I might be digressing (and again I might not be)...
Every society/culture needs its heroes. Ancient heroes to fall back on, to provide role model to the current.
The West, relies on ancient Greeks & Romans to provide the foundation of their current Americano European civilization. Again, these also change with times, as like fashions.
Take names for instance - in my early 1950s days, Shobha and Gayathri were popular. You dont hear of those being anointed now. Vishnu Vaishnavi were never heard of, but now trendy.
Same goes for morals. And populist religious movements. When I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, I have never heard of Ayyappa. Even though I am a Pattar, such things were not practised in my home. All of a sudden my father felt a need for a religious or socio religious involvement - I am yet to fathom his need and do not wish to analyze the same.
Ayyappa became a part of our household - for those days of Decemeber, the household and work routine were set aside, and Mandavelipakkam Ayyappa Samajam was our de facto abode. The months prior to it, dad spent every evening, cajoling and 'threatening' the greats and near greats of Madras to submitting their services either through money or free concerts.
He was a great success. Only TMS was able to withstand this pressure, and refused to give a free concert. The likes of Chittibabu, flute Ramani or Balamurali, all, meekly obliged the call of Ayyappa as set forth by Mandavelipakkam Ayyappa Samaj, and performed cocerts, which thanks to his gratis nature, attracted literally a thousand audience a night, spilling over to the neighbourhood homes and streets.
It is the same religiosity, that appeared to have failed the musician Sekhar's widow Kasturi, when facing family challenges, resorted to the succour provided by a muslim peer, resident of a dargha opposite Wellington theatre. To me, I think, ASDileep Kumar, turning to ARRahman, is a great loss, to our culture and faith, because, a man so gifted, nurtured by Hindus and background, through circumstances, turns his back on it, and yet profits from it, on a level, which I think can happen in no Islamic country. His music is not Islamic, and his audience is neither. But he has only a loyalty to an Islam, which he now, has changed from orthodoxy to sufi (!).
Then there are the Christian preachers, dime a dozen, in Tamil Nadu now, buying souls at the drop of a penny. With money coming freely from the evangelicals of the USA. To compete with the wahhabi money from Saudi Arabia.
So, what do we do now?
Do we denigrate our own kind of God Men or Women. Who might be providing a need based service to our folks or blanket blasphemying them as frauds.
I do not know. Nor do I have sufficient information, to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Should we only denigrate Hindu God men? Do we have sufficient clout to judge God men/women across all faiths. Will this have any buyers?
To sum up, all I wish to say, is things are not really so starkly black and white. There are needs and hungers that we do not know. Our readings, we might think, gives us answers to all eventualities. Maybe it will. And again, maybe it may not.
Only the Man Above knows.
