Good intentions, bad accounting

“When it comes to bull shit, big time major league bull shit, you have to stand in awe of the all time false promises and exaggerated claims- Religion”.

“He (god) is all powerful, all perfect, all knowing and all wise, somehow just can’t handle money. Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes and they always need a little more. Now you talk about a good bull shit story. Holy shit”- George Carlin

Denzong a.k.a. valley of rice a.k.a. Sikkim. His Holiness, in his address during the Conference in December, mentioned that the main USP of the state was its Buddhist culture. Sikkim needs to keep its religious identity intact. I agree with him. Although the Buddhists may not enjoy a majority, it is a land blessed by Guru Rinpoche and, therefore, holds a lot of significance. But the story doesn’t end there. In the past few years, we have been witnessing a lot of unnecessary rows over who could be the rightful claimant to the Karmapa throne. I am not here to dive into the details of each of them today. Most of us believe Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje to be the real Karmapa. This in turn comes from our faith in His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for he has given his blessings to the former.

Last week when forwarded smses started pouring in about some Karmapa issue, I believed it to be a hoax. You cannot expect much else from a student who hardly gets to watch ten minutes of television in a month. And then the newspapers were seemingly filled with police raids in the Karmapa monastery at Sidhbari in Dharamshala. My first reaction? I was angry. Like the rest of you. How dare they suspect the Karmapa of being a Chinese spy? How dare they question his relevance in the first place? All accusations seemed preposterous.

Few days back, a candle light vigil cum march started in Gangtok. I have always been a skeptic when it comes to these silent protests. What will it help achieve? Speaking to my brother over the phone,he said

“We just want to show our support. There are a lot of media persons around so we want them to know that the Karmapa has the backing of his people. He is not alone in this”.

I agreed. It reminds me of a recent time when Mum and I were standing in a long line of devotees outside the twin chambers in Enchey Gompa. When our turn finally came, four elderly ladies rushed in from nowhere; chanting prayers and pushing their way in to have the monk recite for them. I stood there disgusted. It was a contradiction and this wasn’t even a solo episode so to say.

Now do not get me wrong but I have a huge problem with people and their blind faith in religion. While being religious may be a must but having blind faith is not. I have personally met people who have offered me a passport to a foreign country of choice for a large sum of money. It was an amusing offer. On asking about the mechanics of how all this worked, this man told me it was very simple. He would get me a Tibetan passport and present my status as a refugee. But I relented, “Isn’t this refugee quota supposed to go to the needy?”

To which he replied, “Do you think there are no loopholes in the system?” It seemed to me that bureaucracy had worked its magic here as well.

In Hinduism as well as in Buddhism we have devotees making offerings at the temples and monasteries. According to Buddhist traditions, generally monetary offerings made to the high incarnate lamas such as Rinpoches are enclosed in an envelope along with a silk scarve. Also, one ensures as far as possible offerings of only new and crisp notes. All of us have done it and continue to do whenever the opportunity comes. As for the Karmapa, having spent more than a decade in Dharamshala, it is only understandable that the scale of offerings was huge especially when he has the largest number of followers all across the world. The very fact that the police found currencies from twenty plus countries is an indication of the same. All the devotees know very well that Karmapa does not personally receive these offerings. It is the job of his aides. The Chinese currency share, according to media reports, amounts to just about ten per cent. I think this is completely natural since he does have a lot of followers in Tibet and in mainland China as well. One needs to accept that mismanagement of fund has definitely taken place but to correlate the same with the Karmapa as being a Chinese spy would be a case of shooting arrows in the dark. Since his arrival in India in 1999, the Karmapa has been under the watchful eye of the Indian government. Till date I am told he has made one foreign visit to the US, that too under strict GOI regulations. If indeed he were to have been a spy, then I would say that there have been serious lapses under the Indian governmental system because I believe he enjoys double blanket of security since his time of arrival in the country.

My point is that Karmapa is only a face. There are people behind him. Here is a leader who made a daring escape from China at a tender age of fourteen years. How many of us were Mathematics friendly at such an age? How many of us would be ready to take over tremendous responsibility? To showcase our support and belief in him is wonderful but we must also question how these discrepancies arose in the first place. How was this allowed to happen? Going by all the details emerging in the papers every day, we have given enough reasons for such speculations to arise. Be it Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism etc. religion garners millions of dollars every year. Should we merely assume that all that money is being used for the right purpose? Not only is this issue an eye opener for other similar organisations but it should also raise our eye brows. Let us not say these are baseless allegations thrown by the Indian government, let’s face it. If it weren’t for us, it would have been some other religious sect maybe.

I read a local daily recently where one of the claimants had addressed a press conference welcoming media reports speculating on a China angle in the Karmapa’s activities. He even contended that the Government of India had made a mistake in granting the Karmapa asylum in India. Pardon me, for I am trying my best to understand my religion and I am still a long way from getting there but I wonder why such a religious man would make a statement like that. This very comment portrays him in a negative light. Men of holy significance aren’t supposed to throw fire at each other.

Buddhism says we must practice compassion and kindness. Where is his compassion?

Let us have a positive outlook for what has happened recently. Karmapa controversy has remained under the blanket for far too long to the gain of his detractors. May be what has happened has happened for the good and now that the Karmapa controversy is in public domain, one hopes to get all the right answers. After all, in the end, truth must prevail.

(On this note I want to end this entry. I just felt the need to pen it down because we seem to focus only on the surface value instead of going deeper into the issue.)

Karmapa Khenno.