Sanal Edamaruku

सनल एडमरूकु: सत्य साई बाबा

2011-09-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

सत्य साई बाबा के बिना भारत एक बेहतर जगह हो गया होता

सनल एडमरूकु

प्रेसीडेंट

इंडियन रॅशनलिस्ट असोसियेशन & रॅशनलिस्ट इंटरनॅशनल

प्रकाशन ऑनलाइन: अप्रेल २६, २०११

आज सुबह जब (२४ अप्रैल २०११) सत्य साईं बाबा का ८५ साल की उम्र में निधन हो गया, तो एक बार फिर उनका चमत्कार और भविष्यवाणी विफल साबित हुई| उन्होंने सन् २००० में पुट्तपरती में स्थित अपने मुख्यालय में,एक सार्वजनिक सभा में भविष्यवाणी की थी कि वह ९६ वर्ष की उम्र में ही मरेंगे | और आखिरी क्षण तक, उनके भक्त एक चमत्कार का इंतज़ार करते रहे |उनकी म्रत्यु उनके गुमराह भक्तों के लिए एक सबक है |

De mortuis nihil nisi bene कहा जाता है "मृतकों को अच्छा कुछ नहीं कह सकते तो बेहतर है कुछ नही बोलो ". लेकिन मुझे लगता है कि सत्य साई बाबा इसके अपवाद हैं| उन्‍होंने देश के लिए जो किया है वह एक महान् क्षति है | उनके हानिकारक प्रभाव से वैज्ञानिक सोच पर एक भारी झटका लगा है | एक समय था जब वैज्ञानिक प्रगति हमारे अच्छे समाज और आर्थिक उन्नति का कारण बनने लगी थी , और वैज्ञानिक जागृति भारत भर में फैलनी शुरू हो गयी थी सत्य साई बाबा का अंधविश्वास एक "काउंटर क्रांति" था ,जिसे गैर जिम्मेदार नेताओं और लोंगों ने साथ दिया | मेरे हिसाब से यह सबसे बड़ा अपराध है |मैं एक बार फिर उनकी धोखाधड़ी को सार्वजनिक रूप से उजागर करने में सफल रहा हूँ | इसके बाद कई तर्कशास्त्री भी इस मुद्दे पर आगे आए | ऐसा नही है की उन पर सिर्फ़ कई अपराधिक आरोप लगाए गये हों कथित तौर पर यौन शोषण और हत्या के कई मामलों की अभी जांच जारी है, लेकिन अपने राजनीतिक सरंक्षण के कारण उन्हे अब तक उनके अपराधों के खिलाफ जिम्मेदार नहीं ठहराया गया | उनके साम्राज्य के वित्तीय आँकड़ों का उल्लेख भी किसी के पास नहीं है |

सत्य साईं बाबा गंभीरता से इस बात को कहते थे कि वह भगवान है और, ब्रह्मांड के निर्माता है, और छोटे बड़े 'चमत्कार' के साथ अपने देवत्व को "साबित" करते रहते थे| गांव के तांत्रिक के बेटे होने के कारण वे हाथ की सफाई से भी परिचित थे | यदद्पि अपने धोखाधड़ी प्रदर्शन से ना केवल गरीब और अशिक्षित ग्रामीणों को मोहित किया बल्कि इन वर्षों में, वह मंत्रियों, प्रधानमंत्रियों, राष्ट्रपति, मुख्य न्यायाधीश, शीर्ष उद्योगपतियों , सुपरस्टार भारत के अमीर और ताक़तवरों को आकर्षित करने में भी कामयाब रहे |
सत्या साई बाबा का काम करने का एक विशेष ढंग था जिसके कारण उन्हे लोगों के बीच भारी दबदबा बनाए रखने मैं आश्चर्यजनक सफलता मिली | बहुत सारे उच्च समाज भक्त अपने निहित स्वार्थ के कारण उनके साथ आये , तो बहुत उनके साथ इसलिये शामिल हो गए है क्योंकि यह एक शक्तिशाली क्लब की तरह था जो सभी राजनीतिक प्रणाली पर अपना जाल फेला कर काम कर रहा था | कई लोगों के लिए यह शीर्ष नौकरी पाने के लिए एक रास्ता था तो कई को बेईमानी से मिले काले धन से छुटकारा प्राप्त करने का रास्ता था | उनके साम्राज्य पर यह आरोप लगाया जाता है,कि वे विदेशी भक्तों के मध्यम से काले धन को वैध किया करते थे | यह भी एक आश्चर्य कि बात है साई बाबा तेलुगु के अलावा किसी अन्य भाषा मैं बोलते नहीं थे लेकिन अपने पूरे जीवन में केवल एक बार विदेश यात्रा पर गये - युगांडा में अपने दोस्त ईदी अमीन से मिलने |

अपने ८० वें जन्मदिन पर साई बाबा के समर्थकों ने सारी दुनिया के सामने उन्हे एक चमत्कारी आदमी से एक परोपकारी संत के रूप में प्रस्तुत किया | ये इसलिए हुआ क्यूंकी अक्सर मैं अपने टीवी शो में उनके चमत्कार का प्रदर्शन किया करता था और धीरे धीरे सड़कों में भी कई बच्चे उनकी नकल करते देखे जाने लगे | इसके बाद कि सारी ज़िंदगी संत का चोला पहन कर गैर सामाजिक कार्यों को अंजाम देते रहे |

बाद में उन्होंने अपने पुश्तैनी गांव के चारों ओर सामाजिक विकास कारया ,अस्पताल खुलवाए ,ग़रीबों के लिए स्कूल और पेयजल परियोजनाए आदि सामाजिक काम करके लोगों के बीच संत के रूप में उपस्थित हुए , हो सकता है ये सामाजिक कार्य ग़रीबों के लिए उपयोगी हों लैकिन इस तरह के परोपकारी कार्य तो माफिया मलिक भी करते हैं| इन अच्छे कार्य को उनके अपराधों और भारतीय समाज के लिए किए गये नुकसान के खिलाफ नहीं तौला जा सकता है |

दिसंबर 2005 में मैने तत्कालीन राष्ट्रपति डा. अब्दुल कलाम,जो कि साई बाबा के उत्साही समर्थकों में से एक है, एक पत्र लिखा था ,जिसका आज तक जवाब नही आया| पत्र में मैंने साई बाबा के अपराधिक जांच की मांग की थी |यह भी लिखा था कि उनके सामाजिक विकास परियोजनाओं के लिए किए गये काम के कारण अगर उनके अपराधों को सरंक्षण दे दिया गया है, तो यह प्रक्रिया अस्वीकार्य है| यह भारत के लिए शर्म की बात है कि क़ानून भी बिना किसी जांच के साई बाबा के खिलाफ आरोपों और गवाहों की अनदेखी कर रहा हैं | क्या हमारा क़ानून भगवा वस्त्र धारी अपराधी के लिए अछूत है? क्या हमे ये बर्दाश्त करना चाहिए कि राजनीतिक संरक्षणवाद इतनी निर्भीकता से सिर उठाता रहे ? ये भारत के लोकतंत्र का मजाक है |

सत्य साईं बाबा भारत के लिए एक महान क्षति का कारण है| उनके गैर जिम्मेदाराना राजनीतिक संरक्षक भारत की राजनीतिक संस्कृति को भ्रष्ट करती है| सत्य साई बाबा के चमत्कार से उत्साहित हो कर एक नया समुदाय उनका अनुगमन करने लगा है| आज भारत सत्य साई बाबा के बिना कुछ और बेहतर हो गया होता |

हिन्दी अनुवादक: दीपाली सिन्हा

2011-09-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

एक भारतीय जो धूप पर जीवित है

प्रहलाद जानी जिनका दावा है कि वो वर्षों से अन्न जल ग्रहण किए बिना जीवित हैं,

उनके इस दावे को उन लोंगों ने साथ दिया जो इसकी सच्चाई से अच्छी तरह से वाकिफ़ थे|

सनल एडमरूकु

प्रेसीडेंट

इंडियन रॅशनलिस्ट असोसियेशन & रॅशनलिस्ट इंटरनॅशनल

जब से अंबे माँ ने अपनी उंगली से मेरी जीभ को छुआ है तब से मैने कभी भी खाने और पानी को हाथ नही लगाया है-ये दावा उस व्यक्ति का है जिसका नाम है पहलाद जानी |

जैविक नियमों के अनुसार कोई भी मानव और जानवर भोजन और पानी के नियमित सेवन के बिना जीवित नही रह सकता | उनका यह दावा धर्म से जुड़ा होने के कारण लोकप्रिय हुआ | इस तरह के मामले पहले भी सामने आये हैं, लैकिन पहलाद जानी का मामला इसलिये प्रकाश मैं आया क्यूंकी कई प्रभावशाली लोग उनके साथ थे |

न्यूरोलॉजिस्ट और अहमदाबाद के स्टर्लिंग अस्पताल के प्रमुख डा. सुधीर शाह, पहले व्यक्ति थे जो प्रहलाद जानी की मूर्खतापूर्ण कहानी को सुर्खियों में लाए | सनसनीखेज "वैज्ञानिक" अनुसंधान परियोजना में, वे और उनकी टीम २२ अप्रैल और ६ मई के बीच इस मामले पर चिकित्सा जांच करने पहुँची | इस परियोजना को भारतीय शरीर विज्ञान और संबद्ध विज्ञान रक्षा संस्थान (डीआईपीएएस), रक्षा अनुसंधान और विकास संगठन की एक शाखा की देखरेख के द्वारा किया गया था | डीआईपीएएस निर्देशक गोविंद स्वामी इलवज़्गन भी डा . सुधीर शाह का साथ दे रहे थे| बाद मैं दोनो ने संयुक्त रूप से इस बात की पुष्टि की, कि १५ दिनों के पर्यवेक्षण के दौरान जानी ने एक अन्न का दाना भी नही खाया और सबसे महत्वपूर्ण बात ये है कि इस दौरान उन्होने पानी की एक बूंद भी नहीं पी - जो पूरी तरह से असंभव लगता है| क्या ये वैज्ञानिक एक एसे आदमी के दावे को, जो जीव विज्ञान के बुनियादी कानूनों को बेबुनियाद साबित कर रहा है, सलामी देंगे? जब जानी अपनी प्यास बुझते थे तब क्या उन्होने अपनी आँखे (पूरे समय सीसीटीवी कैमरा चल रहा था) बंद कर रखी थी? इसमें कोई शक नहीं है कि " संपूर्ण अवलोकन " में कमियां थी और "महान वैज्ञानिक परीक्षण" एक तमाशा था |

जब परीक्षण चल रहा था, मैंने इंडिया टीवी के एक लाइव कार्यक्रम में कुछ खामियों को उजागर किया : एक अधिकारिक वीडियो क्लिप से पता चला कि कभी कभी जानी सीसीटीवी कैमरे के क्षेत्र से बाहर जाया करते थे | क्योकि उन्हे भक्तों से मिलने की अनुमति थी और सूर्य स्नान के समय परीक्षण कमरा छोड़ सकते थे| उनके नियमित रूप से किए गये कुल्ला और स्नान गतिविधियों पर निगरानी ठीक से नही रखी गयी थी |मैने एक बुद्धिवादी विशेषज्ञ दल के साथ परीक्षण व्यवस्था की जाँच करने का अवसर माँगा था ,पर अहमदाबाद से तत्काल कोई भी प्रतिक्रिया नही मिली | अचानक स्टर्लिंग अस्पताल से मुझे आमंत्रित किया गया - लाइव टीवी पर - अगले दिन की प्रक्रिया (परीक्षा) में शामिल होने के लिये |

सुबह जब हम गुजरात के लिए उड़ान भरने तैयार थे, सूचित किया गया कि अभी हमें परियोजना के प्रमुख अधिकारी की अनुमति का इंतजार करना पड़ेगा | और ये कहने की जरूरत नहीं है : कि ये अनुमति कभी नहीं आई |

