Idol Worship Is Idle Worship
Thought LeadershipFor Reflection: CryMyBelovedCountry ~ You know a huge mindset change is needed in your country, when your people worship crooks and fraudsters who have a hand in many a scam. A nation’s culture resides in the soul, conscience, character and behaviour of its people. I have a dream that our children will someday live in a country where people are respected for their courage of character and righteousness, and not for their shallow celebrity stature.
This is a thought I posted recently on social media after I read that a statue of Amitabh Bachchan had been installed in a temple built for him in Kolkata. The post went viral and several commented that we as human beings had lost the plot, worshipping crooks whose names featured in every black list and Hall of Shame, be it the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Bofors or other scams. Several also posted that building statues – be they of celebrities, kings like Chattrapati Shivaji, freedom fighters like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or even Gods like Adiyogi, were not good when children and people were dying of hunger in this country.
I wonder how the culture of our country has regressed so badly that people, including the urban, educated elite indulge in idol worship and forget to respect the human being. We like taking pictures with crooked rogues who are celebrities, but forget to respect poor municipality workers, who keep our country clean and are true custodians of public health and welfare. I find this trend disturbing. More than the ignorance of the masses, the hypocrisy of the educated elite is dangerous. This is happening because we are taught only to respect stature, eminence and titles, but not to respect the human being.
Imagine! A temple is built by a crooked Godman, who says that only men (women are not strong enough) can enter the sanctum sanctorum after they learn how to withstand the power of the energy (of course, you have to pay for the learning. This is the Godman’s business model). And the educated elite fall for this chicanery.
Some months ago I saw a Whatsapp-video of a Kangaroo-shaped garbage bin that was installed in a temple at some place in Bihar. The poor ignorant bhakts (devotees) of this temple in Bihar thought this was another God and started worshipping the garbage bin. Maybe, it’s better to worship that Kangaroo-shaped garbage bin than to worship these crooks and their statues.
IdeasForAction: Let us all use our discretion and common sense as human beings to understand that this kind of worship is misleading and reflects on the culture of our society. Let us learn to respect every human being and not get misled by the stature or false speak of celebrities and Godmen. This is the third column in my trilogy of columns that exposed celebrity lies and falsehoods. Let’s all pledge not to indulge in idle worship and learn to worship the God in human beings. People who blindly trust and worship these celebrities and Godmen, must check if they are trustworthy or betraying their trust. Celebrities, businesses and Godmen should learn to live up to the trust and adulation extended by the people and not betray their trust.
