Heart of a Cult

 

A few years back, I had met an aged person who was a member of one of the spiritual cults that got a spiritual mother and falls under the umbrella of Hinduism. He had tried to persuade me to join his cult, telling me about its benefits and I remember that he had also criticized our original Hindu gods. I had not shown interest and was not in touch with him after that. Recently when he met me after a long time, he once again started telling me about how his spiritual cult changes a person and gives him powers. I just listened to him and wished he stopped talking. Then, half out of my sheer curiosity and half with intent to ‘change the topic’, I asked him abruptly about what was his and his organization’s opinion about actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. I was curious to hear his answer, since I wanted to explore how he would think about the topic. What he said, shocked and disappointed me at the same time.

The man immediately blamed Sushant for being immoral (because he has had multiple girlfriends without marriage), being a druggist (even though we do not know whole truth about drug angle in his death yet), and declared while sitting on a higher pedestal, “God is not a fool that He would help such immoral and corrupt men”.

On the surface, it seemed that he had got a good point. Why should God help bad people? But then, how are so many bad people winning in this world? Are they winning without God’s help or without God’s wish? And if God does not help bad people and God would help only good people, then why are so many good people in distress? Therefore, this high pedestal declaration that God did not help Sushant because Sushant was not a moral person, did not make sense.

What I was really interested in, was to understand how the brain of a member of a spiritual cult would work on a popular but controversial topic. The way our old man blamed Sushant for his tragic death, was too harsh. I could not see any empathy in his words or expressions. I found him too egoistic and his ego had caused him to blame Sushant for being non-confirmative by having multiple girlfriends or taking drugs. He did not see Sushant as a human, otherwise he would have tried to go to the next level to understand why Sushant had multiple girlfriends, or why he took drugs. If we see people as humans, we do not blame them for being what they are. People are often victims of circumstances or surroundings and it is not entirely their fault. We give others benefits of doubts too, because we know that humans make mistakes.

Afterwards, I wondered what was the use of being part of a spiritual cult if you couldn’t see a person beyond his deeds? How did the spirituality fail to change you when you couldn’t go beyond the first layer of a person’s psyche? What is the use of being able to explain spiritual concepts of your cult, but when it comes to judge others, you still resort to savagely throwing stones at sinners?

With bits of disappointment, I moved on. Our talkative man never asked me for my opinion and hence I did not get chance to share it with him. But perhaps it was better for him that he remained in his make-belief world where his spiritual mother would cure him of all his sins and send his soul to some sort of a paradise. Perhaps not all men are meant to be men of reason. Some are meant to be men of religion. In their own ways.  

- Rahul Tiwary