I have some questions about religion and religious beliefs: When you encounter a story of superstition guiding crucial decisions affecting the public and national interests, how do you separate legitimate belief from fraudulent and blind faith?
I mean, how is the NSE yogi story any different from say, a George Bush claiming God guided his hand and asked him to start a war with Iraq? How is a PM of a secular country taking part in a pooja, or a movie producer consulting an astrologer before starting shooting any different from the devotee of a ‘swami’ who absconds with him to ‘Kailasa’ or another devotee who gets castrated to please his guru, or the ISRO chief visiting Tirumala before a launch or the Defence Minister casting out the evil eye from a 4th generation fighter jet? How is it objectively possible to separate the fraudulent from the real when both are just beliefs without any basis in reality?
I mean, isn’t the difference between a ‘fake’ belief and genuine religious faith simply a question of whether you personally believe in it or not? In that case, then, isn’t the erstwhile chief of NSE well within her rights to claim that she was as much or as little superstitious as the next person and the counsel she received from a supposedly disembodied ascetic in the Himalayas is as good or bad as anyone else’s, especially those that believe in a God, conduct prayers and rituals, and observe the diktats and moral teachings of their religion to lead their lives?
tl;dr: Actors, cricketers, business people, politicians, leaders, police officers, journalists, bureaucrats, judges, even scientists in India often consult swamis and babas and perform rituals and mumbo-jumbo as a routine affair. Many of these are even publicised. No one cares. How is this NSE thing any different?
