THE WORLDLY REWARDS OF RENOUNCING THE WORLD
Forming one half of the Kapurush-o-Mahapurush anthology, this film is one of the few out-and-out comedies that Satyajit Ray made. But once again Ray proved to be a man of many talents given that this hour-long gem is a delightful romp (as opposed to the serious Kapurush).
After the theme of employment, the matter of superstition and blind faith was Ray’s next most commonly explored social issue. While it exists in tangents in most of his other films, this is the only time he addresses the theme directly.
Enlightenment And Enrichment
The opening of the film is a masterclass all on its own. It is a spectacular establishing sequence that shows us the main character and his place in the world with not a word of dialogue spoken.
We see a train station with a crowd gathered to see someone off. People throng to catch a glimpse of Birinchi Baba, the holy man, who is throwing prasad into the crowd. His followers receive this as manna and chant his name. The station-master nervously looks at his watch, he knows the time for departure has passed but he cannot send the train off before Birinchi Baba assents.
The holy man finally gives his nod to the station-master and lobs one last piece of prasad at him. Finally, the world gets the green light. As it lurches on its way, the holy man sticks one foot out daintily, not for balance or ease, but for his devotees to touch one last time.
What an image! A floating foot dropping blessings on a bunch of desperate devotees.
Throughout the film, no matter what else happens, this image must remain ever in our minds. It explains every motivation for Birinchi Baba and his accomplices. The power, the devotion, offered up to a holy person is so enormous that it becomes the cause for corruption itself. It is hard to blame anyone who sees a life-changing opportunity in that image.
In fact, holy persons of powerful reputation all over the world and all through history have held powers equalling, often exceeding, those of kings. But to get this power they don’t have to shed a single drop of blood, at least not their own. Many charlatans have devised ways to gain the trust of many followers with a combination of powerful oratory skills and a very canny ability to sense people’s most desperate fears and insecurities.
If a ruler offers security, a holy person offers peace. If a ruler says they will protect your body, a holy person says they will protect your soul. Many followers are so desperate for succour that even the most glaring signs of duplicity can be unconsciously read as evidence of divinity.
Thus, what we see in Birinchi Baba are many remarkable qualities – he is able to grab attention, he is charming and can put you at ease while always commanding your respect, he is quite knowledgeable and knows how to mix truth and untruth in precise quantities, he can give you tremendous feelings of well-being and lead you to new paths, and so on. These skills are, objectively, extremely valuable and deserving of our respect. After all, every culture’s heroes, statesmen, and social pioneers possess these same qualities.
Moreover, the need for spiritual guidance is, in all of us, a deep psychological need. And, as such, a psychological solution is what even a conniving holy person offers, so can we say it’s really criminal, or even malintent? It’s akin to white lies we tell each other to spare feelings, or even like the way we deceive ourselves into committing the same life mistakes over and over.
Of course, the difference between white lies and what Birinchi Baba does is quite simple – rewards. He makes money by spinning bunkum, or rather he doesn’t refuse the money and comforts thrown at him by his believers. He behaves like a well-wisher, but takes much more than he needs for sustenance. That’s when he crosses the line over from spiritual guide to cheat. He doesn’t accept a token of gratitude in return for his beatitude and compassion, he performs those things in order to get compensated.
And yet his followers don’t care. They want to serve him in cash and kind because that’s their way of thanking him for his presence and his blessing. They don’t complain, only a few sceptics do. In that case who is the victim? Who is the defendant?
It’s a remarkable situation that is spelt out in this film where nothing about the Mahapurush is quite criminal and yet nothing about him is quite genuine either. He is a showman, but the people are coming for the show. Is he responsible for them, or they for him?
Religion By Rote
The dangers of charlatanism arise when spiritual guidance winds its way towards superstition – the conjuring of prasadfrom thin air, the offering of trinkets as machines to ward off bad luck, or the mumbling of nonsense as powerful invocations against the unpredictable forces of nature.
Birinchi Baba’s foot has no power to fix our problems, nor his formulae. He cannot make the sun rise, or give Einstein the magic formula (E=mc²), or live hundreds of years (all of these he claims). He controls none of these nor the fates of his followers.
One of the funnier gags in the film is when we hear him chant what sound like mystical mantras but which are really a bunch of gibberish words that sound akin to something holy. What starts off with the well-known Om chant slyly turns into “… Om-niscience … Om-nibus … Om-nivorous …” The fact that this is incredibly easy to miss in the film is proof of the point it tries to make. We cannot separate honesty from fraud when our minds are clouded by sophistry. We become helpless in front of a master manipulator.
It begs the question – why do we allow ourselves to become so vulnerable in front of a person who only appears holy? Even if one is a believer, why isn’t more proof required? After all we look for certificates of authenticity for gold and diamonds, then why not a little evidence of genuine greatness in a Mahapurush? Are we not, in truth, taken in by first impressions and drop our scepticism at the very start? The correct robes and vestments do the job. Even Birinchi Baba’s accomplice gets the same benefit even though he is not even a convincing performer like his mentor.
Even after the sceptics have managed to reveal the holy man’s charade for what it is, he is not captured or made to face any consequences. He and his accomplice walk their way through the streets in the darkness, unrepentant, injured but not vanquished. In fact, the accomplice even manages to nick a few valuables before leaving, thereby abandoning all pretence of spirituality.
As they walk towards (what the accomplice calls) their future, we are not convinced at all that they will change their ways. Rather, they just need to move on to their next host and all will be forgotten.
The thing is, alas, there is no defeating those of their ilk. Birinchi Baba lives to fight another day because there is no dearth of salvation-seekers who need no more proof than his garb. They will not catch his false words, they will fall for his lies, they will not dare to question him.
And the strange fact remains that the man never needed to deceive his followers so much. He was perfectly capable of giving them spiritual comfort without needing to resort to such maleficence. Each of us is capable of achieving some spiritual maturity, to find some awareness of higher truths. One imagines that Birinchi Baba could just as easily have been a true man of God and lived a comfortable life thanks to his pupils, just by tuning down the spectacle. It feels almost like a waste that where there was scope for goodness we find corruption.
So perhaps the blame lies with the followers. They are so easily misled, and each deception draws them further in, so there is incentive to do exactly that. The seeker seeks miracles so the giver gives it to them. If they didn’t want magical solutions they could have found a genuine guide.
When the customers are so gullible the seller never needs to improve his wares.