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    View: Be a Bhakt, but be a smart Bhakt

    Synopsis

    An essential element of the Panchagavya Ayurvedic treatment is that patients are made to inhale steam from a concoction of cow urine, dung and ghee. The truly lucky are also covered in a layer of warm, moist cow dung as part of their treatment. That’s what you call swimming in bullshit, while keeping the faith.

    Agencies
    Rajyasree Sen

    Rajyasree Sen

    The writer runs the Delhi-NCR catering service, Food For Thought

    In Tetoda village in north Gujarat, a 40-bed Covid field hospital run by the Rajaram Gaushala Ashram has been set up in a cowshed. This is not because of paucity of space for the patients. This is a new way of being ‘Vocal for Local’. The cowshed — now Vedalakshana Panchagavya Ayurvedic Covid Isolation Centre — is home to over 5,000 cows whose job is to provide the urine and dung with which the patients are treated while listening to mantras. Interspersed with moo-ing.

    An essential element of the Panchagavya Ayurvedic treatment is that patients are made to inhale steam from a concoction of cow urine, dung and ghee. The truly lucky are also covered in a layer of warm, moist cow dung as part of their treatment. That’s what you call swimming in bullshit, while keeping the faith.

    Honestly though, it’s a tough time to be a bhakt — that is, a believer, a devotee, lest anyone thinks I’m talking politics. India is in an unprecedented crisis. Our political leaders aren’t rallying around us ever since their election rallies ended. The leadership, while not being able to provide adequate vaccines or oxygen in many parts of India, has decided to spend ₹25,000 crore in some light renovations. Nothing makes a pandemic more bearable than opening up new vistas.

    And through this, bhakts soldier on — on social media, on news panels, in family WhatsApp groups, in cowsheds — keeping the faith while the faith ebbs into desperation and anger among others. So, what do they get for their resolute, unwavering belief that everything will be all right? Or among the die-hards, that everything is still all right? Some of them are getting booted out of the only place where they could spread their message Joan of Arc-on-acid style that all is well and that those saying all is not well are agents of destruction — social media. They’re getting banned, in their own heads for speaking up; in other more clear-headed heads, for speaking dangerous drivel. Oh, the unfairness of it all.

    Bhakts don’t seem to realise that being a bhakt is serious business. So, as a public service announcement, here’s a Bhakti 101 for bhakts:

    1. Learn from those who have laid down their Twitter handles so you can be the best bhakt possible. However famous you are, and however much you seem to be the favoured one, never allude to any leader’s dodgy past. Any mention of ‘virat roop circa 2002’ would only get a bhakt with the best of intentions becoming an embarrassingly liability for the object of the said bhakt’s bhakti.

    2. It’s always good to wrap your propaganda in some skill. Let your art — papier-mâché, movie, dahi bhalla — do the talking. We can fault the likes of Leni Riefenstahl, Manoj Kumar and Michael Moore for a lot. But to give credit where its due, these filmmakers did leave behind an artistic and aesthetic legacy that’s still practised today. No one’s going to take you seriously if you spend every evening on a news channel espousing a cause. Learn a hobby, a new skill. Nation-building according to your favourite ideology can be arty and fulfilling too.

    3. Make logic your friend. Every point cannot be argued with ‘Where were you in 1984?’ (Most of us were toddlers, where were you?) or ‘Where were you during the Battle of Haldighati? (No comeback line needed for that.)

    4. It’s always good to read a little every day. And no, toolkits don’t count. Read, expand your horizons. It may pay to know what those opposing you are thinking.

    5. I would advise you to mix up your tweets and retweets and posts. Once in a while try and put out a balanced tweet or WhatsApp forward. A tiny critique of your lord may actually make you seem level-headed. If all your 350 tweets in 250 minutes are about the wonderment of your object of veneration, you may be taken even less seriously than you already are.

    Even in these dark times, dear bhakt, being smart is the smart thing to be.
    (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
    The Economic Times

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