The Brave Pedestrian

My dad was watching Sanskar channel, and the voices from his television triggered a thought within me.  I recognized what it is about godmen or saints that irks me... that has always irked me, and prevented me from reverentially approaching a person. What irritates is that one is required to believe that this person is a "great man", and that his thoughts are somehow a lot more profound than yours or mine... even before one listens to the substance of his talk, let alone know him by his actions! Don't get me wrong... I have respectfully heard a few pravachans in my childhood and youth, and I have learned much from Swami Chinmayananda especially. Ever so often, a pravachan by someone like Bandhu Triputhi or Osho Rajneesh on television captivates me, and forces me to rethink my whole life. But I hear these people as one person hears another. I regard their words with as much reverence as I might accord to, say, the words of a knowledgeable fellow ...

    I keep looking for images and words that express what I feel our world should be like. Well, here’s a pic I saw on L Kini’s Rediff iland blog. What does this picture signify? I see humankind, having voluntarily given up all their technological achievements and all their acquisitions, all protections, comforts and clothes, bowing in the midst of the grandeur of nature. I see people bowing before nothing in particular. (Maybe in reality they were bowing before a guru, an idol or a symbol when this picture was taken, but that need not concern us.) They seem to be bowing reverentially to the world in general, which includes themselves. I see all of us at ease with our own nakedness and humanness. Our shame and self-consciousness is replaced by a superconsciousness, a supreme fellow-feeling, a sense of being one with all others. A serene oneness pervades this picture. ...