इसी तरह, हम नवंबर २००३ में डा शाह के प्रथम परीक्षण में भी भाग लेने में असमर्थ रहे थे| डा शाह जिनके पास पहलाद जानी पर किए गये अध्ययनों का एक लंबा रिकॉर्ड है| जिसकी अब तक किसी भी वैज्ञानिक पत्रिका में चर्चा नहीं की गयी है| वे केवल अपने इस धूप सिद्धांत को साबित करने की कोशिश करते रहे : कि मनुष्य खाने और पीने के अलावा किसी अन्य ऊर्जा स्रोतों से भी जिंदा रह सकता है, उसमे से एक है सूरज की रोशनी | प्रहलाद जानी डा शाह का पहला मामला नही था २०००-२००१ में, उन्होने एक वर्ष से भी अधिक समय तक हीरा मानेक पर परीक्षण किया था और अपने दावे की पुष्टि की, कि वह सिर्फ़ धूप ख़ाता है(और कभी कभी थोड़ा सा पानी)| शाह के इस अनुसंधान को नासा और पेन्सिलवेनिया विश्वविद्यालय द्वारा जांच किया गया था| जिसको अधिकारिक तौर पर अस्वीकार कर दिया था |

डा. शाह कट्टर जैनी थे और भारतीय जैन डाक्टर 'फेडरेशन (ज्ड़फ), के अध्यक्ष भी थे| उन्होने यह प्रस्ताव रखा कि भगवान महावीर की ' महाविज्ञान ' द्वारा चिकित्सा तथ्यों को अत्याधिक बारीकी से प्रकट किया गया है, और अनुसंधान के द्वारा जैन धारा के अंतर्गत उसी दिशा में अपूर्ण चिकित्सा विज्ञान पर कार्य किया जा सकता है| हमे केवल आश्चर्य ये है कि धार्मिक आस्था के कारण क्या उनकी शोधकर्ता आँखों के आगे कभी कभी बादल घिर जाते हैं | दिलचस्प है, उनकी टीम के कई सदस्य जैनी हैं , और हीरा मानेक परीक्षण में भी उनके साथी ज्ड़फ के एक पूर्व अध्यक्ष थे|

शाह ने यह भी सुझाव दिया कि यह धूप सिद्धांत संभवतः सेनिकों के लिये उपयोगी हो सकता है | और ये शर्म की बात होगी कि भारतीय रक्षा मंत्रालय इस सुझाव को मान लेगी |क्या हम सेना को धूप आहार देने पर विचार करने लगेगें | ये जानने के लिए हम भी इच्छुक हैं |

हिन्दी अनुवादक : दीपाली सिन्हा

सनल एडमरूकु : मदर टेरेसा का भारत में योगदान - एक दिखावा

2011-09-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

मदर टेरेसा का भारत में योगदान - एक दिखावा

सनल एडमरूकु

प्रेसीडेंट

इंडियन रॅशनलिस्ट असोसियेशन & रॅशनलिस्ट इंटरनॅशनल

भारत, विशेष रूप से कलकत्ता के ग़रीब लोगों के लिये मदर टेरेसा का महान योगदान रहा है| उनके इन अच्छे कार्यों के लिए उन्हें प्रसिद्ध कैथोलिक, एक नोबेल शांति पुरस्कार विजेता और साधवी की उपाधि से सम्मानित किया गया | सनल एडमरूकु( सेक्रेटरी जनरल ऑफ इंडियन रॅशनलिस्ट असोसियेशन आंड प्रेसीडेंट ऑफ रॅशनलिस्ट इंटरनॅशनल) का कहना है कि , “ उनके भारत के लिए किये गये कार्यों का वास्तविक मूल्यांकन किया जाये तो मुझे एसा कोई कारण दिखाए नही देता है जिसके लिए देशवासी उनके आभारी रहें”|

मदर टेरेसा ने एक खूबसूरत, दिलचस्प, जीवंत और सांस्कृतिक रूप से समृद्ध भारतीय महानगर कलकत्ता को गंदगी, दुख, निराशा, और मौत का नाम दिया | ये शहर उनके इस बहुत ही खास धर्मार्थ कार्य के लिए प्रसिद्ध पृष्ठभूमि बन गया| उनका संगठन कलकता के उन २०० संगठनों में से एक था जो वहाँ के स्लम निवासियों की मदद करने और उनका बेहतर भविष्य का निर्माण करने सामने आये | यह स्थानीय स्तर पर बहुत सक्रिय दिखाई नहीं दिया, लेकिन उनके स्लम स्कूल के ५००० बच्चों की बेबुनियाद कहानी से उनकी संस्थानों को अंतरराष्ट्रीय प्रचार में लाया गया |
मदर टेरेसा ने भारत की ग़रीबी के नाम पर लाखों डालर (कुछ लोगों का कहना अरबों) एकत्र किया, यह सब पैसे कहाँ गए? जिस कार्य के लिए इस धन राशि को एकत्र किया गया निश्चित रूप से इसका सही उपयोग नही हुआ | उनके आश्रम में पीड़ितों को केवल कुछ कटोरे सूप ,थोड़ी सी देखभाल और आश्रय दिया जाता था | दुनिया में धनी वर्ग भी उदार नहीं है,वो भी ग़रीबी को आकर्षण बना कर रखना चाहता है | मदर टेरेसा कहती थी “ग़रीबों का दर्द बहुत सुंदर है और इस दर्द और पीड़ा के इस उदाहरण से पूरी दुनिया को आध्यात्मिक स्तर पर लाभ हो रहा है”| क्या हमें एक सनकी अरबपति के इस व्याख्यान के लिए आभारी होना चाहिए |

उनके आश्रम में लोगों को इसलिये लाया जाता था ताकि दुनिया देख कर आँसू बहा सके | तथापि वास्तविकता शर्मनाक है: छोटे छोटे घर जहाँ इतनी भीड़ रहती थी कि कई रोगियों को एक दूसरों के साथ बिस्तर साझा करना पड़ता था यद्यपि वहाँ कई तपेदिक, एड्स और अन्य अत्यधिक संक्रामक बीमारियों से पीड़ित मरीज थे, फिर भी स्वच्छता की कोई चिंता नहीं थी | रोगियों को अच्छे शब्दों, अपर्याप्त पुरानी दवाओं, पुराने सुइयाँ (जो गुनगुने पानी में धो ली जाती थी) से इलाज़ किया जाता था | खुले घाव ,कराहते रोगी जिन्हे दर्दनिवारक दवाइयाँ भी नही दी जाती थी उनके आश्रम में देखे जा सकते थे| यहाँ तक दर्दनिवारक दवाइयाँ तो गंभीर बीमारियों में भी नही दी जाती थी | मदर टेरेसा के अनुसार, "एक व्यक्ति के लिए सबसे सुंदर उपहार है कि वह मसीहा के दुखों में भागीदार बन सके "| एक बार जब पीड़ित जो दर्द से कराह रहा था था तो उसे दिलासा देते हुये उन्होने कहा : "आप पीड़ित हैं, इसका मतलब है कि यीशु आप को चुंबन दे रहे हें!" तो दर्द से पीड़ित आदमी गुस्से से चिल्लाता है: " अपने यीशु को कहो कि वो चुंबन नही करे" क्या हमें इस तरह के दान के आभारी होना चाहिए ?क्या हमें ये बर्दाश्त करना चाहिए कि अज्ञानी और असहाय लोगों के साथ धर्म की ओट पर उनकी पीड़ा को मसीहा से जोड़ कर उनके साथ अमानवीय व्यवहार किया जाये?

मदर टेरेसा को नोबेल शांति पुरूस्कर प्राप्त हुआ, तो ओस्लो में दुनिया भर में अपना भाषण प्रसारित करने का उन्हे अवसर मिला | अपने भाषण में उन्होंने गर्भपात को दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बुराई बताई और जनसंख्या नियंत्रण के खिलाफ मुहिम छेड़ने का बीड़ा उठाया | उन्होंने ये माना की उनका धर्मार्थ कार्य गर्भपात और जनसंख्या नियंत्रण के खिलाफ बड़ी लड़ाई का हिस्सा हे | यह कट्टरपंथी स्थिति भारत और अन्य तीसरी दुनिया के देशों के चेहरे में एक तमाचा है, जहां जनसंख्या नियंत्रण देश के विकास, प्रगति और सामाजिक परिवर्तन की मुख्य कुंजी है | क्या हमें मदर टेरेसा के लिए आभारी होना चाहिए? जिन्होंने दुनिया भर में हमारे खिलाफ प्रचार करके, हमारे नाम से पैसे एकत्र किए |

कलकत्ता में मदर टेरेसा गरीबों की सेवा नहीं कर रही थी, परोक्ष रूप से वह पश्चिम में समृद्ध लोगों के लिए कार्य कर रहीं थी | वह उन अरबों डालर का दान लेकर उन समृद्ध लोगों की बुरी अंतरात्मा पर काबू पाने में मदद कर रहीं थीं | कई तानाशाही और अपराधी भी अपने कुच्छित कार्यों पर परदा डालने के लिए उनकी मदद करते थे | मदर टेरेसा उनके लिए पूजनीय थीं |तथापि अधिकांश समर्थक अच्छे इरादे और गर्म दिल के भी थे, जिन्हे ये भ्रम था कि वह "सैंट ऑफ दा गटर" हें ,जिन्होंने सबके आँसू पोंछे और उनके सब दुख दूर करे और उन्हे न्याय दिलाया| जो उन्हें प्यार करते हैं वो उनकी हकीकत को स्वीकार करने कतई तैयार नही है |

हिन्दी अनुवादक : दीपाली सिन्हा

Sanal Edamaruku about Sathya Sai Baba

2011-04-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

India would have been a better place without Sathya Sai Baba

Sanal Edamaruku

President

Indian Rationalist Association & Rationalist International

When Sathya Sai Baba died this morning (24 April 2011) at the age of 85 years, he proved once again that miracles and predictions fail. He had predicted at a public gathering at his head quarters in Puttaparthy, in 2000, and repeatedly many times, that he would die at the age of 96 only. And till the last moment, many of his devotees clung to his word and waited for a miracle. May it be an eye opener for the millions of gullible people whom he misguided and deluded.

De mortuis nihil nisi bene, they say, say nothing but good of the dead. But I think Sathya Sai Baba’s case qualifies for an exception. Too great is the damage that he did to India. His devastating influence on reason and scientific temper caused huge setback to the country. At a time, when scientific progress led to great social and economic leaps and scientific awakening started spreading all over India, Sathya Sai Baba launched a “counter revolution” of superstition, supported by irresponsible politicians and other public figures who should have known better. In my judgment, this is his greatest crime. I have succeeded again and again to expose him publicly as a fraud, so did some other rationalists. But due to his political protectors he was never held responsible for his crimes against public reason. Nor was he ever booked for any other crime he was accused of. Numerous cases of alleged sexual abuse and murder are yet to be investigated, not to mention the financial secrets of his empire.

Sathya Sai Baba insisted in all seriousness that he was god, the creator of the universe, and “proved” his divinity with a couple of small “miracles”. As son of a village tantric he was familiar with the hand sleights and tricks of the trade. However, he did not only fascinate poor and uneducated villagers with his fraudulent performances. Over the years, he managed to attract a galaxy of India’s rich and powerful, among them ministers, prime ministers, presidents, chief justices, top industrialists and superstars.

Sathya Sai Baba had a special modus operandi that was the key for his astonishing success and the root of his enormous clout. Many of his high society devotees came to serve their own vested interests. Some came to rub shoulders with the prominent. Many joined the club because it was working as a powerful syndicate spreading its tentacles all over the political system. It was a way to the top jobs and a way to get things done. Others were seeking financial support or wanted to get rid of ill-gotten black money: The empire, it is alleged, was based on money laundering, using foreign devotees and branches. In fact, the huge foreign donations to Sai Baba stood in contrast to the comparatively modest number of active foreign devotees and the sometimes quite weak foreign branches, some of them residing in private homes. That is no great surprise, when one considers that Sai Baba did not speak any other language than Telugu and traveled only once in his whole life abroad – to visit his friend Idi Amin in Uganda.

On his 80th birthday, Sai Baba’s supporters announced that he would turn from a miracle man to a philanthropist. That was, after I had demonstrated his miracles so often in TV shows that many kids in the streets could imitate them. That he since spent a part of the great fortunes, swindled out of the gullible, for social development around his ancestral village, is highlighted now to present him as a saint. But as useful and welcome hospitals, schools and drinking water projects for the poor always may be: this kind of alibi-philanthropy is well known even from mafia-bosses. It cannot be weighed against his crimes and the damage he has done to the Indian society.

