It was a beautiful hardbound book and the man was smiling as he gave the book to me, “Your personal copy!” he said and I felt the cover. “You’ve spent a lot of money on it?” I asked. “The trust did!” he said. I opened the book and read the various topics, I was impressed, they were on Accountability, Bribery, Charity and a host of other subjects, only a saintly man could have written this.

I was impressed till I met his staff.

“He’s written another book,” I said as they sniggered.

“We wish, he’d live the way he writes,” they said and out of all of them poured accusations of arrogance, pettiness, and pride, of unaccountability and irresponsibility, which made me decide I would do a little digging, and digging I did. Sadly I found that what the staff said was all true, the man was hardly the saint he tried to portray to the world he was. As chairman of a trust he had played merry hell with all the rules of the association, had not had elections, ran it without the required minimum members and manipulated the accounts and misappropriated funds.

He was no saint. Yet he had sat down and written a book on truth. Could go to different places through the country preaching and giving talks on how to lead a good life. How do people do this?

But more than that, how do they get away?

They get away, because of our unwillingness to question them. You don’t have to look far to see gurus, swamis, TV preachers who are eloquent and articulate. They mesmerize you with their style of speaking, their tone, their voice and often even their content. We listen, we accept, blindly.

We have forgotten our ability to question.

And with that, these scoundrels get away.

To question, indeed, there’s a need for courage, but without doing so we bear the consequences. Today, as religion is being used to garner votes, when what we need to do is to ask about our roti, kapada aur makaan, blame your soon empty wallets and unemployment on your fear of questioning!

Something I taught both my children was to question everything they learnt. “Open it up,” I used to tell them, “Examine it, and when you are convinced through questioning, argument and debate, then and only then, accept!”

They still follow their dad’s advice and quite often I find them questioning even me.

And as I hear another man talking about yoga to the world but not being able to maintain peace in his country I would like to remind you that it is only our inability to question that allows such as them to get away.

In a democracy, whether it's a guru, a religious leader or a politician, don't give up your right to question..! 

bobsbanter@gmail.com