Reading the Indian media could create a distinct impression that many gods are walking about amid the country’s billion plus people. They refer to high achievers in any endeavor, from sports to spiritualism, as gods as if it were axiomatic. For them god is axiomatic and so are its manifestations.
In recent weeks two men who have been repeatedly referred to as gods are Sachin Tendulkar and Sai Baba. As it happens one of these gods, namely Tendulkar, is a devote of the other, namely Sai Baba. CricketNext, which is part of the CNN-IBN stable of news outlets, for instance, has a headline today that reads “When Sachin, the God, showed he is human.” I did not realize he had been elevated to “the God” status. The headline refers Tendulkar’s visit to Puttaparthi to pay his last respects to Sai Baba who died this Sunday of age-related complications.
And how did Sachin, the God, show that he is human? Well, he broke down next to Sai Baba’s body encased in a climate-controlled glass casket. Tears instantly humanized Tendulkar for a very brief period before he was returned to his exalted pedestal as “the God.” While for the believers and their enablers Tendulkar achieved godhood, Sai Baba was god from the get-go. He was described by them as an avatar of god. Avatar not as in the James Cameron variety but the original Indian kind. That means he was born that way and had no choice in the matter.
Far be it for me to question people’s faith and their need to elevate anyone to the godly status. I just have a very basic query about these gods. Can someone define their actual power and explain why it is so limited despite their status? Sunil Gavaskar, arguably one of the five greatest cricketers of all time, also happens to be a devotee of Sai Baba apart from having been Tendulkar’s mentor. In a brief comment on NDTV the other day he said for him and his family Sai Baba was “the almighty god.” I would like to think that the term “almighty god” together conveys a scale of influence and power that goes far far beyond what Sai Baba seemed to have.
Unless the believers are admitting that in their estimation words such as almighty and god carry much less ambition and grandness that becomes evident only over a small town here or an ashram there, one wonders why they use them at all. More importantly, why does the media enable them?
The other explanation could be that the term god is used in a way which in the Indian cultural context does not necessarily mean an entity with powers that supersede all powers as understood by humans and demands unquestioning subservience. It could mean something as simple as a person who helped you out when you most needed it. For that limited period that person would be your god.
