‘Mannat’
‘Mannat’ is a type of votive
offering. Outside Mount Mary’s Church at
Bandra, and many other religious places where miracles are said to occur, there
are a number of vendors selling figurines of sundry designs and sizes – of body parts, children, houses, cars, and even
currency notes. These are offered either in anticipation of the fulfillment of
a wish or after achieving a particular wish.
Going a step
further, there are people who promise to proffer something or to do something
for God in exchange for granting a wish. For instance, people promise to break
a hundred coconuts for Lord Ganesha, if he/she passes an exam or obtains a contract.
Having obtained the favour the individual will go to any extent to fulfill his
part of the contract lest retribution follow his ingratitude. The magnitude of
the promised offering varies in proportion to the severity or urgency of the
need or problem.
Last month,
before the conclusion of a ‘Satsang’
an announcement was made by one of the speakers, urging the participants to
abstain from consuming non-vegetarian food for at least three days prior to the
next meeting to be held on 8th July 2012. Similar thoughts had been
expressed umpteen times during the whole morning, in different ways and manners
by different people to the effect that people should give up something prized
by them for God so that God might look kindly upon them. That God would be
touched by their sacrifice and penance and would certainly grant their wish.
At another
prayer meeting, the preacher, adducing references from Holy Scriptures, pounded
upon the listeners to offer their supplications ‘with weeping and wailing’. For
their tears would draw out God’s
sympathy and He would wipe out their every tear. Within minutes every eye in
that spacious hall became cloudy as on a monsoon evening and the lachrymal
glands turned into gargoyles spewing their saline produce profusely. The frenzied populace were
literally sniveling and begging for God to open His sympathetic ears and listen
to their entreaties.
The whole thing
was nothing but melodramatic. The Omniscient and Omnipotent was reduced to a
sadist awaiting sobsters so that He could, with a sleight of His hands, wipe
out all their tears along with their agonies and pains.
Alas! Does the
Almighty lack anything so much so that He needs to wait for devotees to submit
some votive offering before doing their bidding? Does it make sense to penalize
one’s taste buds so that the Omnipresent can be outreached? Perhaps the
preacher above would have made better sense if he had exhorted the people to
refrain from speaking untruth or gossip or getting angry or doing anything that
would cause harm to others. This would have required more effort than mere
abstinence from indulging in gastronomic pleasures.
Some sermonizers
are so insistent upon such petty acts that they make you feel guilty, first of
all, if you do not make a commitment to chastise yourself, and, secondly, if
and when you are tempted to break such an oath made under obvious duress or
reneged on some sort of mannat.
May all those
who are hoodwinked by such smooth tongued sophists be aware of their guile and
not fall prey to their eccentric and fallacious logic. For, the Almighty lacks nothing
that necessitates supplementary inputs from
us mortals, nor is He a sadist drawing pleasure from broken hearts or a judge
awaiting with a crosier to mete out judgment.
Dominic A
Mathias