In December 2005, I wrote a letter to then President Dr. Abdul Kalam, one of Sai Baba’s ardent supporters, which was never answered. I demanded criminal investigations against Sai Baba. If his social development projects are meant to be indulgence to nullify his crimes, this procedure is unprecedented and unacceptable, I wrote. It is a shame for India that well-founded accusations and numerous reputed witnesses against Sai Baba are ignored without any investigation. Do saffron clothes make an offender untouchable for the law? Do we have to tolerate that political protectionism raises its head so boldly, mocking India's democracy?

Sathya Sai Baba caused great damage to India. His irresponsible political patrons corrupted the political culture of India. Encouraged by the clout of Sathya sai Baba, a new clan of miracle mongers imitated him. India would have been a better place without Sathya Sai Baba.

Sanal Edamaruku leads a course on "Science behind Miracles" at the National Science Centre

2010-06-04T21:34:00.003-07:00

30^th May 2010

Exposed: the tricks of India’s ‘guru’ fraudsters

Hannah Gardner, Foreign Correspondent

Sanal Edamaruku calls for silence, stretches out his upturned hands and then issues a single command: levitate. Graham Crouch for The National

NEW DELHI // At Sanal Edamaruku’s feet lies a boy of 13 draped in a piece of red cloth.

Mr Edamaruku calls for silence, stretches out his upturned hands and then issues a single command: levitate.

Upon that, the boy appears to float free from the floor, rise three feet in the air and hover for a few seconds, before gently descending.

With his unblinking gaze and his hypnotic voice, Mr Edamaruku could be anyone of hundreds of thousands of holymen, also known as “fakirs” and “babas”, across

India

who claim to be able to perform such miracles. Only he is not.

In fact, as head of the Indian Rationalist Association, Mr Edamaruku spends his time exposing these people as part of his mission to bring about an Indian Enlightenment.

“The goal I have is to stop these fraudulent babas and gurus,” Mr Edamaruku said. “Despite our phenomenal progress, superstition and obscurantism are still strong in our country. These people have huge power over the lives of many Indians.”

To diminish that power, Mr Edamaruku is running a course at Delhi’s National Science Centre this month titled “The Science Behind Miracles”, where he teaches schoolchildren how tricks such as levitation are performed.

The idea is to foster a healthy scepticism in the next generation of teachers, leaders and managers and a desire to seek scientific rather than mystical explanations when faced with seemingly inexplicable phenomena. “We want these children to be ambassadors of change,” Mr Edamaruku said. “We want them to go home and show their friends and families what they have learnt.”

Religion and superstition have a long and rich history in

India

. Three of the world’s six major faiths were founded here and the country has more temples than it does schools. The country’s large population, high levels of poverty and low levels of education produce the perfect conditions for old wives’ tales and superstitious beliefs to endure.

During a recent solar eclipse, families buried handicapped children up to their necks in earth in the belief that it would cure them. Indian newspapers often contain stories of people carrying out human sacrifices to conceive, obtain occult powers or achieve business success.

Experts say the decentralised nature of

India

’s main religion, Hinduism, also plays a role because there is almost no regulation of religious practice or the actions of those who claim to represent it. As a result, anyone can set themselves up as a guru offering advice on matters ranging from the spiritual, to health or money.

In March, Delhi police arrested Shiv Murat Dwivedi, a former security guard turned guru, for running a multimillion-dollar prostitution ring out of his religious headquarters. Last month, police finally caught up with Paramahamsa Nithyananda, a self-styled guru from Bangalore who was wanted on charges of rape and sexual exploitation of his devotees, and fraud. “These people are criminals and conmen. They are hiding behind religion,” Mr Edamaruku said. “We have two Indias – one 21st-century India and one 16th-century

India

. The 16th-century India is holding the 21st-century

India

back.”

The levitation trick is simulated by lying on the floor under a blanket and then sitting up slowly while holding out two hockey sticks to mimic the rising of the legs and feet. Another “miracle”, in which godmen make rocks explode simply by sprinkling holy water on them, is achieved by embedding sodium crystals in the rocks, which expand rapidly on contact with water.

Mr.Edamaruku demonstrates to schoolchildren some of the tricks used by fake holymen in India. Graham Crouch for The National

Likewise, a trick where a fakir is able to create fire by pouring ghee, or clarified butter, on a pile of wood and staring at it, is accomplished because the ghee is actually glycerine and the wood has been sprinkled with potassium permanganate. The two chemicals react and combust a few minutes after coming into contact.

Exposing these fake babas can be dangerous, however.

“I have never felt threatened by the members of the public, but the babas have attacked me,” Mr Edamaruku said.

One fakir threw a pot of burning coals in Mr Edamaruku’s face when he revealed how the tantric was able to hold it without burning himself. Another time, the state government in Kerala tried to arrest him after he discovered that officials at the famous Sabarimala temple were faking lights in the sky, which draw millions of pilgrims – and generate millions of dollars of revenue – every January.

Most famously, though, Mr Edamaruku agreed to participate in a live television show where a famous tantric tried to kill him using black magic. The show was one of the most watched in Indian television history and when the godman failed, his career was in tatters.

In the past, the Rationalists concentrated their activities on rural communities, thinking that superstition would fade naturally in the cities.

Of late, Mr Edamaruku has become worried by the degree to which many wealthy urban Indians continue to embrace these beliefs.

“There is a popular misconception that superstition only exists in rural areas but superstition is thriving in well-educated, urban middle class families as well,” Mr Edamaruku said.

The godmen who were arrested recently both had middle- and upper-class clients and a few weeks ago it emerged that a Delhi high school had hired an astrologer to give careers advice to graduating students.

Modern life, with all its pressures, may be even contributing to the phenomenon. Few urban Indians have the time to do long pujas (prayer ceremonies) or go on pilgrimages any more, yet with competition for good jobs and places at

India

’s leading universities high, many people feel the services of private gurus or a numerologist might just give them the edge. Hence the course, which covers everything from miracles to numerology and astrology.

“I want these children to realise that if they get good exam results, it is because they have worked hard not because their parents have paid for a godman to do a puja.

“I want people to make their own decisions. They should not be guided by ignorance, but by knowledge.”

One area where he chooses to tread lightly, however, is religion. He is mindful of the fact that many of the children who attend the course come from religious homes. So far, not one child has been withdrawn from the course, which lasts five days, and which has been running on a weekly cycle since May 17. In fact the last week, which starts today, is oversubscribed.

The Guardian: Sanal Edamaruku on Prahlad Jani

2010-05-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

India's man who lives on sunshine

Prahlad Jani's claims to have survived without food or water for decades is being bolstered by people who should know better

Sanal Edamaruku

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 May 2010 15.30 BST

Article history

The crimson-clad old man with the nose ring tries to tell us that he hasn't eaten or drunk anything since the goddess Ambaji touched his tongue with her finger. That must have been around the time of the outbreak of the second world war.

As there are few things so well established as the biological law no human (and no animal) can survive without the regular intake of food and water, it may be sensible to approach his claim with a degree of scepticism. It is not usually very difficult to expose such characters; I have done it in several cases. But Prahlad Jani has some influential protectors.

Dr Sudhir Shah, neurologist and head of Ahmedabad's Sterling hospital, propelled the silly story of Prahlad Jani into the limelight. In a sensational "scientific" research project, he and his team subjected him between 22 April and 6 May to observation and medical scrutiny. This project is financed and supervised by the Indian defence institute of physiology and allied sciences (Dipas), a wing of the defence research and development organisation. The public figurehead of the study is Dipas director Govindasamy Ilavazhagan, who seems to share Shah's enthusiasm for the case. Jointly, the gentlemen were reported to have confirmed that Jani did not eat a crumb and – more crucially – did not drink a single drop of water during his 15 days under observation – which seems completely impossible. Can scientists be so gullible as to salute a man who claims to turn the basic laws of biology upside down? Did they close their eyes (and the non-stop CCTV camera) when Jani quenched his thirst? There is no doubt that the "total surveillance" had loopholes and the "great scientific test" was a farce.

While the test was running, I exposed some of those loopholes in a live programme on India TV: an official video clip revealed that Jani would sometimes move out of the CCTV camera's field of view; he was allowed to receive devotees and could even leave the sealed test room for a sun bath; his regular gargling and bathing activities were not sufficiently monitored and so on. I demanded an opportunity to check the test set-up with an independent team of rationalist experts. There was no immediate reaction from Ahmadabad. But a sudden call from Sterling hospital invited me – live on TV – to join the test the next day itself.

Early morning, ready to fly to Gujarat, we were informed that we had to wait for the permission of the "top boss" of the project. Needless to say: this permission never came.

Similarly, we were unable to attend Shah's first Jani test in November 2003 (that was financed by Dipas too). Shah has a long record of conducting these studies, which up till now have never been discussed in any scientific journal. They merely try to prove his strange sunshine theory: that humans can stop eating and drinking and switch to "other energy sources, sunlight being one". Prahlad Jani is not Shah's first poster child. In 2000/2001, he tested one Hira Manek for more than a year and confirmed his claim that he was feeding on sunshine only (and sometimes a little water). The idea that Shah's research was investigated by Nasa and the University of Pennsylvania was officially denied by both the misrepresented parties.

Shah is a deeply religious Jain. As the president of the Indian Jain Doctors' Federation (JDF), he proposes that via research, the still imperfect science of medicine is to be brought in line with the Jainist '"super-science" as revealed by the omniscient Lord Mahavir. We can only wonder whether his researcher eyes are sometimes clouded by religious zeal. Interestingly, many members of his team are Jains and his partner in the Manek test was a former president of JDF too.

Shah has also suggested this phenomenon might have potential "military use". And – what a shame! – the Indian defence ministry took the bait. Can they really be so naive as to consider putting the army on sunshine diet? We are trying to find out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/18/prahlad-jani-india-sunshine

http://www.youtube.com/rationalists#p/u/0/G9On0X3nBaY

Indian holy man who does not eat or drink...

2010-05-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

Indian holy man Prahlad Jani claims that he did not eat food or drink water since around World War II. Indian Defence Research & Development Organisation took this claim serious. What is the truth behind this holy man? Sanal Edamaruku explains. Click the following link to view the clipping on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9On0X3nBaY

The Guardian: When I met the 'girl who cries blood'

2010-05-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Tantrics, astrologers and assorted holy men were called in. But Twinkle's problems were far from supernatural

Sanal Edamaruku guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 May 2010 17.15 BST, Article history

The Live India broadcast on Twinkle Dwivedi, the 'girl who cries blood'

A weird story goes around the world, in dozens of languages and hundreds of versions: a 14-year-old Indian girl cries blood. It oozes from her eyes, hairline, palms and the soles of her feet without any wound, cut or scratch whatsoever. She gets paler and weaker by the day and neither medics nor preachers from various religions can help her. Never mind that according to basic medical knowledge it's just impossible to bleed spontaneously with your skin intact. These kind of stories never die before the dramatis personae are diagnosed with psychological problems or exposed as frauds – or the miraculous phenomenon stops just as it started, out of the blue.

Sitting in front of me on a plush sofa in the Live India studio, Twinkle did not look pale at all. She appeared a healthy young girl, intelligent, confident, quite serious, some times a little stubborn and – yes – certainly with some inherent dramatic talent. During the programme, her mother Nandini mainly did the talking, but Twinkle was open to chatting with me during breaks, allowing me to gain some insight into her secrets.

To cut a six-hour programme short: Nobody had ever directly witnessed the "bleeding" – except Twinkle's mother, her accomplice. Of course, the girl must have applied the blood herself; but from where did she take it? I got a clue: the pattern seemed to match her menstrual cycle. Careful enquiry stirred up a hornets nest. It was not that this was too embarrassing a subject to broach, but that Nandini vehemently disputed the dates. Her attempts to misguide served to confirm my suspicions.

Once separated from her mother, Twinkle told us that school had been tough for her. While her three elder sisters learned with ease, she suffered from a writing disorder. When her family moved, she couldn't cope with the change of school and her parents kept her at home. Lonely, frustrated and angry, she soon started "bleeding" and suddenly got all the sympathy and attention she longed for. It's a classic case, of a type quite familiar to me. In recent years, I have investigated the claims of three girls of her age: one produced stones from her eyes, the other even ants, and the third one had needles coming out of her skin. All these children were skilfully producing these strange phenomena themselves in order to get attention.

Nandini saw through her daughter's game and promoted it, obviously hoping to reap the benefits. When Twinkle understood that her mother had exploited her story, slowly seizing control of it from her, she "called in" five guardian ghosts. Watching over her all the time, they shared the secret of her "bleeding", breaking her mother's monopoly.

