In 1988, a book by an American psychiatrist hit the stands and in no time became a rage. Its author, Brian Leslie Weiss, soon came to be celebrated as a “groundbreaking psychiatrist”. The book, Many Lives Many Masters, rested on the premise that it is possible to send a person back in time, back to the lives he has lived, to help him understand and deal with the problems he might be facing in his present life. Past life regression therapy, that’s what Weiss called it. The medical community was quick to censure the psychiatrist who has since gone on to build a career on logic-defying concepts like reincarnation, future-life progression, survival of the human soul after death et cetera. He has featured on the Oprah Winfrey show and has last year brought out yet another book on miracles.
Rationalists have been crying “humbug”, but who’s listening to them? Who listens to rationalists anyway? It matters little that their arguments are based on facts which the human mind is more than equipped to understand and accept. Facts don’t provide the kind of anchor which the inexplicable does. It’s far easier to blame our problems on something which is not in our control and look for solutions in miracles, magic and superstitions rather than deal with them head-on.
We, as a society, have on more than one occasion shown what we think of rationalists and how we will deal with them. What a dear price forward-thinking, questioning minds have had to pay – through all times, ages and societies. The murder of Narendra Dabholkar in Pune is the latest example of this. Dabholkar’s voice of rationality had become too loud and too threatening for comfort. Superstition and black magic did not have the power to pull off a miracle that would silence it. So, they used a bullet to do the job.
Since Dabholkar’s murder, the state of Maharashtra has passed a watered down version of the anti-Jaadu Tona bill ordinance – or the anti-superstition and black magic ordinance. Dabholkar had been fighting for this for more than 18 years. It took his death and the uproar that followed for the government to finally act rationally, though not bravely enough, on the issue.
Like Dabholkar, another rationalist has invited the wrath of the minds he has threatened. Sanal Edamaruku, the founder president of Rationalist International and president of the Indian Rationalist Association, was charged for questioning a so-called miracle reported by a church. Edamaruku, the 58-year-old sceptic with an inquiring mind, has spent years going around the country exposing the likes of tantriks, ‘god-men’ and miracle-mongers. He would take them on on television shows with perfect, indisputable logic. They hated him. Fearing persecution after he challenged the last so-called miracle, Edamaruku has left the country. He is now living in Europe from where he continues his campaign for rationality and free speech.
I had met Edamaruku in 2007 while working on a feature on past life regression therapy. Several centres which promised solutions through past life regression had sprung up around Delhi. Some of these were located in upscale areas that would only want to be seen as progressive. One of the centres I visited was in the basement of a bungalow in Greater Kailash. There was a thick fragrance of incense sticks in the hall where the ‘therapy’ was carried out. Fragrant candles were lit in the corners. Lilac curtains added to the dreamy atmosphere. The setting was perfect to send the mind regressing into unfathomable realms.
Edamaruku’s office in east Delhi was in stark contrast to this place. A flight of stairs behind a house led to a narrow brick terrace at the end of which stood his office – open and unassuming. The window in his office was open. No lilac curtains here. Edamaruku sat at the desk surrounded with paper, newspaper clippings and legal documents.
From the conversation I had with him that day, this much was clear: Edamaruku and rationalists like him were up against a giant force which was not easy to dislodge. And it continues to be so. Yet they are fighting on, questioning its very existence. We ought to celebrate their questioning minds.
