Role of Tarksheel Society in inculcating scientific temper among people of

Punjab
Abstract :- Punjab is the most prosperous state in India with a domination of Sikh
population. In recent years an increase in the number of babas and chelas led to
increase in superstitions among people. The need of the hour is to inculcate
scientific temper among the masses. Here comes the Taraksheel Society which
played an important role in inculcating scientific temper among people. It becomes
important in the 21
st
century which is called as the century of technology to usher
scientific inventions to the masses. This paper gave an analysis of the works done
by taraksheel society towards inculcating scientific temper among people.


Introduction-
Tarksheel (Rationalist) Society Punjab is an organisation committed to the
objectives of inculcating scientific and rational thinking among the people. As in
many other regions of the world, irrational beliefs dominated the daily lives of our
people so they were easy victims of various superstitions, rituals, charms, tantriks,
fortune-tellers, godmen, religious fanatics etc. Though there have been many
persons with rational thinking, but to give a jolt to the traditional way of thinking, a
strong movement under the guidance of a well-developed organistaion was needed.
It was only in 1984, that an organization committed to rationalist and scientific
thinking came into existence to fulfill this task. A worth noting point about the
time of its formation is that religious fundamentalism was at its peak when such an
atheist and rationalist organisation was established. As can be easily contemplated,
the prevailing conditions of our state demanded a lot of courage and tactical ability
to work for such an organisation. Proudly indeed, Taraksheel Scociety emerged
successful from that period and its influence spread rapidly among the masses of
the state. Its formation is associated with the translation of a book Begone
Godmen written by Dr. A. T. Kavoor. In this book Dr. Kavoor had explained his
encounters with so-called super-natural claims and phenomena, and how he
exposed them. Though Dr. Kavoor worked in Sri Lanka and southern India, yet his
experiences were equally relevant to our society. So it was decided to translate this
book into Punjabi language for the benefit of common man. In this book there was
a challenge by Dr. Kavoor that he will pay an award of one lakh rupees to any
person who can demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fraud-proof
conditions. So in this process, a need was also felt to form an organisation so as to
shoulder the challenge* registered in the book and to propagate scientific &
rational views among the people of Punjab. When the book was published, the
response to rationalism was beyond all expectations and units of Tarksheel Society
Punjab were formed all over the state in a very short time and Tarksheel Society
Punjab developed into a well known body.


Activities :-

Many activities are being used to propagate rationalism among masses. One of
them is to give programmes of lecture-cum-magic tricks. In this activity a team of
3-4 members goes to a village. After giving introduction about themselves and the
organisation, one spokesman would say that they will perform some magic tricks.
He would clarify to the people that this performance of magic tricks is not for their
entertainment but to show that there is nothing supernatural or magical behind the
magic tricks. After some magic tricks there is again a talk about rationalism, about
the falseness of astrology, palmistry, magic, spirits etc., about the need to shun
superstitions, about the truth behind miracles, the challenge to godmen and so on.
The whole lecture is split into 4-5 parts and in between various magic tricks are
performed. The performance of magic tricks serves two purposes; first of all it
demonstrates practically, that there is nothing supernatural behind magic, secondly,
with magic tricks the whole programme becomes quite attractive and entertaining
instead of a dry lecture. Near the end of the programme, the secrets behind 2 or 3
tricks are disclosed. This is done in order to clarify about the reality of magic, but
the demand to expose all the magic tricks is ignored as this would put an end to the
art of magic. We consider magic as a wonderful art which requires a combination
of various talents such as wit, wisdom, acting and some other skills. There is
nothing harmful in its performance if it is presented in the right perspective and is
not associated with something supernatural. So instead of disclosing all the tricks,
we encourage the spectators to try to find out secrets of magic tricks themselves.
These programmes provoked discussions and a large number of questions were
asked.
The members of Tarksheel Society Punjab worked hard to provide rational answers
questions of people and almost everytime majority of the people were convinced
and satisfied. Soon these programmes became very popular and young men from
many villages themselves asked for organising such programmes in their own
villages and schools. Then there were cases of abnormal behavior which were
presented as persons possessed by spirits of the dead. Besides these, there were
many reports of mysterious happenings supposed to be the work of ghosts etc.
Tarksheel Society Punjab had to solve the riddles of such cases and reports.

