On Sadhus as Politicians - Sunny Narang

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I had met Swami Pawan Diwan a few times between 1989 and 1991 .
He was then the Congress MLA and Jails Minister in the Undivided Madhya Pradesh .
With a great sense of humour and a loud laughter he told me many stories with a pulse on the cultural reality of rural India.
Most Urban and Urbane Indians have really no understanding of how Indian feels, thinks , works , engages on the soils of India .
They actually live on the Clouds made by their Virtual Imaginations mostly borrowed from a few books , media channels and NGO and activist interpreters .
The Sadhus of this land, a large majority come from villages and small towns , with very interesting lives and stories of their journeys .
They have walked , traveled with the poorest and the richest , they have explored hundreds of localities, homes , clans , Jatis .
Slept in thousands of homes , eaten with the householders .
Told them many stories , gathered many stories.
If anyone is the real experiencer of this land , it is them .
Moving, flowing , watching deeply, absorbing the pains , the joys , the aspirations, the complexities , the eternal desires of the peoples of this land .
They are beyond political ideologies, regardless of the political parties they may have joined .
A Sadhu told me that they are the real Communists , as they will never own any property , will leave no inheritance to any family , as they leave even their name when they become a Sannyasi .
A Sadhu told me that they are the real vultures of the soul, as any religious man is the last resort of any distressed human , and then they are completely vulnerable .
A Sadhu told me how most Sadhus become Sadhus in "Dhan ya Naari ke Abhaav mein" , when they cannot deal with poverty or inability to get a woman .
A Sadhu told me that they are the Network that binds individuals , families, clans , Jatis together , being the collective psychologist .
Most lower bureaucracy , local state politicians and sadhus come from similar backgrounds who delight in the local dialects , cuisines , stories , gossip , changing power equations .
The Sadhus are the Social Intelligence Bureau .
So I am always surprised as the Total Stupidity and Dumbness of the so-called Educated Westernised Urbanistas when they get shocked at a Sadhu becoming a Politician .
Why Not ?
He has more right that any professional or university educated character , any businessman or social worker as he understands the pulse of his people better than anyone else .
I have absolutely no issues with Maulvis , Priests of any religion , Tribal Shamans , Granthis becoming politicians or ministers or presidents or prime ministers .
To be secretly fundamentalist and openly a liberal for me is much worse than being openly communitarian .
And everyone of us , every human being is a fundamentalist in some way .
There are non-negotiables for all of us .
We are card-carrying members of some Ideology, Faith , Belief , Morality , Values etc , which we feel is what the World should be doing .
So let a hundred religions and pluralities fill up our Parliaments.
The People will get , what they feel comfortable with .
Rest will have to learn to live with it .
Or go out into the people's homes, one by one and listen to them . talk with them , without wagging your fingers and telling them that they are the " Deplorables ".
You may be the "Deplorables" for them .
Religious leader-poet and former Madhya Pradesh minister Pawan Diwan died on Wednesday at the age of 71 in 2016 .
With his bare torso, flowing hair and electrifying speech, godman Pawan Diwan, 31, has won assembly elections on a Janata Party ticket in Madhya Pradesh in 1977 .
He was well-versed in Sanskrit, Hindi , Chhattisgarhi and English, and had been a minister in the undivided Madhya Pradesh apart from being an MP two times. He was Jails Minister .
Through his poems in Hindi and Chhattisgarhi he expressed his emotions for the humanity at large and educated the masses about the need for separate Chhattisgarh state, Diwan spread "Bharatiya" culture among the masses through his preachings on Ramayana and Bhagwat.
Diwan was born on January 1, 1945 at village Kirwai in (the then) Rajim district.