A mould to economic ends

When I say economic ends that dont mean only mediocre economic want, i am pointing out
the superlative economic benefits.
The mould or a pattern here mentioned is of the mass appeal, and this mass appeal is gained
through various ways like politics, entertainment, religious preaching etc.
The most obnoxious of these all is the so called religious preaching; Karl Marx once remarked
Religion is the opium of the masses. It has been proved right time and again.
People are ready to do anything to gain favor from the so called god and this makes it a cake
walk to those who want manipulate people and meet their economic ends.
Religion or a faith works as a opium on people, just like a drug which gives relief when there is a
pain. so when people are distressed and confused mentally they turn to faith. The so called god
men exploit this situation which is perfect for them. When people are distressed they are very
vulnerable and are ready to accept anything superficial.
It also acts as an instrument to unite people against a common detractor. Whenever there is a
threat from outside people try to use it as uniting instruments, as gregariousness is a nature of
man. They try to use religion as a common factor among them. This is when the so called
preachers com into picture. They try to exploit this aggression against the detractor and bring
people together. But their motives are always beyond unity, even after the people are
successful in getting rid of the detractor they continue to hold a great deal of influence on
people. To fight this external threat people need something to unit and something to push
them together thats when the preachers take advantage of it.
This has been proved time and again, every time there is a conflict involving a muslim
dominated country suddenly it becomes the so called jihad, they all turn to religion, just like in
Afghanistan, when the soviet's pushed down south to Afghanistan, suddenly everything
became religious and the fight against the soviets was called a jihad, but it was no more than an
assertive action taken by the soviets as part of the cold war suspecting that Afghanistan is being
taken over by the US as then it was a buffer state between the two blocs. They just wanted to
use Afghanistan as a base to spread their influence in the Persian Gulf for oil. But it was made
into a religious war by making soviets into the enemies of the Islam which is questionable as
they were against the very concept of religion. This gave a platform for taliban to come up, the
people are divided, they are distressed by war, they are poor and they are thirsty for a common
faith. So Taliban used this factor to gain ground and exploited the vulnerable people to control
the vast natural resource and most importantly the opium and the trade routes, apparently this
was their chief motive.

It happened again in South Africa as well, when the black Africans were becoming aware of
their rights, the white predominantly Dutch ruling community made apartheid a part of bible,
they started preaching apartheid as part of Christianity. Again when the people saw a threat
they turned to preachers.
This happened in USA also, after the defeat in the civil war, various groups like KKK( kuk klux
klan) came into existence, only to protect the interests of the white community using the same
old tried and tested method of religious preaching. It became so popular that even the
celebrated president Woodrow Wilson was alleged to be a member of theses groups.
Its the same in India also, in fact our constitution itself has given such freedom in its article 27.
At the time of freedom we have seen people like Jinnah, Iqbal, Sawarkar, Madan Mohan
Malaviya capitalizing on religious sentiment to unite people but at the end it can proved that
their motives were beyond unity or independence. If we go back a little bit, Shivaji also used the
same sentiment to strengthen his influence on the people but at the same time what he
wanted was the political autonomy to reach the rich Deccan. He had pledged not to make a
pact with any muslim kingdom but he had to shake hands with the Nizam when the emperor at
Delhi lost his cool. That shows the religion means nothing but an instrument to their other
motives.
This is true in present day also, if we see the present political situation in Karnataka, the mutts
are like the driving force behind the political parties, they serve as the vote banks for the
political parties because of the kind of influence they have on the people. Since this is the
mechanical era, when the people get tired of their mechanical lives they turn to these so called
spiritual ways of dealing with their stress. This vulnerability is exploited by the so called spiritual
gurus, indirectly controlling the people minds and their pockets.
One question to these mutts is that what is their business in politics, as they play a very big role
as they have a very deep influence on people either in the name of caste or religion. People
should be aware of the hidden agendas before they get carried away by the so called swamis.
The classic example in the present day is the young and dashing Nityananda, clearly his motives
were beyond preaching spirituality or yoga, the possession of huge property itself says it all, he
exploited the vulnerability of the people. People who went to him were those who were
distressed but had a fat pockets.
People shouldn't go weak on their knees just because of the spiritual; they have to keep their
conscience alive.
Bhargava G S Reddy

the class of 2011