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The training programme was organized by Federation of Indian Rationalists Organization
and Social Development Foundation - Delhi in International Guest House
– Kushinagar from 1st to 4th November 2007.
In all 75
activists from 17 NGO’s working with Dalits & the landless
underprivileged people participated at their own cost.
There
were many firsts in this training programme:- starting with me, this
was the first time I was attending training programmes / conferences
and traveling for more than 10 days, (For Narendra it must be the opposite,
Like our Patron Mr. Premanand used to travel 25 days in a month,
now a days Narendra is following his footsteps ) .It was the first time
I saw people attending a training programme spending their money and
also the first time I saw lively interaction among participants taking
place. In fact, on the 4th day I felt that there was a need to spend
more time with this type of people who are eager to learn more &
more about superstitions, rituals, and so called miracles performed
by Gunias, Mantriks ets. & we were helping them by sharing our knowledge.
Although I use the word ”we” it was Prof Narendra Nayak with his
30 plus years of experience doing all the work and Mr.Bhartendu Suman,
our activist from Bihar along with me assisted him wherever and when
ever required. All the time I was also trying to learn from him the
way to train people coming from diverse socio-economic rural backgrounds.
It was a mixed group of participants consisting right from Post Graduates
to semi literates.
Four days
training of Miracle Exposure started with Mr. V.B. Rawat, Director of
Social Development Foundation, Delhi introducing us and briefing participants
about the programme and then onwards it was Prof. Narendra training
participants with his humorous style.
He started
the day with self-introduction , every participant introduced themselves
stating their role in their organization and back ground of their organization.
Then Narendra
briefed participants about the agenda of the four days training programme,
starting with sleight of hand
In sleight
of hand they were trained to materialize objects like “holy ash’
Satyanarayan Raju style, Cutting and joining of rope trick ‘Pandrimalai
Swami’ style which was linked to Psychic Surgery of Aslam baba &
Alex Orbito, the former is a now dicreidted “psychi surgeon”
from Bagalkot, Karnataka while the latter is from Philippines, had come
to India to try his hand and tricking the people here, beating hasty
retreat when the Karnataka High Court ordered his arrest! This was explained
in detail and then each participant was provided ropes to practice and
also asked to perform the same in front of other participants.
There
was interesting and thought provoking discussion going on during the
training sessions with lots of questions coming from participants after
each & every miracle was explained to them & at the same time
they were also sharing their experience with us & expecting clarification
for the same
Prof.
Narendra also explained in detail in a very simple layman’s language
how illness can be induced by suggestions, i.e.
by giving suggestions how one can create symptoms of diseases in other
people. This was demonstrated to them so that they understand it better.
Second
day started with feedback from the participants. Participants performed
what they have learnt on the previous day and got their doubts cleared
while performing in front of other participant’s. infect I was very
much impressed by the performance of a young lady coming from rural
background. Her story/script was impressive.
Here Prof.
Narendra stressed the importance of story/ script while performing in
front of people. Saying that as far as possible while performing one
should narrate the true stories or incidents related to the so-called
miracle
Then demonstrations
with fire started. It seems in Devariya (a place in Uttaranchal) one
person treats patients with moving fire on hands, a participant shared
his experience seeking explanation. So placing burning camphor on hand
and on tongue was demonstrated. Each participant was given a piece of
camphor and trained to handle burning camphor and put it on tongue,
they did it very well
Discussions
on possession of people by spirits took place. Cases of people possessed
by spirits in their locality were discussed and explained. One interesting
example was cited by Narendra. In one case it seems a boy was possessed
by God Ayyappa and it is said that nothing happens to Ayyappa followers
when fire is put on the body. So,when this boy was tested to find out
the truth by putting camphor on his palms he got burnt.
Interesting
and creative session started in the afternoon. It was a session on Role
Play where participants wrote their script & performed in groups,
demonstrating how Bhagats or Mantriks fool people. They were told to
make use of the tricks they have learnt so far. We found many talented
participants in these sessions. One thing Narendra suggested to the
participants after the Role play was that they should always remember
that the most important thing is communicating message to the people
and it does not matter how many items one presents. It can be even 10
or 15 and he also told them to first perform and than explain the science
behind it.
Video
presentations were made on different topics followed by demonstration
and discussion
Similarly,
the third day started with feedback from the participants. After the
feedback very interesting questions came from the participants which
proved once again that they were really disturbed by the superstitions
prevailing in their areas. Narendra satisfactorily replied all the queries.
Then Miracles
which can be performed by using chemicals were demonstrated and explained
to the participants. A lamp was lit using water instead of oil (Sudhamani
a.k.a.Amritanandamayees first so called miracle). Godbaba’s Miracle
of turning to sweet whatever he used to touch was also explained to
them, other so called miracles like the burning lanterns of Chigalli,
Sadacharis lighting fire by using pure ghee instead of matchbox, then
in the Bhanamati cases how objects can catch fire in the absence of
people were also explained to the participants . Then role play session
was effectively presented by the participating girls.
In the
Afternoon Miracle Exposure Programme in the local Higher Secondary School
was arranged which was attended by Bhante Mahendra of Kushinagar and
the local media. Arrangement was also made for our participants to attend
so that they can have firsthand knowledge of performing in front of
crowd.
In the
evening Fire walking was arranged, every one participated enthusiastically.
Later
on interactions continued until late evening
On the
fourth day a demonstration was arranged at a village called Karmanipremovalia
, in Kasia dist. It was well attended despite being organized at an
odd time in the morning. The presence of womenfolk was remarkable. That
was followed by feedback and interaction sessions with the participants
until lunchtime.
While
interacting with the local participants I learnt a lot about local culture
as well as rituals taking place in the name of religion. One striking
example was sacrifice of Pigs along with Goats in a place called Kulkulastan
in Kushinagar during Ramnawami mela. Where as in Goa even eating pork
is considered as a big sacrilege by Hindus even today (most of the younger
generation hardly practices this is a different matter, every one loves
a bite of Goan sausage). Many incidents of blind belief in the so-called
power of black magic, spending money on performing rituals sometime
even by borrowing from the money lenders were told to me while interacting.
The difficulty these activists faced while trying to convince people
in their villages about the futility of performing this rituals was
because they themselves were not aware about the science behind this
so-called Miracles seen during rituals. So this attempt by FIRA &
Social Development Foundation is a step taken in the right direction,
to train the activists in Miracle exposure and in future we should try
to reach more & more grass root level activists, then only we can
expect change in the mindset of people
R.G.RAO a.k.a.
SOMU
Panaji - Goa
Cell. 09822182466
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