“Graveyard is just another place”

We are a devoutly religious nation. Religion runs in our veins, dwells in our marrow, reigns over our neurons, lords over our day-to-day actions, tickles our hearts, resolves our existential dilemmas, guides our destinies and oversees our peaceful journey to the grave with a hope for a berth in heaven. We breathe religion, we sing religion, we shout religion, we fight religion, we live religion, we die religion. The politicians flaunt religion, weaponise and glorify it by building bhavya edifices (while we need world-class schools and hospitals) at taxpayers’ cost and use them as their ‘brahmastra’ to polarize society, bulldoze opposition and win elections.

 Religion has its vile cousin too. We call it superstition. Both are in fact conjoined twins often impossible to tell apart. They gel and blend like water and milk. This unwholesome ‘opiate’ breeds fake babas, god-men and gurus who exploit the vulnerabilities of the gullible to the hilt. With glib, silken words they create a misty mirage of the divine, become powerful cult figures with mass following, get filthy rich, build empires, enjoy political patronage, rape bhakt-women, and live a life of many-splendoured luxury. Some offer instant miracle cures with just a holy whisper in the ear (though not gratis!). Some imperial-looking babas ensconced in their high chairs - turning very basic commonsense on its head - pronounce ludicrous, nonsensical “do-this, don’t-do-this” diktats for “kripa” to shine on their hapless obeisant bhakts for their afflictions both worldly and other-worldly. The latest example of superstition triumphing over reason was the (‘ghost-haunted’) demolition of a school in Orissa following the Balasore train accident.

However, in this climate of superstition masquerading as religion, a man called Satish Jarkiholi brings a whiff of fresh air. He is a 3-time Congress MLA from Belgaum in Karnataka. He has found a novel way to bust the walls of superstition with his own laser torch of reason. To set an example, he launches his election campaigns not from any holy place or a marigold-bedecked high stage. He does so from a graveyard!  Nor does he summon a jyotishi for a shubh muhurat to file nomination papers or take oath. He does so in the much-dreaded ‘Rahu kaal’: the most inauspicious time for the Hindus to launch any new initiative, big or small. And despite all his apparently ill-omened practices sure to spell doom and defeat, he wins elections.

 I was much delighted to learn about this sunshine of reason being spread by Satish Jarkiholi to help clear the cobwebs of superstition that beguile our minds. In fact, his progressive ideas have also been lauded by the President of the Rationalists Society of India, Shri Narendra Naik, a medical biochemist. “Graveyard is just another place,” he says. I didn’t even know that such a society even existed. Of course there was one in the past headed by Professor Abraham Kovoor that had a sizeable following. None ever took up his open challenge offering prize money to any miracle-claiming baba to correctly figure out the numerals on a currency note with his divine powers.

When religion and sadhus hold sway, strut in the streets, become presiding deities in the high halls of power – old and new – superstition dances with sardonic joy. Because, science, reason (and Constitution-prescribed ethos) then retreat and sink into an abyss. But the inspiring presence of Satish Jarkiholis instils hope and optimism. May their tribe increase so that our Bharat Mata, freed from the fetters of medievalism, and decked up in all its rainbow colours of modernity, stands tall, vibrant and beaming in the comity of nations.

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