[Reader-list] The true face of some of the clergies., in all faiths.

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

I find this exchange quite enlivening, especially as it does in the  
middle of so much chest-heaving victim speak and crisis laden  
paranoia, which nowadays rules the Reader List exactly like the  
shrill syrupyness of Lata Mangeshkar's voice once ruled the airwaves  
of All India Radio.

In traditional Persian poetry the pious pederast Maulana is a stock  
figure of fun. And there are many instances of him being depicted as  
being as distracted by the prospect of casting his eyes on the  
ripples in the robes of  genuflecting bodies of the adoloscents in  
his charge as he is being attentive to the sound of the muezzin's  
call to prayer.

And I can still remember with delight the sight of video-grabs of  
eminent holy men of one of the Swaminarayan sects caught in flagrante  
delicto in holy hindu Gujarat.

Nor can I ever forget the pathetic tale of a young volunteer (a  
swayamsevak who will remain anonymous for reasons of his privacy) who  
once told me how he was compelled to serve the hierophants of a  
Hindutva citadel in Nagpur in more ways than were strictly ordained  
by the celibate (brahmacharya) code of the inner echelons of the  
Sangh Parivar.

Actually, I have no problems with Maulanas, Bishops, Rabbis, Sants,  
Swamijis, Jihadis, Pracharaks and Acharyas entertaining themselves in  
brothels or in pious private pleasure-pavilions. More power to their  
dancing shoes and to their glinting rosaries, and vials of viagra to  
their dynamic libidos ! I would just prefer it if they did it with  
the rest of us, in the open, instead of hiding behind their cloaks of  
piety.

It just confirms for me that the pleasures of the flesh still have a  
greater purchase than the peaks of the spirit, especially for those  
who would pretend otherwise. And for every Taliban commander who  
froths at the mouth while flogging prostate women, there is another  
who is probably a pimp in reverse drag, with even a hint of  
nailpolish glinting at the edge of a Kalashnikov trigger. I would not  
be surprised if the zealot and the rake were not but simply jekyll  
and hyde.

What bothers me is the high horse on which the pious invariably  
stand. Hectoring us all to abstain while they claim an a premature  
bonus on the fruits of paradise for the sake of enlivening their own  
jaded earthly appetites.

  Is it fair, I ask you, that only the holy be so jolly?

regards,

Shuddha











On 14-Apr-09, at 3:51 PM, Rajen Uppinangadi wrote:

> Sir,
> how do you say that all those who are engaged in " gods' work " are  
> not in
> need of sensuous plesures for their bodies.?
>
>  There are enough evidence and hard facts to show that those in  
> this sphere
> of spirituality are as good or bad as ordinary men and women when  
> it comes
> to the basic needs of the body.
>
> Regards.
> Rajen.
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net