Will the gullible Indians learn a lesson from Asaram's conviction and life imprisonment?
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
01 February 2023
"I need no master, nor do I look for evolution,
Evolved I'm already, none I hanker after"
Omar Khayyam, translated by the author
"I'm no one's spiritual guide. For, I'm an
eternal seeker."
From ' Divan-e-Shams-e-Tabrizi ' (Shams said this
to Rumi when the latter asked for spiritual guidance)
"Justajoo-e-irfaan mein aql-e-saleem ko hi
peer-o-murshid samajh........."
(In search of self-realization, consider your
prudence as your guide)
(Allama Iqbal, never had a master though he
considered Rumi his Ruhani Ustaad, a spiritual master)
"Your spiritual treasure is within you. It's
immanent."
-A Sufi saying
"Be not a musk-deer
You're already a seer"
...
Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu has been sentenced
to life term in a 2013 rape case (Photo: File)
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An Indian court has sentenced a self-styled
spiritual guru to life imprisonment for raping one of his devotees. Asaram
was found guilty of assaulting the woman several times between 2001 and 2006 at
his ashram in the western state of Gujarat. This puts a question mark on the
genuineness of all spiritual masters because many of them do not have a
spotless history. Nearly a millennium ago, Jalaluddin Rumi said so
prophetically in Pahalavi, Nee ast ustaadam,tasawwuf ighlaaf, choon rast
naazif mee nam darkaar — ‘We need no spiritual masters; we need spiritually
evolved souls, who don’t teach and preach’. The last clause is of cardinal
importance: ‘who don’t teach and preach’. The proliferation of spiritual
masters with their teachings and preaching has made the entire shebang of
spirituality somewhat shady and suspicious. Of course, there are real masters
as well, among the fake ones. But they get eclipsed by a legion of phoney babas
and fly-by-night operators. J Krishnamurti, when asked by someone
in the audience, to show the light, the path, too benighted souls like himself,
responded, “First of all, stop calling yourself a benighted soul and after
that, stop calling me a guru. I’m not a guru and no one’s my follower.”
With this, he ended the discourse for the day.
There’s an Uzbeki adage that states: Taa sarf ul aadim,ul-fazim
naavard — ‘Make no one your guru and you’ll never be disenchanted or
duped’. We’re all basically spiritual beings and even those who are atheists
and apatheists among us, are spiritual, because, to be spiritual, one
needs no god or any other esoteric power. Even an atheist can be spiritually
enlightened and highly evolved. The Buddha, Mahavira, Yagyvalakya,
Lopamudra, and Descartes among others were atheists. But they were
spiritually streets ahead of their theist peers. When we seek gurus, we tend to
forget the very basic fact that we all carry the effulgence of spirituality in
our individual existence. Apna hi but bana, apne hi but pe lot ja/Tere
dil-o-dimagh pe dairo-haram ka baar kyon — ‘Make your own idol carved out
of your inner Self and genuflect before that/ Why should you have the
encumbrances of god, shrines and scriptures?’ The truly realised are never
interested in becoming gurus. In the words of Rene Descartes, “To be a
‘spiritual’ master is to be doomed.” Osho, despite his great fan
following, often felt that the tag of a master actually imprisoned him. His
free spirit got incarcerated.
Ramana Maharshi would politely tell
all visitors not to call him a guru. “Even a guru is forever a disciple” was
his classic refrain. Nowadays, we tend to be drawn to those who can play at the
gallery and speak spiritual inanities couched in recondite language. This is
not spirituality and neither are these people gurus or masters. In one of his
Persian poems, Fariduddin Attar described the qualities of a spiritual guru: Ta
vizdam (this word in archaic Persian gave the word ‘wisdom’ to English) fin-naaz
ustif, il-abraa in mazeef /Ta queif ul-baatin inhaaz murzin — ‘A real
spiritual master has an aura and you immediately recognise him with that
sparkling glow. He doesn’t have to blow his own trumpet’. Finally, Sartre ended
the debate so succinctly by saying, “A real master has no followers, no home,
no property and no social accessories. His own life is a lesson in
spirituality. He’s a living enlightenment.” Coming from a lifelong atheist and
existentialist like Jean-Paul Sartre, these words have their own significance
in today’s spiritually murky and dubious world. All said and done, the
million-dollar question remains: Despite all this, will our credulous masses
learn a lesson? I'm afraid it seems improbable.
Note: A slightly different version of this article
appeared in The Times of India's supplement Speaking Tree, now defunct, on
Sept. 1, 2017.
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