Asked casually about her ghosts, Twinkle answered with pleasure. Of course they were present in the studio. No, they were not naked, but wearing Jeans and kurta! The brand? Levis! Their names? Ishan, Arshid, Imam and Altaf! Their size? A little smaller than her, up to her nose. Strikingly, her fantastic protectors (who seemed linked to former school pals with the same names) were not only all boys, but Muslims at that – a high provocation in a Hindu Brahmin house!

The ghosts eventually inspired Twinkle to write mysterious words that were doubted to be Arabic and became a matter of great speculation when shown to some Muslim scholars. Not bad for a girl with a writing disorder! (Though it turned out to be just a play on her own name written in Urdu, such as she could have picked up from any Muslim kid.)

I would have preferred to discuss these matters in the privacy of a counselling room rather than on a TV programme. Unfortunately there was no such option. Once a psychodrama gets labelled a "miracle", it gains its own momentum. The media presented her to Hindu and Muslim "holy men" and even with a bishop, contemplating about stigmata. And in the TV studio, we had an array of tantrics and astrologers sitting seriously with haematologists, paediatricians and psychiatrists and weighing in with their bizarre interpretations and "solutions" to the case.

The chances are that Twinkle understands what was tactfully revealed about her case, stops the "bleeding" now starts untying the knot – with professional help, as she has been advised, or even on her own. First sign of a new start: she has decided to go to school again. Good luck, Twinkle!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/12/twinkle-girl-cries-blood-edamaruku

James Randi writes

Sanal has done it again, revealing yet another faker to his countrymen and to the world. We need more like him in every corner of civilization to keep the heedless media in control. Thank you, Sanal. I hope to meet you some day...!

-James Randi

Mother Teresa - the other side

2010-05-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

India has no reason to be grateful to Mother Teresa

by Sanal Edamaruku

India, especially Calcutta, is seen as the main beneficiary of Mother Teresa's legendary 'good work' for the poor that made her the most famous Catholic of our times, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and a living saint. Evaluating what she has actually done here, I think, India has no reason to be grateful to her.

Mother Teresa has given a bad name to Calcutta, painting the beautiful, interesting, lively and culturally rich Indian metropolis in the colors of dirt, misery, hopelessness and death. Styled into the big gutter, it became the famous backdrop for her very special charitable work. Her order is only one among more than 200 charitable organizations, which try to help the slum-dwellers of Calcutta to build a better future. It is locally not very visible or active. But tall claims like the absolutely baseless story of her slum school for 5000 children have brought enormous international publicity to her institutions. And enormous donations!

Mother Teresa has collected many, many millions (some say: billions) of Dollars in the name of India's paupers (and many, many more in the name of paupers in the other "gutters" of the world). Where did all this money go? It is surely not used to improve the lot of those, for whom it was meant. The nuns would hand out some bowls of soup to them and offer shelter and care to some of the sick and suffering. The richest order in the world is not very generous, as it wants to teach them the charm of poverty. "The suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering," said Mother Teresa. Do we have to be grateful for this lecture of an eccentric billionaire?

The legend of her Homes for the Dying has moved the world to tears. Reality, however, is scandalous: In the overcrowded and primitive little homes, many patients have to share a bed with others. Though there are many suffering from tuberculosis, AIDS and other highly infectious illnesses, hygiene is no concern. The patients are treated with good words and insufficient (sometimes outdated) medicines, applied with old needles, washed in lukewarm water. One can hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's bizarre philosophy, it is "the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ". Once she tried to comfort a screaming sufferer: "You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you!" The man got furious and screamed back: "Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing."

When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Price, she used the opportunity of her worldwide telecast speech in Oslo to declare abortion the greatest evil in the world and to launch a fiery call against population control. Her charitable work, she admitted, was only part of her big fight against abortion and population control. This fundamentalist position is a slap in the face of India and other Third World Countries, where population control is one of the main keys for development and progress and social transformation. Do we have to be grateful to Mother Teresa for leading this worldwide propagandist fight against us with the money she collected in our name?

Mother Teresa did not serve the poor in Calcutta, she served the rich in the West. She helped them to overcome their bad conscience by taking billions of Dollars from them. Some of her donors were dictators and criminals, who tried to white wash their dirty vests. Mother Teresa revered them for a price. Most of her supporters, however, were honest people with good intentions and a warm heart, who fall for the illusion that the "Saint of the Gutter" was there to wipe away all tears and end all misery and undo all injustice in the world. Those in love with an illusion often refuse to see reality.

TV discussion on Aaj Tak - Superstition in the name of tradition (Hindi)

2010-05-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a discussion on Aaj Tak TV in which I participated. It is about "superstitions that are defended by vested interests in the name of tradition" (7 parts). - Sanal Edamaruku

New Humanist: The Debunkers (Article by Caspar Melville)

2010-05-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Caspar Melville reports on their fight to debunk "holy men"
Caspar Melville
l

In 2000 journalist Ritu Sehgal witnessed a modern miracle in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This is how she set the scene: "It is a sleepy Sunday afternoon in Makkanpur, Old men sit in front of the village shop in the shadow of the Neem tree playing cards and drinking tea. Suddenly they raise their heads. Two unusual guests approach.... Clad in saffron robes, a sadhu comes nearer, followed by his disciple. Barefoot through the mud the holy man and his companion move with measured steps. The sadhu lifts his hand for a blessing and enters the premises of the sarpanch's (village head's) house. Some young men run and bring a charpoi (traditional bed) and place it in the middle of the courtyard. The holy man sits and folds his legs ceremoniously. Eyes fixed in the clear blue afternoon sky, he does not move. The news of the sadhu's arrival spreads fast.... Within minutes the whole village is present. All eyes are fixed on the holy man. The sadhu rises. Through his disciple he lets the villagers know that a curse is lying on Makkanpur. He makes them see the bad omen with their own eyes. He throws a coconut on the stony ground: it breaks, blood squirting out and splashing all around. The audience is awestruck. He has come here, the sadhu lets them know, to use his magical powers to free them from threatening disaster and misfortune."

What follows is an extraordinary display of those supernatural power: the holy man causes a pot to burst into flame and produces eleven lemons from his mouth. He pierces his cheek without drawing blood, reclines on a bed of nails, and appears to levitate under a sheet. The crowd are enraptured. Having proven his power he can now be relied on to cure the town of its curse.

It's all too easy to be seduced by this portrait of the mystical East, to assume that its rich spiritual heritage brings a meaning and beauty to life so lacking in the materialist, sceptical west. Attracted by the notion of gurus, sadhus, babas and tan-tricks roaming the land, selflessly curing the masses of affliction, politicians and film stars flock to receive blessings from super-gurus like Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

But on this occasion, the village witnesses a rather different kind of miracle. Just as the performance is reaching its climax, with the sadhu hovering above the ground, a man leaps up from the crowd and shouts "Stop! This is no holy man". He tears down the sheet under which the guru is 'flying', to reveal the two hockey sticks he is using to raise it.

"We are rationalists" declares the intruder, Sanal Edamaruku, secretary general of the Indian Rationalist Association. "We have come here to show you how sadhus and god-men are using simple tricks to cheat you." The sadhu himself is divested of wig and beard and revealed as a completely ungodly rationalist volunteer. He's no guru – just very skilled at conjuring, and well-schooled in the basic chemistry which dictates that certain fluids will ignite on contact, that lit camphor won't burn the skin, that weight evenly distributed on nails won't puncture. The miracle is that the spell has been broken. Once the crowd have absorbed the shock, and broken into laughter, this poor, remote village has been liberated from superstition. Perhaps for ever. As Edamaruku says "what may look like Sunday entertainment for children, is in fact nothing less than breaking the little hook on which the god-men's enormous power, and the fate of their victims, hangs."

Despite a tenacious western orientalism which overemphasises and overvalues Indian religiosity, reinforced by the homegrown 'Hindutva' movement propagated by the BJP, India has a long and distinguished rationalist tradition which is considerably older than that of the west. According to Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, the seeds of rationalism were planted many thousands of years before the Enlightenment, and centuries before Jesus Christ. Buddha himself, or at least Siddharta (who may or may not have been the first Buddha), could lay claim to being the first rationalist, and even the Hindu sacred text the Ramayana contains the character of Javali who advises the god-king Ram that "there is no after-world, nor any religious practice for attaining that…[religious] injunction have been laid down in the [scriptures] by clever people just to rule over [other] people." This tradition also includes practical political rationalism such as that of Buddhist Emporer Ashoka (273 - 232 BC) who declared religious tolerance and equal human rights with the aim of unifying all India.

Contemporary groups like Edamaruku's Delhi-based Indian Rationalist Association (IRA) and the Satya Shodhak Sabha (Society of Truth Seekers) based in Gujarat, are direct descendents of this tradition. More immediately, they build on the work of the founding fathers of modern Indian rationalism: Mahatma Phule (1827-1890), Periyar Ramasami (1879-1973) and Gora (1902-1975).

Phule, son of a vegetable vendor and educated through the philanthropy of family friends, was one of India's most influential social reformers, campaigning against the caste system, the subordination of woman and the invested power of the Brahmin. Periyar, the 'Voltaire of South India', was born in Tamil Nadu to an affluent religious family and made his name publicly challenging religionists. Drawing inspiration from the French revolution, he loudly and publicly attacked religion as superstition and exploitation. He was a powerful orator and fearless critic: "It gives me extraordinary pleasure", he wrote, "to fling at the pundits their own contradictions, and thus perplex them."

Gora was a high caste Hindu who became a global symbol for 'positive atheism' as well as a tireless campaigner for human rights, and alongside Gandhi, a protester against colonial rule and godfather of democratic India. Phule, Periyar and Gora can be credited with taking the principles of Indian scepticism, rationalism and humanism to a mass audience, though they rarely appear on western lists of rationalist heroes.
Building on this pioneering work it was the Sri Lankan based rationalist Abraham Kovoor (1898-1978), who innovated and extended the techniques of miracle exposure. Kovoor, the son of a vicar, was a professor of Botany, but it was after retirement that he really made his mark as a campaigner against god-men and supernatural fraud. He travelled widely and wrote copiously, bringing all his scientific training and rhetorical power to bear on the practices of the shaman and supposed magicians. He undertook four 'miracle exposure' tours of India in the early 1970s, organised by the IRA and Sanal's father Joseph Edamaruku, even visiting the ashram of Sai Baba, one of Indian's most prominent and popular holy men who, despite his claims to be a god on earth, was unwilling to meet the professor to prove his supernatural powers.

After Kovoor's death in 1978 his mantle was taken up by Basava Premanand (born 1930). Premanand, probably the most box-office of the miracle exposers, actually started out as a disciple of Sai Baba. Becoming disillusioned in 1975 (having transferred a lot of his property to the guru), and inspired by Kavoor, he devoted himself to exposing Baba's use of (pretty amateurish) prestidigitation to produce 'holy ash' and the cheap trinkets with which he wows his large, and far from exclusively Indian, gaggle of devotees.

It was Kovoor's visit to Gujarat in 1976 which inspired a group of rationalists there to form Satya Shodhal Sabha (SSS), named after Mahatma Phule's original 1870s organisation. Kavoor's demonstrations convinced a new generation of activists – composed, like most of India's activist-rationalists, of volunteers from the ranks of education and academia spiced with disillusioned former-converts – that public demonstrations and exposures were the most effective way of educating the public and undermining the credibility and the power of exploitative faith healers, sadhu and the rag tag holy men who tour the country exploiting ignorance and fear where they find it. Exposures are part of a sophisticated strategy to influence popular opinion against supernaturalism.

"We do not go out and talk about whether God exists or not, or get involved in abstract disputes of that nature," says Professor BD Desai, secretary of the SSS, who have performed over 1500 miracle exposures since 1982. "We are not concerned with showing how clever we are compared to the ignorant masses. We want to talk to people in a language they understand, to expose falsehood and contradictions, and show how the miracles are basically a ploy to distract and misguide people from their genuine problems."

The SSS work on a number of fronts simultaneously. In addition to exposing the fakery of fakirs, they work as a semi-official abuse monitoring service, helping to identify, expose and prosecute sadhus involved in sexual exploitation. "In India male children are highly valued. If a woman cannot conceive a male she will often seek out the help of a sadhu, who claims that using ritual and sacrifice he can heal her. Often such situations end up in rape or sexual abuse. A complaint will be made to us, we will send undercover volunteers to investigate and gather evidence, and if possible go to court to help secure a conviction." In this they are fully supported by the local police and receive a degree of state support.

