Commercialization of religion and its pitfalls - a story

Many genuine and sincere person have certainly rued the rampant corruption and commercialization prevailing in organized religions - be in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity or for that matter any other major or minor religious sects. We witness it in temples, mosques and churches, witness the degradation of the priestly classes who serve mammon with both hands and probably some of us feel saddened by the state. However this degradation is a continuous and evolving process. It is always there and in some form or the other. In Bible it has been narrated how Jesus blasted the "shop keepers" and drove them away from the Jewish temple. What he meant was deeply significant, that in spirituality there is no give and take - shop keeping or trading. One cannot sell religion or buy it from God. Therefore the organized religion which has become a force to satiate material desires does not belong to the realm of spirituality or religion. There is a beautiful story narrated by Girish Chandra Ghosh, the famous dramatist and actor and father of modern Indian Theatre, way back in 1880s, that shows how degradation was prevalent during that time and how situations have not much changed.

The story goes like this - There was in one village a certain mad man who used to wear straw on his head in place of a turban and a shabby, tattered and torn gown as dress. The whole day he used to sit in a bridge linking two villages on a river and keep a watch. Whenever he used to see some stranger coming from other side, who was probably using that village as a transit point to visit some other place, he used to go ahead, take the burden of that person and helped him in getting accommodation and food. Not only that, the crazy man had other qualities as well. Whenever anybody in the village used to fall sick he used to go and serve him sincerely till that fellow was cured. Everybody loved him for that but at the same time used to make fun of him because of his crazy ways. In the same village use to live a Mullah who was a devout Muslim and apparently followed every injunction of the Holy Book. He used to call on Allah five times a day and used to fast for the prescribed month before Eid. The priest always used to ask the mad man to do the same but the mad fellow would not listen. Whenever he used to hear about God he got angry and abuse Him in the most profane language possible. The Mullah had asked the villagers to drive such an infidel out of village but villagers would not listen. They loved their mad man.

One day in that village came an angel. The villagers gathered round him and asked him as to who among them were eligible for heaven and who were going to go to hell. The angel started consulting his book where sins and virtues were written for every individual. Now that Mullah came forward and asked him to first search on the mad man. He said that surely the mad guy will get the lowest hell because he does not call upon Allah and does not follow the Holy book. The angel first consulted the book of hell and there he could not find his name. Whereupon the Mullah was elated and said that the crazy guy was such an obnoxious sinner that he had no place in even hell. Villagers who were more considerate asked the angel to search in the book of heaven. The angel tried all the heavens and could not find his name. At last he arrived at the list of aspirants for the highest heaven and found that the mad man was on the top of it. Everybody was surprised and wanted to know the reason. The angel replied that the fellow had helped many a beings without asking for any favour, was without desire and attachment and had helped recovered many people through devoted service. He was the fittest to receive highest heaven. Then the people said please check on our Mullah. By that time Mullah Sahib had escaped. However the angel could not find his name in the list of heavens. He then searched in the list of hell and could find his name in the lowest possible hell. Everybody was surprised as to how such a pious soul can get such an abominable state. The angel replied that the fellow had cheated a widow and taken her cows, had cheated an orphan and taken his property and extracted money from people in the name of Zakhat or religious tax, and did many an evils deeds. Therefore even though he called on God he did not really believe in anything apart from fulfilling his selfish material desires.

Now the Mullah can be Brahmin priest or a Christian priest as well but the moral of the story remains the same. Religion, as long as it is under organized priest-craft, will continue to degrade and degenerate. Perhaps that is the grandiose plan because it is said that under the lamp there is maximum darkness.