On The Loose: Lust for Life

Anybody with somewhat liberal ideas should find it a little odd that an organisation, albeit a hardlined and religious one, cannot reconcile a private life with a professional one. Why shouldn’t one be entitled to both?

I can’t claim to have any insight into the inner workings and rules of the RSS. All I know is this, that whenever controls contrary to human nature are in place, they will be broken. Again and inevitably, yet again. Attraction between male and female or otherwise is ultimately irresistible, and the fundamental principle of our existence. Requiring a pledge of a lifetime of loneliness just to belong to an organisation, is asking for way too much. There may be a scattered few born for a higher calling (if one can call it that) but for some of us lesser mortals, an intimate connection is crucially important. Sooner rather than later, every faith or movement like the RSS will have to face improprieties by their leaders brought about by their own archaic rules. The only solution is to change criteria but steeped as we are in convention and hypocrisy, it’ll take a couple of centuries to acknowledge, yes, you can be religious, morally courageous and into worldly pleasures at the same time.

If you look at individuals who have made the greatest efforts to increase the well being of mankind, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who are attempting to eradicate AIDS and malaria in Africa, or E-Bay founder Pierre Omidyar, who is changing millions of lives through micro loans in developing countries, none of them are single. The top twenty five philanthropists of the world have been married, or are in relationships. Considering their formidable impact, for an organisation to make a big issue of a virtuous life of bachelorhood seems pathetically banal in comparison. It also calls into question the prevailing belief in India, that if a man’s not married he won’t be corrupt, and will devote himself completely to the country. This point has been raised repeatedly in the elections but the modern electorate, more canny than politicians know, often read this as fraudulent self righteousness. Personally, I am immediately suspicious of anyone of any age or gender who claims to have no romantic interests. As Michael Jackson observed not very eloquently in a song: “Everybody’s somebody’s fool. The world is the biggest school.”

The current Pope Francis who’s often been referred to as ‘The Hope Pope’ because of his relatively liberal stances has written about how he was ‘dazzled’ by a girl in a Spanish book On the Heavens and the Earth. Getting back to a life of prayer he acknowledged, was a matter of discipline, not faith. In Japan, singlehood was an ideal among Buddhist clerics but violations were so common that finally in 1872 state laws made marriage legal for them. For 900 years the Roman Catholic church has been preaching about a purity it’s own clerics can’t maintain. Paul the Apostle in his early writings said marriage distracts from Christ, but he encouraged marital lifestyles, wisely observing, “If you cannot contain, marry; for it is better to marry than burn.” For some of the world’s intractable problems, this might be the simplest solution.

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