Then there are the cases of supernaturalism which do not involve shifty sadhus, but more complex and fascinating psychological motives than mere greed. Professor Desai relates the story of a 14 year-old boy in the remote sea side village of Kantiyazad, who was believed to have been possessed by the avatar (spirit) of the god Jalaram Bapa – how else to explain the fact that he had begun intoning verse in Sanskrit, a language he did not know? When rationalist investigators arrived they discovered that the boy, neglected in favour of two smart older brothers, had memorised the verses, which were pasted up in his father's shrine. The apparent possession was an attempt to gain the attention and approval of his father. Or how about the strange appearance of cuts in a young wife's sari every time she was due to leave the house with her husband? On closer inspection, the evil omen turned out to be the result of some nifty scissor work by a frustrated sister-in-law confined to the house. In both cases the investigators made a point not to expose the fraudsters in public, but to work with the families to achieve some kind of settlement which would remove the motive for the false possession.

Each case reveals the deep connection between India's structural inequality – the caste system, gender subordination – and the lure of supernaturalism, the desire to be heard, to escape or to grasp some approximation of meaning apparently offered by the holy-rollers. The crucial skill of the Indian rationalist tacticians is to be able to combine a sense of theatre comparable to that of the most extravagant sadhu, with a recognition of the link between India's social inequalities and superstition. Desire for social transformation, in the west more associated with radical progressive politics, goes hand in hand with the desire to expose fraud. Tactically astute, organisations like the SSS know that miracle exposures, successful as they are, will not of themselves transform Indian social inequality, but they form the conspicuous surface of an underlying strategy: "We are wedded to social change, but to create acceptability we need to make inroads in the thinking of the people. Exposures achieve this, as does our voluntary work of all kinds. We have exposed over 50 frauds, and many mid-level gurus have left the state, but our focus is on the people. First and last we want people to think rationally. Once that happens the gurus will not remain anywhere."

Professor Desai is clear that while the forms of Indian activism can be an inspiration for a renewed practical western rationalist project, western traditions of rationalist and humanist thought remain an essential model for India: "Our entire enlightenment depends on the west, and we have a lot more to learn." In his speech at the conference in 1999 which celebrated 100 years of the Rationalist Press Association (RPA), Sanal Edamaruku was explicit about the vital role played by the availability of cheap copies of classic western humanist texts, printed by the RPA, publishers of the journal you are reading now: "The Cheap Reprints and the Thinkers' Library series during the middle of the 20th century reached far-off places and provoked thinking people to come out and plan organised efforts to influence change." One of the most influential successes of Indian atheist publishers was to translate much of the Thinker's Library, and many other classics of humanism, into local languages like Malayalam. "If you happen to come to Kerala one day," Edamaruku concludes "don't be too astonished to meet a teashop boy who has read Charles Darwin's Origin of Species." The influence, in the end, is two-way.

Indian rationalism continues to claim some significant victories: exposing not only dozens of home-grown charlatans but also imported varieties such as evangelical fraudster Morris Cerullo and faith healing huckster Clive Harris; ensuring that astrology was deprived of the status as a legitimate profession and preventing it from being adopted on the university curriculum; and securing the right to register 'no caste or religion' on official forms, are just some of the practical achievements they can claim. But neither Desai nor Edamaruku are complacent about the challenges still to come. To the problems of illiteracy, superstition and sectarianism are added the renewed perils of Islamic fundamentalism and the machinations of imported Christian missionaries.

For the rationalists, the work goes on. Professor Desai, since retirement working harder than ever for the cause, continues to lecture, speak and write (his organisation has published scores of books and pamphlets in Gujarati) as well as appearing as a material witness in abuse cases. Edamaruku runs the IRA with tireless enthusiasm, using all media – TV, the Internet, magazines, public speaking – to get the message out. From exposing 'the prime minister's astrologer' Lachman Das Madan on live TV to running his paranormal investigation centre which exposes contemporary hoaxes such as the photograph of the giant skeleton, reputed to be a Rakshasa (mythical giant), in fact revealed as a fairly clumsy piece of photo trickery, Sanal Edamaruku is probably the hardest working man in the miracle-busting business. His most recent success was on live television across the subcontinent. On October 20th Indians were glued to their TVs watching live as Astrologist Punjilal, who had predicted that he would die between 3 and 4pm on that day, lay down to his fate. Edamaruku had appeared on the 10 o'clock news the night before, confidently predicting that nothing would happen. By the time the astrologist gingerly arose at five past four, and was declared in perfect health by a doctor, Edamaruku had struck another, very public, blow to the credibility of supernaturalism (a feat he repeated with even more drama in 2008).

These activists and many others with the same dedication to truth and ability to capture the imagination of the crowd, offer perhaps the best example of how rationalism can be both profound and entertaining. Perhaps, if they have time, some of these practical rationalists might find time to come over to Britain and help us with our superstition issues.

(New Humanist Volume 120 Issue 6 November/December 2005)

James Randi writes in response to The Times of India article.

2010-05-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a letter from James Randi, one of my heroes, in response to my Times of India article "Chicken Bones and Black Magic cannot harm you".

- Sanal Edamaruku

http://sanaledamaruku.blogspot.com/2010/05/from-times-of-india-3-may-2010.html

James Randi

"Sanal has done it again, reinforcing the fact that India - as well as my own country! - needs to recognize that such superstitions belong in medieval days, not here in the 21st century. I salute his efforts, and would only like to point out that the only creatures that need fear the efforts of the babas are the chickens whose bones are such an important factor in this comedy of errors. I join this teacher in urging everyone to wake up and see the light of rationality and reason." - James Randi

The Young Turks TV: Discussion on the Tantra Challenge.

2010-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

I found this humorous discussion on Young Turks TV interesting and thought of sharing it with you.
It's funny - these guys can't pronounce my name!! -Sanal Edamaruku

The Straits Times: India's not so holy men

2010-05-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

Here is an article about India's holy men that appeared in "The Straits Times" and "Island Online" of Sri Lanka. The last comments about Satya Sai Baba and Mata Amritanandamayi are, however, ill-informed. Satya Saibaba's philanthropic activities are just an alibi and image repair. His miracles are completely exposed as fraud, and he stands internationally accused for child-abuse and other severe crimes. Amrithanandamayi, on the other hand, collects huge sums from around the world on every possible occasion and distributes a part of it and makes big campaigns as if it was her own money. Most of her institutions are money minting commercial ones, including the medical college in Kerala, where enormous money is illegally collected from students for admission.

-Sanal Edamaruku

India's not so holy men

Spiritual leaders still command big following but recent scandals have increased scepticism

P Jayaram
The Straits Times

India's charismatic Hindu ascetics have always been looked up to for their spiritual help and have claimed powers to perform miracles, but now, they're being closely watched - for all the wrong reasons.

Last week, one of these 'godmen' was arrested for running a vast sex racket from his temple, while another was shown in a TV sting expose allegedly having sex with an actress.

Yet godmen still command millions of followers in this deeply religious country - despite frequent media reports of their worldly weaknesses that have seen them being involved in all sorts of criminal activities, including rape, murder and extortion.

There are those who scoff at these purveyors of spirituality and laugh at the gullibility of their followers, and rationalists who have challenged the godmen to perform 'miracles' in front of them.

"There is a new awareness developing in this country and I am very, very happy about it - that is why more and more godmen are being exposed," said Sanal Edamaruku.

The president of the Indian Rationalist Association had once challenged a mystic to demonstrate his powers by killing him using only magic on a TV show. Accepting the challenge, the mystic chanted mantras and performed a ritual. When nothing happened, he said Mr Edamakuru had to be under the protection of a powerful god - to which the rationalist responded that he was an atheist.

In the latest scandal, Delhi police arrested Shiv Murat Dwivedi, a 39-year-old man with flowing black hair and beard, for allegedly running a sex racket from his temple.

According to police, he had more than 100 girls working for him, including college students, air hostesses and society women.

Dwivedi, who worked as a security guard at a five-star hotel and at a massage parlour before taking to religion, was said to have amassed more than 600 million rupees (US$13 million) over a period of 10 years.

Even as Dwivedi's followers were recovering from the shock of his arrest, Swami Nithyananda, 45, who has an ashram, or spiritual centre, outside IT hub Bangalore, was allegedly filmed having sex with an actress in a TV sting operation.

Though a spokesman for the Swami, or holy man, denied the charge and dubbed it as a "conspiracy", angry mobs attacked his ashram and his properties in Karnataka state.

"For us it is a very, very astonishing matter that the Swami has been indulging in these sex and criminal activities. He should be punished and this ashram should be shut down permanently," a protester was quoted as saying.

Of all the godmen, perhaps the most controversial has been Chandraswami, who is facing a string of criminal charges, including cheating and violations of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.

According to the prosecutors, the 60-year-old, who had the ears of two former prime ministers - P.V. Narasimha Rao and Chandra Shekhar - and several leading politicians, is also suspected of having a role in funding the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Mr Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels.

But critics acknowledge that it would be wrong to tar all spiritual leaders with the same brush. They cite instances of Sathya Sai Baba as well as Mata Amritanandamayi, popularly known as the 'hugging mother', who have used donations from their worldwide followers to set up universities and super speciality hospitals, where the poor are given treatment at subsidised or no cost.

The latter had donated 10 billion rupees to Sri Lanka in the wake of the 2004 tsunami devastation to build houses for the victims, and also helped rebuild the houses of those affected by the tidal waves in her Kerala state.

http://www.island.lk/2010/03/09/features1.html

The Guardian: The night a guru tried to kill me on TV

2010-05-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

When Surender Sharma said he could kill me with magic, I had to put him to the test. The result was a triumph for rationalism

Sanal Edamaruku
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 March 2010 14.30 GMT

In different cultures, sense of humour varies. In the south Indian state of Kerala, from where I come, many people have great fun with this arguably shortest joke anywhere in circulation: A dog tried to open a coconut. And what happened? you may ask. Well, nothing; that's the joke. It did not work, of course.

My encounter with Pandit Surender Sharma had something of a Kerala joke stretched out for hours. Nobody laughed, though, when he tried to kill me with tantric rituals on live TV. Except me, of course.
It was in March 2008. The tantra master and I were studio guests on a popular TV show to debate on the subject of "Tantric power vs science". He boasted that he was able to kill anyone by mantra and tantra within three minutes. I grabbed my chance to put him in check and offered myself for a test. Caught on air, he couldn't escape without losing face – and his high-profile clientele. So our unprecedented experiment began. The master started chanting his trade mark "killer" mantra that has become quite a hit on the internet since: "Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikilikili…"

After several rounds of chanting failed to knock me out, he tried the whole arsenal of his tantric gimmickry on me, obviously without any result either. I was just laughing. In his embarrassment, he proposed I was protected by a supreme god whom I served – never mind that I am an atheist! Finally, he resorted to foul play, pressing his thumbs against my temples, hard enough to kill me the conventional way, but was cautioned by the umpiring anchor. With no way to escape, he upped the stakes and agreed to perform the "ultimate destruction ceremony" that would kill me dead sure. With ratings soaring, the programme overran, rolling on and on in "breaking news" mode. The channel announced another round of our epic battle for the night show.
Same game, this time in proper style: open night sky, the auspicious hour before midnight, me sitting on the tantric altar, blazing flames, white smoke, voodoo doll, peacock feather, mustard seed and all that. The master, besmirched with ashes from the cemetery ground and after the prescribed ritual consumption of sex, meat and alcohol at his tantric best, was assisted by a chorus of vigorous mantra chanters: "Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikilikili…"

Well, the pig still didn't fly. But the mere idea of it kept millions and millions of viewers all over India glued to their TV sets. I was laughing throughout. Not just because it was a scene of superb absurdity, but mainly because I felt that so many people out there in front of their screens urgently needed a signal from me that there was nothing to be worried about. In fact, I laughed the tantric out of power. After hysteric escalation and a dramatic countdown, it all ended as you would well have anticipated, with the defeated tantric silently quitting the field – down, out and over. Reason had won the day, as James Randi later happily commented.
Life is not always like that. But this TV show turned the tables. It influenced the climate in public debates inside and outside Indian TV studios far more deeply than I expected when I caught hold of Sharma. Our experiment became a textbook example for the hollowness of tantra-mantra power. Prick a pin in the great balloon and it comes crashing down, that was the message. But make no mistake; it's not always as easy and rarely as amusing. Recently, we were able to put behind bars, with the help of a TV documentary, a tantric who used to make his living with a dangerous stunt of rare brutality: he trampled on the bodies of little infants brought to him in hundreds by their illiterate parents to benefit from the godly powers of his feet. A local politician and high priest, to whom I talked during the programme, defended the holy man in the name of religion. This shows the complexity of the problem.

