By Patricia Mukhim
Now that the heat and dust of elections are over, there is time to look at more ethereal issues that have been plaguing the state. These last few weeks we were fed with riveting news about Devil Worship in Tura and Shillong, prompting two district administrators to plunge headlong into the issue and pass administrative orders banning such seemingly weird practices. The issue has elicited views from some church elders who have tried, through the columns of this newspaper, to try and make sense of the phenomenon. In trying to understand this unearthly spectacle in an already convoluted situation of militant violence, I got hold of the book “The Demon-Haunted World” by Carl Sagan which analyses the powers of both good and evil through the eyes of Science.
I wonder if what’s happening in our times can be simply labelled as “devil worship” which suggests a sort of journey into what some might call the ‘dark night of irrationality’ or “the dark night of the soul.” What has triggered the imagination of the young is an imported brand of religious bellicosity- a rebellion against all forms of organised religion. This counter-religious movement is not new. We live in a world which is comfortable with conformity and is uneasy with anything that’s “unnatural.” The unnatural is something that we cannot readily fathom; something that challenges our clichéd views of the world.
That most of those involved in this “Devil Worship” are young people is not even surprising for only they would dare to be sceptical of organised religion. Yes only the young would dare to chart out a completely different course that they believe would resolve their doubts and fears, which I am sure are legion. Many human cultures speak about gods that watch over us and guide our destinies and that other malevolent entities are responsible for the existence of evil. According to Sagan, both classes of beings whether considered natural or supernatural, real or imaginary serve human needs. From his long experience with scientific research, Sagan says even if these are wholly fanciful, people feel better believing them.
Belief in demons dates back to the ancient world. Socrates described his philosophical inspiration as the work of a personal benign demon. His teacher, Diotima of Mantineia tells him that everything demonic is intermediate between God and mortal. Her contention is that God has no contact with man, hence any interface between man and god happens only through the demonic whether in the waking state or during sleep. Socrates’ student, Plato assigned a high role to demons and stoutly denied that they were a source of evil. According to him they are neither mortal nor immortal, neither good nor bad.
It is interesting that the early church fathers despite having studied Neo-Platonism were clearly anxious to separate themselves from “pagan” belief systems. They taught that all pagan religions consisted of the worship of demons and men both misconstrued as gods. Perhaps St Paul got closest to understanding demons as a metaphor to the evil in the hearts of men. Augustine another church father demonizes the demon calling it, “the fount of all spiritual and material evil, most eager to inflict harm, utterly alien from righteousness, swollen with pride, pale with envy, subtle in deceit.” That the word “Demon” in Greek means knowledge about the material world and ‘Science’ in Latin means knowledge is counter-intuitive. Tertulian the philosopher wrote that demons prey on the captive and outwitted minds of men.
In fact some of the analogies about demons are very strange. Augustine believed that demons the “powers of the air,” coming down from the skies and have unlawful sexual intercourse with women. The off-springs of such forbidden unions are witches. In the middle ages people believed such stories. Demons were also called devils or fallen angels. The demonic seducers of women were called incubi; of men succubi.
Carl Sagan writes that some nuns reported in befuddlement, a striking resemblance between the incubus and the priest-confessor, or the bishop and awoke the next morning, as one 15th century chronicler put it, to “find themselves polluted as if they had co-mingled with a man.” There are similar accounts from harems in ancient China. The Presbyterian religious writer Richard Baxter wrote in his book, ‘Certainty of the world of spirits’ (1691), “So many women reported incubi that it is impudence to deny it.” Baxter says, “As they seduced, the incubi and succubi were perceived as a weight bearing down on the chest of the dreamer. The Khasis have a term for this. They call it “shah bat Sym-at.” The best definition of this demon/devil phenomenon, however, is given by Fr Poemen who says, “Our own wills become the demons and it is these that attack us.”
Coming back to our situation let us admit that those who brought Christianity to these hills were foreigners. They labelled every practice of the indigenous faith of the Khasis and Garos that they failed to understand, as “pagan practices,” and believed that they ought to be exorcised from our collective psyche. Personally I refuse to believe that the constant communication that our ancestresses and ancestors had with their creator through whatever medium, should be considered a “pagan practice.” Perhaps it is this inability to retain our indigenous practices and beliefs that has turned us into shallow recipients of imported faith, packaged in a Western belief system right down to way we pray, the intonation we use while praying, the ridiculous mimicry of American accented worship songs etc., quite forgetting our intrinsic ways of communicating with a creator whom we have known from our ancestors.
The screechy and preachy atmosphere within the precincts of all religious spaces is repulsive to say the least. I spoke to someone at the beginning of writing this article and he said, “What I find most annoying is the fact that those who preach hardly walk their talk.” I seek prior forgiveness for stating this but most churches today are comfort zones where corruption thrives because no one dares to correct the corrupt for fear of losing out on their contributions which millions of churches are so dependent on. On the contrary, most churches give place of pride to people who are overtly involved in scams and sleaze. Naturally the church has lost its corrective role as the spiritual guide. What we have today is an exclusive club where mutual back-patting occurs Sunday after Sunday. There is no more “salt and light” in the church. Do we wonder then why the young rebel against such hypocrisy?
Let’s not blame the youth. Now more than ever there is need for the church and all other forms of organised religion to sit back and reflect on whether they are responsible for driving the youth out of the churches to look for something more meaningful in their lives. Let’s remember that the young are taken in by the glamour of ‘church attendance without outcomes’ only up to a point. Beyond that they begin to raise pointed questions outside the church. Unfortunately there are few to help them unbundle their existential dilemma. The church, moreover, is stuck in the mud of complacency and predictable rituals. The preacher speaks and the listeners are expected to listen in awe and reverence even to pedantic, uninspiring messages. Sorry, but the youth of today and a lot of the elderly too, who are trained in scientific enquiry methods and cannot imbibe Gospel lessons that are not delivered with more cerebral acumen. If God is the fount of wisdom and a perfect God as they say, and if we are created by that perfect creator, then how come preachers believe they are speaking to a puerile congregation? Some don’t even prepare themselves adequately.
These are the inconsistencies in organised religion which need to be addressed. Conformity is the last thing that the youth want to be associated it. So let’s not blame them for avoiding churches and looking for more meaningful engagements. The youth of today need mentors who empathize with them. They hate preachers and teachers who don’t walk the talk! Period!
