcended into hero worship in our society since ages. Earlier, the King or Queen was considered as an incarnation of God on earth. So, the subjects of the kingdom worshipped their King as their God, with elaborate rituals and ostentatious ceremonies. It was understood that “King can do no wrong” and as exclaimed by Shivagami Devi in Bahubali movie again and again- “मेरा वचन ही है शासन”, which means “whatever I say is the law of the land”. But, King/Queen is a human afterall. As it is said that “To err is human”, so the King/Queen also were not infallible. Thus, it was a fallacy to worship them as Gods, because Gods are infallible and not gullible to make mistakes.

After the end of monarchy and the rise of democracy, still the hangover of the monarchical setup has persisted in the society. In our country, people still have a tendency to worship their political leaders and other cult leaders as Gods, which I am afraid they are not. People have made temples of political leaders, film stars etc. and started worshipping them. They garland them, do their aarti, apply tilak on their statues and seek blessings. And when you ask what do they learn from their leader, they have nothing to say other than the thing that they treat him as God. Then, why are they doing all this pooja and all? Because they want to impress their leader and think that someday, the leader will become happy and give them some position of power like making them Ward member or district president of their party, MLA or even MP. Also, some people think that after the leaders become happy, they will give them some money, or some grant, or a pucca home, or some employment etc. Some people derive happiness from the meeting incident as they can boast off to their friends and family that he/she has seen their leader alive and even shook hands. The whole exercise or show-off is not directed towards celebrating the virtues of their leader, rather it is to gain popularity in the local circles to achieve selfish personal goals. Again, a case of misguided “means” to achieve nefarious “ends”.

In a democratic society, the real goal should be towards building a prosperous, flourishing and better society for every person. The leaders have the responsibility to take the society towards that path. But, treating them as Gods and worshipping them for the sake of sycophancy is like missing the woods for the trees. Every great leader should be revered, respected and celebrated for his/her virtues, not because he is occupying a position of power but because he/she represents virtuous goals and ideas. Then, there will be no need of chasing the cars of the leaders by running barefoot for 100m and crying to just see them, because such bizarre behaviour does not have any meaning bereft of what we acknowledge, learn and imbibe from our leaders. And worship we must, but not the mortal humans, rather the Gods and the immortal values that continue to guide the path of humanity towards a better future….