(See below a TV clipping from the trampling guru discussion)

For several decades, rationalists in India have been working quite successfully on different levels to educate people against spiritual fraudsters of all denominations and ranks. In earlier years limited to (still important) village campaigns, the television revolution has opened up new dimensions. Last year, I personally attended some 240 programmes on various channels. Some of them made an enormous impact.

While Sai Baba celebrated a recent birthday, as usual surrounded by India's high society including top politicians, one TV channel gave me an opportunity to perform and explain his trademark tricks for any kid to try at home – a landslide success, but the king kept sitting on his throne. However, these kinds of superstitions are slowly coming into the firing line of a courageous new media force supporting the rationalist line. The next generation of India's top godmen are already starting to appreciate the shift. Recently, one of them threw away the mic and fled with bodyguards and armored cars when I came into a TV studio. Pity.

The Times (London): Tantra Challenge

2010-05-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

March 19, 2010

Sceptic challenges guru to kill him live on TV

Pandit Surender Sharma tries to kill Sanal Edamaruku live on television: the rationalist didn't look too worried

Jeremy Page, Delhi

When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.

Mr Edamaruku had been invited to the same talk show as head of the Indian Rationalists’ Association — the country’s self-appointed sceptic-in-chief. At first the holy man, Pandit Surender Sharma, was reluctant, but eventually he agreed to perform a series of rituals designed to kill Mr Edamaruku live on television. Millions tuned in as the channel cancelled scheduled programming to continue broadcasting the showdown, which can still be viewed on YouTube.

First, the master chanted mantras, then he sprinkled water on his intended victim. He brandished a knife, ruffled the sceptic’s hair and pressed his temples. But after several hours of similar antics, Mr Edamaruku was still very much alive — smiling for the cameras and taunting the furious holy man.

“He was over, finished, completely destroyed!” Mr Edamaruku chuckles triumphantly as he concludes the tale in the Rationalist Centre, his second-floor office in the town of Noida, just outside Delhi.

Rationalising India has never been easy. Given the country’s vast population, its pervasive poverty and its dizzying array of ethnic groups, languages and religions, many deem it impossible.

Nevertheless, Mr Edamaruku has dedicated his life to exposing the charlatans — from levitating village fakirs to televangelist yoga masters — who he says are obstructing an Indian Enlightenment. He has had a busy month, with one guru arrested over prostitution, another caught in a sex-tape scandal, a third kidnapping a female follower and a fourth allegedly causing a stampede that killed 63 people.

This week India’s most popular yoga master, Baba Ramdev, announced plans to launch a political party, promising to cleanse India of corruption and introduce the death penalty for slaughtering cows. Then, on Wednesday, police arrested a couple in Maharashtra state on suspicion of killing five boys on the advice of a tantric master who said their sacrifice would help the childless couple to conceive.

“The immediate goal I have is to stop these fraudulent babas and gurus,” says Mr Edamaruku, 55, a part-time journalist and publisher from the southern state of Kerala. “I want people to make their own decisions. They should not be guided by ignorance, but by knowledge.

“I’d like to see a post-religious society — that would be an ideal dream, but I don’t know how long it would take.”

His organisation traces its origins to the 1930s when the “Thinker’s Library” series of books, published by Britain’s Rationalist Press Association, were first imported to India. They included works by Aldous Huxley, Charles Darwin and H.G. Wells; among the early subscribers was Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister.

The Indian Rationalist Association was founded officially in Madras in 1949 with the encouragement of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, who sent a long letter of congratulations. For the next three decades it had no more than 300 members and focused on publishing pamphlets and debating within the country’s intellectual elite.

But since Mr Edamaruku took over in 1985, it has grown into a grass-roots organisation of more than 100,000 members — mainly young professionals, teachers and students — covering most of India. Members now spend much of their time investigating and reverse-engineering “miracles” performed by self-styled holy men who often claim millions of followers and amass huge wealth from donations.

One common trick they expose is levitation, usually done using an accomplice who lies on the ground under a blanket and then raises his upper body while holding out two hockey sticks under the blanket to make it look like his feet are also rising. “It’s quite easy really,” said Mr Edamaruku, who teaches members to perform the tricks in villages and then explains how they are done, or demonstrates them at press conferences.

Other simple tricks include walking on hot coals (the skin does not burn if you walk fast enough) and lying on a bed of nails (your weight is spread evenly across the bed). The “weeping statue” trick is usually done by melting a thin layer of wax covering a small deposit of water.

Some tricks require closer scrutiny. One guru in the state of Andhra Pradesh used to boil a pot of tea using a small fire on his head. The secret was to place a non-conductive pad made of compacted wheat flour between his head and the fire. “I was so excited when I exposed him. I should have been more reasonable but sometimes you get so angry,” he said. “I cried: ‘Look, even I can do this and I’m not a baba — I’m a rationalist!’.”

Another swami — who conducted funeral rites for Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister who was assassinated in 1984 — used to appear to create fire by pouring ghee, clarified butter, on to ash and then staring at the mixture until it burst into flames. The “ghee” was glycerine and the “ash” was potassium permanganate, two chemicals that spontaneously combust within about two minutes of being mixed together.

Exposing such tricks can be risky. A guru called Balti (Bucket) Baba once smashed a burning hot clay pot in Mr Edamaruku’s face after he revealed that the holy man was using a heat resistant pad to pick it up.

The chief rationalist was almost arrested by the government of Kerala for revealing that it was behind an annual apparition of flames in the night sky — in fact, several state officials lighting bonfires on a nearby hill — which attracted millions of pilgrims. Despite his efforts, he admits that people still go to the festival and continue to revere self-styled holy men.

One reason is that Indian politicians nurture and shelter gurus to give them spiritual credibility, use their followers as vote banks, or to mask sexual or criminal activity. That explains why India’s Parliament has never tightened the 1954 Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, under which the maximum punishment is two months in prison and a 2,000 rupee (£29) fine.

Another reason is that educated, middle-class Indians are feeling increasingly alienated from mainstream religion but still in need of spiritual sustenance. “When traditional religion collapses people still need spirituality,” he says. “So they usually go one of two directions: towards extremism and fundamentalism or to these kinds of people.”

Since richer, urban Indians have little time for long pilgrimages orpujas (prayer ceremonies), they are often attracted by holy men who offer instant gratification — for a fee. The development of the Indian media over the past decade has also allowed some holy men to reach ever larger audiences via television and the internet. “Small ones have gone out of business while the big ones have become like corporations,” says Mr Edamaruku.

But the media revolution has also helped Mr Edamaruku, who made 225 appearances on television last year, and gets up to 70 inquiries about membership daily. Thanks to his confrontation in 2008 with the tantric master, the rationalist is now a national celebrity, too.

When the guru’s initial efforts failed, he accused Mr Edamaruku of praying to gods to protect him. “No, I’m an atheist,” came the response. The holy man then said he needed to conduct a ritual that could only be done at night, outdoors, and after he had slept with a woman, drunk alcohol and rubbed himself in ash.

The men agreed to go to an outdoor studio that night — all to no avail. At midnight, the anchor declared the contest over. Reason had prevailed.

New Humanist: Death on air

2010-05-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Sanal Edamuruku on the night a guru tried to kill him live on Indian TV

The New Humanist

Sanal EdamarukuArticles > Volume 123 Issue 3 May/June 2008 >

Even if you don’t live in India it is possible you have seen my encounter with supreme tantrik “power” in March. Since it was broadcast it has been posted on YouTube and has had a good many views. “More than the candidates of the presidential election,” joked the reporter from US National Public Radio when I was interviewed the other day. Though that was certainly exaggerated, the fact is that reports and video clips of my “Great Tantra Challenge” have been snowballing through cyberspace. I’ve been contacted by an amazing number of people from all over the world. Though it is impossible to respond to all these letters, I do take time to read them carefully. They make me feel that I have done a good thing.

I met Pandit Surinder Sharma on the set of a live show on India TV, one of the country’s major Hindi language news channels. He is a regular on certain shows and claims to be the guru-of-choice of top politicians and business magnates. Both of us were invited to comment on the claims of Uma Bharti, former chief minister of Indian state Madhya Pradesh, that her political opponents were using tantrik powers to damage her. It was a staged controversy. After screening a video clip about the troubles of the superstitious politician, my counterpart elaborated with the standard routine of a tantrik specialist; he demonstrated various techniques for causing harm to any person, such as burning their photo or torturing a little doll made from wheat flour that is named after the intended victim. Suddenly half of the 30-minute show was over without me having an opportunity to say a single word to counter these absurdities. While I was watching Sharma “strangling” his sticky clot of dough with a thin red thread, I suddenly knew what I had to do.

My casually expressed doubts provoked him to boast about his personal tantrik powers: he could, he claimed proudly, kill anyone with mantras in just three minutes. That was where I caught him. I challenged him to demonstrate his powers there and then, on me. At first, he tried to ignore my proposal, but I insisted, and after repeating “I challenge you!” five times it could not be ignored. Still, the anchor and I took the whole of the commercial break to pin Sharma down. Finally, the trap clicked.

Later many viewers wondered why a high-calibre charlatan would allow himself to be exposed in front of millions. He certainly could have resorted to some classical excuse like “tantrik power needs an intimate atmosphere to work”, or “professional ethics prevent me from exposing my techniques in front of the uninitiated”. But he didn’t try that. A somewhat sedate thinker, he obviously took some time to fully understand the implications of the upcoming test.

What then followed is still causing fits of laughter to those browsing YouTube. Somebody posted it at double speed on their website, amplifying the ludicrous effect. But in real time, live on India TV, even rationalists held their breath.

Sharma started by chanting mantras. When his squeaky-voiced “Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikili...” failed to kill me even after eight long minutes, he prepared trick number two and sent for water and a knife from the studio kitchen. Would he now try to kill me the conventional way? Was he crazy? I could not really judge what this feisty middle-aged man in white robes, who carefully avoided eye-contact with me, was up to.

Meanwhile our programme time had long run out, but the exciting twist to the situation prompted the station managers to cancel the planned schedule and switch into “breaking news” mode. The former politician Uma Bharti – still smiling in the background – was long forgotten. Chanting more mantras, Sharma sprinkled water and brandished his knife in front of me. Though watching him carefully, always prepared to land a fast uppercut in case the knife erred, I also laughed heartily. Not that I really felt very amused, but I knew that millions of breathless viewers out there in rural India were in urgent need of a sign from me that everything was under control.

After the knife failed, Sharma got visibly desperate. He gripped my hair and forcefully moved my head around in circles, pressing his fist against my skull. This was no mantra or tantra, it was a serious physical attack! I protested and the anchor intervened. But Sharma did not stop resorting to unfair means. He tried to press my eyes, my temples, was warned, and tried again. The situation became quite stressful, but I managed to keep smiling. Finally, after 90 minutes, it was over. The anchor confirmed the tantrik’s total failure and the triumph of rationalism.

That would have been a great end, but Sharma tried to save his face by introducing an allegedly infallible “Ultimate Destruction Tantra” that he would be able to perform at night. Announcing the nocturnal continuation of the Great Tantra Challenge, India TV pushed its ratings up to an all-time high. The challenge got 55 per cent of the total prime time audience in India, hundreds of millions watched the unfolding drama.

I have to admit, I was worried during the next hours, and so were my friends. Not that we suddenly believed that the “Ultimate Destruction Tantra” (UDT) could harm me. But couldn’t Sharma, who had pressed my skull in the afternoon so passionately, have some dirty tricks up his sleeve? Blades? Contact poison? Or just some harmless chloroform that could knock me out till the programme was over? We decided to play safe and deployed some observers and my personal bodyguard in the studio courtyard where the UDT was performed. Their intervention was, thankfully, not necessary.