Tarksheel Society Punjab investigated every case of 'rebirth' reported from Punjab
and exposed the falseness of such reports. Now due to the continuous work of
Tarksheel Society Punjab, the number of such rumours about rebirth has come
down to near zero. Soon after the rationalist movement was launched, noted
Punjabi dramatist Sh. Gursharan Singh wrote an excellent play based on the theme
of Begone Godmen. This play became very popular in Punjab. Afterwards many
other plays were written and staged hundreds of times all over the state by a
number of drama troupes. The most conspicuous role in this field has been that of
Art Centre Samrala. These plays spread the message of rationalism in a powerful
and impressive way. The role of printed matter for any movement is always very
important. So the Tarksheel Society Punjab paid a special attention to make good
rationalist literature available to people. The literature published by TSP has been
very popular among the people. The books on rationalism are the most sought-after
books on book-stalls of Punjab. The circulation of magazine published by
Tarksheel Society Punjab, viz. TARKSHEEL, has crossed ten thousand mark
recently, which is a laudable achievement as very few magazines of Punjabi
language have been able to reach this mark. Melas (Fairs) are very important and
integral part of Punjabi culture. Such fairs are usually related to mythological or
religious personalities. To give a rationalist version of these melas, Tarksheel
Society Punjab started organising an annual fair to commemorate the birth
anniversary of Dr. A. T. Kavoor. This was named TARKSHEEL MELA. Every year
this annual fair is organised at a different place. In this annual fair, rationalists
from all over the state participate and common folks from nearby areas join in
large numbers, making it a congregation of many thousand people. Here plays are
staged, fire-walking, miracle exposure and magic tricks are performed, exhibitions
related to science and achievements of Tarksheel Society Punjab are organised,
books are displayed and along with all this there are stalls of eatables, cold drinks,
tea etc. Now apart from this annual Tarksheel Mela many local units of Tarksheel
Society Punjab organise Tarksheel Melas in their own areas at local levels.
In a Tarksheel Mela, people assemble at one place to learn something from
rationalists. There is another activity named Tarksheel Kafla (Rationalist Caravan)
which is somewhat opposite to the Mela i.e. rationalists go to the people in their
localities to educate them. In this activity rationalist workers of a unit make a tour
of villages. They talk to the people, give some demonstrations, motivate them to
adapt rationalism as their way of thinking and then move towards next village. In
this Kafla usually there are some two-wheelers and one or two four-wheelers (Jeep,
Tractor-trolley etc.). They carry with them their own sound system (microphone
and loud-speakers). In this way 4-5 villages are covered in a day. A worthnoting
achievement of Tarksheel Society Punjab is that it is not confined to intellectual
circles only, as is the case with many other such organisations working elsewhere.
Rather, first, it become popular with the masses and then it attracted the attention
of intelligentsia.

Impact :
Superstitions still exist, many people still have faith in supernatural powers,
thousands still visit deras of godmen, but there is no denying to the fact that a
great change has taken place in the last few years. The change is that the above-
mentioned viewpoint has been compelled to take a defensive position. The main
achievement of Tarksheel Society Punjab is that it has established the superiority
and righteousness of rationalism. Just in a decade, Tarksheel Society Punjab has
created an environment in Punjab that now nobody openly defends superstitions or
supernatural claims or takes stand against rationalism. It is true that superstitious
thinking has not been eradicated but its case is just like corruption. People do
corruption but nobody claims that corruption is just. Similarily people still follow
irrational practices but do not claim that they are doing a right thing. Actually
many imaginary concepts of gods, ghosts, spirits, heaven and hell, rebirth etc. and
many myths, customs, superstitions have come down to our people through a
number of generations. As a result they have become a part of their collective sub-
consciousness. External factors such as hard life conditions of people provide a
base for such thinking to continue its existence. So the struggle against all this will
last for a long time and this struggle has to be waged not only to change the
thinking of people but also to change the materialistic conditions of peoples life.


