HVK Archives: Matter of faith
Matter of faith - The Times of India
Editorial
()
20 March 1997
Title : Matter of faith
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Times of India
Date : March 20, 1997
Mao Zedong had ended his last interview with journalist Edgar Snow
on a note that perplexed many. He said he was now preparing to
meet his maker, words which created waves all around as they
conveyed that in the closing days of his career the Marxist
revolutionary had found faith in the Almighty. West Bengal police
minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya is no Mao, is still young, but a
visit to Buddhist monasteries at Thimpu seems to have transformed
him. While he has not said what feelings crossed his mind when he
turned the prayer-wheel, he did create ripples all around when he
made it known that it was perhaps time to give some thought to
religion. Is he then, like the Buddha, thinking in terms of
renunciation? Or was he simply overtaken by the breath-taking
serenity of the Bhutanese monasteries? Feelings of piety and
remorse had overwhelmed Emperor Ashoka when he witnessed the
sufferings he had inflicted upon the enemy soldiers and their kin
during the Kalinga war. Comparisons can be odious but then has the
onerous task of running an unwieldy and brutal police force had the
effect of turning Mr Bhattacharya to matters beyond the temporal?
The CPM politburo may not fault him for courting spiritualism so
long as he does not carry the deviation too far _ visit a Rama
temple and allow other thoughts to overtake him, for example. Or,
allow the teachings of the Buddha to make him more tolerant to the
likes of Mr Lal Krishna Advani or, nearer home, Ms Mamata Banerjee.
Whatever the future, for the moment Mr Bhattacharya seems to have
realised the futility of remaining faithful both to Marx and his
ministerial oh, and sought solace in teachings much more
fundamental even while he sticks to the chair. If the police
minister has been proselytized, he would do well not to spread the
message of the Buddha to the force he commands as he would surely
come a cropper to his own frustration. Mr Bhattacharya would also
do well to remember how he had retraced his own steps when a few
years ago he had embarked on the path of mini-renunciation by
giving up his job at Writers Building. Nevertheless, his thoughts
at Thimpu should give the godly some cause to rejoice, particularly
to the nonagenarian Nripen Chakravarti in Agartala whose expulsion
from the party had led him to embrace the Bhagvadgita. Religion
does appear to remain the last refuge of all lost souls.
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