The UDT was a quite magnificent spectacle. I sat at the “tantrik altar”, fire blazing under the open night sky, with an increasingly hysterical mantra chorus of three voices. Sharma, supported by two young tantriks, sprinkled water and boiling butter oil, threw mustard seed and all kind of mysterious unguents into the flames, destroyed a piece of paper with my name on it and wafted a bunch of peacock feathers over my head. I was expected to get crazy within three minutes, then cry with pain and die. When he flopped again, he got angry, but did not give up. He gave me his sticky wheat piece, smeared with oils and spices, for a touch and then destroyed it – in a desperate finale furioso minutes before midnight – with nails, knives and fire. He had failed yet again. My second triumph was celebrated and the show ended. So, most likely, did Pandit Sharma’s career. I did not hear from him again. When the lights were off after the show, I saw him sitting silently and lonely on his chair and gazing into the darkness. Perhaps he really believed he would be able to kill me?

With his career in tatters, I thought I could make him a proposal for a carefree future. With a little professional re-training he could qualify for one of the 3,000 new exorcist jobs that the Vatican has recently announced.

Times of India: Chicken bones and black magic cannot harm you

2010-05-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

The Times of India - 2 May 2010

Sanal Edamaruku
(President, Indian Rationalist Association)

I have campaigned against superstitions for several decades now and am convinced that it is the single most destructive force in India’s development.

Let me start with a small piece of advice, just in case. If one fine day you get to know that some tantrik, generously paid by your arch enemy to kill you, has managed to lay his hands on a used handkerchief or a strand of hair or yours, don’t panic. Here is the counter spell that can save your life: just laugh. For whatever mantras he may chant over a midnight fire in the local burial ground and whatever cruelties he may commit to your handkerchief, it cannot harm you as long as you are not afraid. If you are afraid, yes, you could die - out of fear that is.

In March 2008, I had an opportunity to prove my point. During a panel discussion live on India TV about “tantra power versus science” my opponent Pandit Surinder Sharma, a well-known TV-tantrik, boasted that it would take him just three minutes to kill whomever he wanted by the sheer power of his mantras. “Then kill me!” I challenged him. And he tried. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. When I survived two exhausting hours of “Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikilikili….”, the show was continued in an open air midnight special with the “ultimate destruction ritual”, in which the tantrik fired off the full stock of his black magic arsenal. Finally he furiously crucified, massacred and burned the little clot of wheat dough that was meant to represent me. But all the tantra and mantra could not harm me. Of course not! How should abracadabra and chicken bones spell death?

Fear from freedom is looming large

We are living in a time where scientific and technological revolutions are dramatically changing the way we live and the way we think. With the fast and easy flow of information at our fingertip and the whole world just a call away, borders are opening, old monopolies and privileges breaking and social prisons crumbling. It’s a good time to do away with the last balance of age old superstition and tribal rituals in our mind and to try to understand the world in its complexity. To take control of our lives and develop our own capacities, to be efficient, strong, confident, responsible – and happy. This is not only a personal affair, it is also the best way promote India growing into a developed country and unfolding its strong potential to take a leadership position in tomorrow’s world order.

Many are ill prepared to cope with the challenging situation. For them, all changes create a feeling of insecurity and fear. People who could not overcome their childhood fears and weaknesses tend to remain trapped lifelong in a bizarre world where ghosts and spirits are lurking behind every shadow. They are the ideal customers for tantriks and babas, who unscrupulously exploit fear and insecurity.

Blisters and a flush of enlightenment

I have been a spirited campaigner against superstition for several decades now, as I am convinced that it is the single most destructive force in people’s lives and India’s development. My encounters with “supernatural” charlatans enlist much more colourful figures and more dangerous situations than the “Great Tantra Challenge” on India TV. There were people like the fiery Balti Baba, who performed his fire tricks allegedly for the benefit of a top politician’s re-election, when I exposed him. He got so furious that he tossed a huge burning mud pot on my face. Running TV cameras recorded my narrow escape. I got some minor blisters, but the baba burnt his hands down to the bones and hasn’t been seen in public ever since.

Among all those sinister creatures, Pandit Suriner Sharma deserves a special place. As a somewhat sedate thinker he understood the consequences of our experiment in a nationally broadcast live programme too late. Killing nothing but his own career, he helped me – though against his will – to spark a flush of enlightenment in the minds of millions of viewers. I still receive touchy mails from people of all wages of life who found their way out of superstition that night. In case you missed the programme: you can see some clippings on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/rationalists

(edamaruku@gmail.com)

The Guardian: TV Swami Ramdev and his cures!

2010-05-01T20:19:00.001-07:00

Sanal Edamaruku calls: Stop Swami Ramdev

Swami Ramdev expects a revenue of 40 million dollar this year. Selling India’s ancient, pre-scientific notion of health care and cure – repackaged as his very special brand – is good business. Thanks to his all-out marketing, Pranayama (ancient exercise in breath control) and ayurveda are big hits with the ever-growing and prospering Indian middle class. His daily early morning show has allegedly 20 million viewers. His 500 hospitals in the country are said to register 30,000 patients per day. His new headquarters in the “holy city” of Haridwar may soon be world’s largest center for yoga and ayurveda.

S wamy Ramdev

Swami Ramdev’s breathing routine as such may be as harmless as useless. But it comes with the stunning claim to cure all kinds of illnesses including cancer and HIV/Aids. His brand of yoga, so runs his pseudo medical argument, increases the CD4 count – the number of cells attacking the HIV virus. Such baseless and irresponsible claims, luring a vast number of patients in need of medical treatment into a false sense of security, turn Swami Ramdev’s yoga ministry a disastrous venture.

“Swami Ramdev is a dangerous man”, said Sanal Edamaruku in a press statement. ’It is high time that the authorities put a stop to his activities. Claiming such absurdities is against the law. The magical remedies act of 1954 was brought in to stop people such as Baba Ramdev from promoting dangerous ideas about curing cancer and the like. But the political class is running scared of him and of the backlash that his legal prosecution might unleash."

Quoting Sanal Edamaruku, the following article appeared in The Guardian.

TV swami offers a cure for all ills

Yoga evangelist has millions in his thrall,
but critics claim devotees are being duped

Randeep Ramesh
The Guardian, Saturday June 14 2008

At 5am beneath the Shivalik hills in northern India, Swami Ramdev sits cross-legged swaddled in saffron robes commanding the rapt attention of 500 devotees of his brand of yoga. The crowd is made up mostly of middle-class Indians, many suffering from chronic conditions for which traditional medicine has little to offer but comfort.

Each "patient" has paid 7,000 to 40,000 rupees (£90 to £500) to be among the first to spend a week at the swami's newest venture: a village of 300 bungalows offering spiritual retreat in the shadow of eucalyptus trees. Swami Ramdev's pitch is that pranayama, the ancient Indian art of breath control, can cure a bewildering array of diseases. "Asthma, arthritis, sickle-cell anaemia, kidney problems, thyroid disease, hepatitis, slipped discs and it will unblock any fallopian tubes," he tells his audience in the yoga village, who line up to have their blood tested and receive herbal remedies.

Although India has a long tradition of mystical gurus, Swami Ramdev represents a new phenomenon: the television yoga evangelist. Almost all his congregation have been drawn through his shows on India's Aastha channel. Every morning, the swami appears on television chanting prayers and explaining that ailments, physical and mental, can be treated by what looks like little more than sharp intakes of air and painful-looking body contortions. More than 20 million tune in each day in India alone. The television guru, who is also known as Baba Ramdev, is also available across the world - including Britain. He has just finished teaching on a yoga cruise from India to China, which even after attracting corporate sponsorship still charged disciples £1,000 a ticket. Last year he appeared in Westminster to give British politicians a chance to sample his yogic wisdom.

Ludy Mantri, a housewife from Mauritius, has paid 40,000 rupees and travelled 4,000 miles to see "her swami" in the Haridwar yoga village in the hope he can help her find a cure for diabetes.

"I have been on medicines every day for the last 12 years. The chanting of Om has an amazing effect and the words of Ramdev energise one through the day."

Born into a farming family in north India he retains a common touch, making rustic jokes in chaste Hindi. The guru combines this with a gentle manner and a knack for public relations. The swami sells himself as a one-person health service. He says he only charges the wealthy and that the poor get his medicines for free. He has 500 hospitals in India serving more than 30,000 a day.

It is no surprise that many sections of the Indian elite - including judges, ministers and Bollywood stars - have visited his camps. Such is his popularity that the Indian army incorporated Ramdev's techniques claiming it made for a "deadlier fighting force".

Ramdev often speaks less of spiritualism and more of the need to develop his country through yoga, portraying himself as an Indian nationalist. He attacks multinational companies for seeking to drain India of profits. He calls Coke and Pepsi good only for "toilet cleaning".

In a country where renunciation is seen as almost a divine virtue, Ramdev announces that he has long ago given up sex - because "it is not love". The adoration he inspires was seen in 2006 when Indian communists accused the guru of using human bones and animal parts in ayurvedic drugs produced by his pharmacy. His followers rioted and attacked the party headquarters. The Communist party backed down when it saw where public sympathy lay.In an interview with the Guardian, Ramdev said that the problem with communists was that they did not have "faith in spirituality and are philosophically against religion. My cures are clean but the communists have an agenda."

There is little controversy about his basic assertions. He says that following his yoga teachings for 30 minutes a day, along with a vegetarian diet of raw or lightly boiled food and no alcohol or tobacco, clears clogged arteries, reduces blood sugar and lowers blood pressure.

But the swami defended his more extravagant claims that yoga could cure terminal illnesses such as cancer. He also said he had evidence that breathing exercises could help Aids patients recover by enabling a rise in the number of cells that the HIV virus destroys.

Ramdev has an explanation for his success with cancer - that yoga oxygenates the blood which kills the tumour. "Yoga is self-healing and self-realisation. I have many cases of cancer which I can provide where patients have recovered. We have cured blood, throat, ovarian, uterine and throat cancers with yoga."

In the case of HIV, he says scientists "have not understood [it] properly". He says that "through yoga and lifestyle changes people increase their CD4 count [the cells the HIV virus attacks]. The truth seen for the first time does appear like a miracle."

Such claims have angered many doctors. Mohammed Abbas, The president of the Indian Medical Association, said that although yoga is "good exercise, it cannot be used to make ridiculous claims about curing HIV or cancer. This is false hope for ill people."

The swami says patients are tested and improvements measured by "independent" doctors. Asked whether he has run any tests to analyse treatment, he offers a ook of testimonies from disciples convinced they have been cured of cancer, cirrhosis and kidney failure.

Some have called for the swami to be prosecuted for "peddling quackery of the highest order".

"Claiming such absurdities is against the law," said Sanal Edamaruku of the Indian Rationalist Association. "The magical remedies act of 1954 was brought in to stop people such as Baba Ramdev from promoting dangerous ideas about curing cancer and the like.

"The political class is running scared of this man and the backlash that such a prosecution might unleash."

Why Rationalism? By Sanal Edamaruku

2010-05-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

WHY RATIONALISM?

REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW TRENDS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RATIONALIST MOVEMENT

By Sanal Edamaruku
President, Indian Rationalist Association
President, Rationalist International

Looking back on the last two centuries, humanity can celebrate the triumph of reason, progress and emancipation. The tyrant gods have been exposed as paperboard monsters. The cruel and violent forces that governed throughout the dark ages in their name have been driven out of a major part of the world and of human minds. The wheels of progress are rolling with enormous speed. Scientific research and technology are improving our lives and extending our horizon and potential. These achievements have been possible under the influence of a strong and irrepressible rationalist movement that braved harassment and backlashes to break one by one the chains of mental slavery and make us the masters of our destiny.

But there is no time to rest on rationalist laurels. The victory lasts only as long as we are watchful and ready to defend and extend the empire of reason.

Religion has a tendency to creep back into liberated territory in ever new shapes and to try and recapture lost bastions. Once cornered and weakened, it can hibernate and return in fundamentalist, sectarian and neo-religious strings. With the Iranian revolution, Islamic fundamentalism went political and tried to recapture parts of the world, provoking and encouraging Christian fundamentalism and Hindu fundamentalism. The weakening traditional Christian churches in secular Europe and America sprouted a multitude of zealous evangelical missionary movements to target the developing world. Revival movements like the hyperactive Pentecostals, born-again Christians, hysteric faith-healers and bizarre cults came up. In India, fading Hinduism reared in a fanatic Hindu nationalist movement besides becoming fertilizer for thousands of colorful and scurrile god-men, who are increasingly drawing rich devotees from the spirituality hungry west.

Despite the multitude and sometimes wildness of religion’s new faces, Rationalism has established itself as the general frame of reference in today’s world. There have been many excellent and courageous individuals and determined and dedicated movements, who contributed significantly to today’s achievements.

Reaching out to the masses

Ingersoll and the RPA: Two outstanding landmarks in the history of modern rationalism are the lectures of Robert Green Ingersoll in the USA and the publications of rationalist books by the Rationalist Press Association (RPA) in Britain. Ingersoll with his great oratory skills and outspoken views about religion romanticized heresy and became an inspiration for thousands of people not only in the USA but all around the world. His direct and trenchant criticism of religion, his great desire for a rational and liberal reformation of the social order, and the charm created by his fine and touching language enlivened with passion and humor were unique and not heard of till then. Ingersoll became so popular that he was considered a suitable candidate for the office of the president of the USA. His example shows that bluntly speaking out against religion and its institutions can meet with overwhelming public response.

In Britain, the RPA started more than one century ago to spread rationalist thoughts in classical and contemporary books of high standard. The "Thinker's Library" and the "Cheap Reprints" reached far off places and opened up new horizons for progressive movements in many parts of the world, making a lasting impact on the history of the rationalism.

Fighting for social and political progress

The Indian example: It was under the direct influence of these two great heritages that the rationalist movement in India, emerging in the beginning of the 20th century out of ongoing social struggles against priesthood and religion based oppression, grew and sharpened its intellectual weapons. Thanks to an uncompromising determination deeply rooted in its fighting origins, it developed over several decades into an influential factor in transforming the mindset of one of the most tradition-bound societies in the world. The Indian rationalist movement is considered one of the most vibrant and most successful movements of its kind and has been in recent years highly appreciated by western observers.

Bill Cooke in his book The Blasphemy Depot admires its "practical rationalism in action" and wonders "what Indian rationalism can teach the West". He feels that "in India the malevolent consequences of irrationality are better understood" than anywhere else. Paul Kurtz, in his speech "The Momentous Significance of Rationalism Today”, during the International Rationalist Conference 2002, expressed the belief that the Indian rationalist movement has a "special and perhaps momentous role" to play in helping "to bring India into the twenty-first century" and congratulates the Indian Rationalist Association "for the leadership role it has played".

These are not only good words. In fact, the Indian rationalist movement has become an inspiring example for many western rationalists to awaken, activate and rejuvenate their own organizations (see also: Caspar Melville: UNMASKED! India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Cover story of 150th year special issue of the New Humanist, the journal of RPA, Nov 09, 2005).

*** *** ***

Paul Kurtz describes rationalism as ‘the single most important contribution to human civilization’. Rationalism strives to influence society towards secularism and to liberate individuals from the influence of religion, superstition, dogma and priesthood. It promotes liberty of the individual and human dignity, fights for the fulfillment of human rights, for freedom of expression, the right to criticize traditional religious dogma and all arbitrary assumptions of authority. Above all, it raises powerfully the voice of reason to expose all pseudo-science and baseless fantasies imposed upon people.

The salient point of any rationalist movement is its fighting spirit and its determination to defend what it stands for against all odds. Rationalism commits the liberated individual to reason even if it is uncomfortable. Every step towards progress, freedom and equality has been influenced by the voice of reason, resisting efforts to silence and strangulate it.

The fruits of modern civilization did not just fall from trees; they are the achievements of courageous people defying the established order and the parasites protecting it.

Resisting "humanist" missionaries

History twist: In the middle of the last century, a dangerous trend emerged in several pockets of Europe. It threatened to steam-roll the progressive movements joining in the broader rationalist stream - predominantly the rationalist, freethought and atheist groups - by a soft and system-friendly "humanism". Humanism is a historic forerunner of rationalism that dethroned all gods and declared human the centre of the universe before enlightenment dawned. Preparing the ground for rationalism and anticipating many of its later achievements and aims within the limits of its historic position, humanism was always considered a precious and honored heritage of the rationalist movement that appeared to have melted into its own identity.

Adopting the old term from the period of Renaissance, however, the post-enlightenment "humanism" of the 20th century played host to a dangerous cancer that aimed at turning the course of the rationalist movement from within. Not all the humanist groups were equally affected, but some became instruments of an attempt to pervert and damage the movement. The new ambiguity of the term "humanism" created much confusion.

Quite against the grain of history, the new reactionary "humanist" movement answered the quest of some non-believers for a new "religion without god and revelation" and got instant support by some European establishments. This looks like a simple under-cover operation, misusing a trusted label to try and guide the anti-religious movement back to religion.

The leaders sought and received state sanction, often even a share of the tax money for their activities, putting them at par with established churches. The Norwegian organization was presented as the crown jewel and celebrated for its fantastic success. It had specialized on the performance of "alternative rituals", blissfully unperturbed about the fact that Norway was governed (till recently) by a priestly prime minister under the auspices of a powerful Evangelical state church that stands accused of violating its subjects' human rights. This is exactly the crux that makes these "humanists" so useful and supportable for governments and Christian churches. They paralyze the fight for transformation of society as a whole and rest, instead, content with serving those who have already come out of religion, herding them together in communities that share much of the features of religious associations, except belief in the supernatural. Celebrants conduct the "rites of passage" in name giving, marriage and funeral functions and confirmation celebrations for the youth. Even songs and dress are proposed. Some groups call themselves straightly "humanist churches" and ordain "humanist pastors".

There have been systematic efforts to woe and win rationalists, freethinkers and atheists to this line of building up a new religion without god. The Indian organizations have been over years the special target of "humanist" missionaries. Their efforts are still on. Only some months back, they sponsored a small conference with the name "From Rationalism to Humanism" to cast out their nets.

Former Pentecostal leaders came to the leadership of the "humanist" movement and argued for the use of a uniform symbol corresponding with the Christian cross or the Jewish star and for a special uniform usage of the term "humanism" as if it was patented. Proposed in the name of greater strength and efficacy in a united worldwide fight for "common goals", this was an attempt to streamline autonomous and heterogeneous organizations, freely assembled under a wide umbrella, and to transform them step by step into branches of a multinational "humanist" company. In fact, one observed a few cases of “rebirth" of traditional groups under new names and new leaderships and engaged in some sponsored new projects. But finally, the policy of "humanist" colonization has not been very successful.

Rationalist agenda for the 21st century

Beyond equality: The rationalist movement has not only survived the attempt to pervert it, it has even gained new strength and extended its influence far into "humanist" territory. The challenge gave opportunity to reconsider and refocus positions and policies and to consolidate rationalist work. In fact, the repulsive and unenthusiastic example of dull and meaningless club culture revived the inspiring vision of rationalism breaking open all prison doors of ignorance, superstition, exploitation and oppression. Rationalists of all names insisted that rationalism, atheism, freethought and even humanism is not just another way of life or one among other religions. It does not accept to be reduced to the level of playing its part in the symphony of a religion oriented / dominated society – it wants to transform this society and free it from religion. It does not fight for equality in conformity – it aims at a radical change of the status quo.

Imagine a small "equalist" group in South Africa holding the view that people with black and white skin are equal. In order to be ‘positive’ and to avoid the idea of fighting apartheid, they limit their aims to seeking acceptance for their own view as another way of life, equally justified as that of the racists! Or a group of “white jackets", uncorrupt government employees, who come out and claim their right to refuse to take any bribe. They would not like to be accused of "corruption-bashing", and only insist that their way of life is just as respectable as that of the corruption Mafia! Surely both these groups would be as happily welcomed by racist or corrupt regimes as the “humanists” by church loyal governments and state churches. Such self-centered movements have the potential to bind and chanalise all possible resistance against the oppressors. Despite their seemingly progressive positions they are therefore in effect reactionary.

Rationalist International: In the USA there has been resistance against the perversion of humanism. The new term "secular-humanism" was created to mark the difference between the progressive humanist tradition and its namesake. Promptly, the leaders of the "humanist" mission, who started behaving like the rightful owners, banned the use of any adjective in connection with "humanism". But secular-humanism firmly established itself and represents since then the progressive humanist tradition. Secular-humanism is rationalism with a slightly different focus.

Even within the contemporary humanist movement, the perverted string took slowly the back seat. Today, more than half of the groups identified as "humanists" are clearly rationalist, freethought, atheist or secular-humanist groups. The criterion is not only the name. Even among the "humanist" groups there are several, who share all rationalist positions and are equally committed to social and political change as many rationalists.

In the 90’s, for example, the Canadian Humanist Association has been vehemently attacked for its "abolitionism" (read: for actually fighting for a society without religion) and scolded as "unsuccessful" humanists. Under the leadership of its former president Dr. Henry Morgentaler, however, they had managed to establish the human right of reproductive freedom firmly in the Canadian society as well as in the law of the state. A country, where abortion had been completely banned, turned under their determined and dedicated influence into one of the most liberal in this matter - a respectable and admirable success indeed!

Rationalism started historically as criticism of religious texts and challenge against religious establishments and their influence on society and individual. During the last centuries, it underwent an evolution. “The great challenge today is to resist lethargy and hidebound traditions and extend the methods of reason and critical thinking to all areas of human interest,” writes Paul Kurtz.

Modern rationalism strives for a post-religious society. It investigates and exposes traditional and new (age) paranormal and other claims of supernatural and miracles. It asks for a secular society where state and religion are absolutely separated and religions are not promoted or supported. It condemns fundamentalism and acts of violence and intolerance, and tries to help preventing them. It encourages free thinking and free inquiry and self-determination, and helps individuals to break the chains of mental slavery. It promotes fulfillment of human capacities and wishes and encourages imagination and fantasy and strong emotions guided by reason. In its broad stream, it includes and accommodates all movements that focus single or special aspects of rationalism, contributing to the common line of emancipation of human mind - atheist groups, denying the existence of divine powers and empowering human instead, freethought and secular-humanist groups focusing social and political issues, skeptic groups dedicated mainly to the exposure of paranormal claims - and any other movement in this frame that may eventually emerge in future responding to new challenges and problems. The Rationalist International, founded in 1995 during the first International Rationalist Conference at New Delhi as a forum for rationalist ideas and positions with world-wide concern, could become a vanguard of the movement, giving inspiration, clarity, strength, courage and solidarity to many rationalists in different parts of the world. Responding to new challenges of irrationalism and intolerance and identifying and encouraging the use of new ways and methods of influencing change, including Internet, television and any other new achievement of information technology, rationalist movements in all parts of the world have to grow and grow together into a force capable, courageous and determined to influence the course of human history.

Sanal Edamaruku

सनल एडमरूकु: सत्य साई बाबा

सनल एडमरूकु : मदर टेरेसा का भारत में योगदान - एक दिखावा

Sanal Edamaruku about Sathya Sai Baba

Sanal Edamaruku leads a course on "Science behind Miracles" at the National Science Centre

Exposed: the tricks of India’s ‘guru’ fraudsters

NEW DELHI // At Sanal Edamaruku’s feet lies a boy of 13 draped in a piece of red cloth.

Mr Edamaruku calls for silence, stretches out his upturned hands and then issues a single command: levitate.

The Guardian: Sanal Edamaruku on Prahlad Jani

Indian holy man who does not eat or drink...

The Guardian: When I met the 'girl who cries blood'

Mother Teresa - the other side

TV discussion on Aaj Tak - Superstition in the name of tradition (Hindi)

New Humanist: The Debunkers (Article by Caspar Melville)

India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Caspar Melville reports on their fight to debunk "holy men" Caspar Melville l

India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Caspar Melville reports on their fight to debunk "holy men" Caspar Melville

l

James Randi writes in response to The Times of India article.

The Young Turks TV: Discussion on the Tantra Challenge.

The Straits Times: India's not so holy men

The Guardian: The night a guru tried to kill me on TV

The Times (London): Tantra Challenge

Sceptic challenges guru to kill him live on TV

New Humanist: Death on air

Times of India: Chicken bones and black magic cannot harm you

The Guardian: TV Swami Ramdev and his cures!

Why Rationalism? By Sanal Edamaruku

India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Caspar Melville reports on their fight to debunk "holy men"
Caspar Melville
l

India's rationalists are on the frontline of the battle between science and superstition. Caspar Melville reports on their fight to debunk "holy men"
Caspar Melville