The Dark Patches

In every culture there are positive as well as negative factors. The negative factors
are harmful for the society as a whole but continue to exist as these serve the
vested interests of some individuals. The social development depends upon the
success of struggle against such negative factors and this struggle is fought on
many fronts by various forces. These forces or agencies of change have their
specific fields of work and their own long term and short term goals. Tarksheel
Society Punjab has its own vision for a better society, for which it is working as a
long term goal. But in that long march to a just and humane society, there are many
obstactles posed by evil forces in the society. Some of these negative forces which
come into direct conflict with Tarksheel Society Punjab are described in this
chapter. There are many other forces and factors which are responsible for ills of
society and the fight against them may be more important but in this chapter, only
those forces are highlighted which are the direct and immediate concerns of
Tarksheel Society Punjab.

Babas and Chelas :- In every village and town there are persons which are known
as 'Babas'. 'Baba' is a word of respect used for grandmen. But here it is used
for exorcists. 'Chela' is another word suffixed with such persons. The literal
meaning of Chela is disciple. Usually when such exorcists are not much
established they are called 'Chelas', because then they are disciple of some Baba
and in due course of time they themselves are called as Babas. People with various
problems visit to these Babas. Sometimes the problem is expressed directly
to the Baba but on other occassions Baba himself tries to guess the problem. The
guesswork is done in a congregation held on specific days of a week. This is to
give an impression on persons gathered there, that he knows everything with his
super-natural powers. The guess is actually a vague categorisation of problems
generally faced by our people. For example, he would say in the congregation that
here is a person who has a health problem, he should stand up and come to me.
Similarily he asks for persons having problems in
family relationships, in financial matters, having
problems with their children or problems with their
cattle or business or agriculture and so on. Then he
describes the problem as the wrath of an evil spirit.
Further he prescribes certain remedial measures to
overcome these problems. These measures are some
practices related to exorcism and in the name of these
measures he makes money from them.
Many persons which are taken to these exorcists
are actually psychic cases or facing some acute
problems of life. Instead of getting them treated from
psychiatrists or solving their problems they are taken
to 'deras' (headquarters) of such exorcists. Here they
are further made to believe that they are possessed by
an evil spirit. For this purpose an atmosphere is created
with beating of drums, burning of incenses, chanting
of some couplets and by the actions and responses of
other disciples present there.Very often, physical
torture is also applied to make forced confessions from
the person that he\she is possessed by an evil spirit.
They perform various tricks to impress their
gullible clients. A typical example is to draw out
masaans (Ashes of a dead person) from the body of a
person. Actually it is a chemical trick in which a
reaction takes place between aluminium and mercuric
chloride. A person with some health problems or
depression is told that he has been fed masaans by his
enemy which is responsible for his poor physical or
mental state. The Baba assures him not to worry as he
will draw out the masaans with his spiritual powers.
Then a aluminium container is attached to his belly in
which ashes are produced and shown to convince the
patient. In fact, before placing container on his body
a small amount of mercuric chloride is rubbed inside
the container which is absorbed into the walls of the
container due to porous nature of aluminium metal.
The reaction between aluminium and mercuric
chloride starts slowly and in a few minutes sufficient
quantity of alminium chloride is produced which is
presented as the 'ashes of the dead, he has been fed.'
Poverty, ignorance, lack of scientific attitude,
limitations of present day medical sciences, mental
tensions and many other such factors make the people
to go to exorcists. Sometimes they feel relieved of their
problems due to their blind faith or catharsis of
emotions at such places, but, in reality, they are
exploited at various levels. Once they move along this
track, they become uncapable of facing and solving
their actual problems.
In addition to this, these places known as deras
also attract many antisocial persons and are a source
of narcotics to addicts. So clearly these are the sores
on social structure of Punjab.
Rituals and Rites :- Then there are a large number of
rituals and rites which are just a wastage of time,
money and energy. Though, through some rites people
express their feelings in an accepted way and some
rites provide guidelines to act on during important
events of life (e.g. birth, marriage, death etc.), but most
of these have outlived their utility. Tarksheel Society
Punjab educates the people against the rituals, which
are burden on the individual or society and it also
provides alternatives to ceremonies associated with
religion.
Superstitions :- Some general superstitions are
usually present in every society and our society is also
not free from such superstitions. There are certain good
and bad omens e.g. sneezing, at the beginning, is
considered a bad omen for a journey or starting of a
new project ; meeting with certain persons or certain
animals is also considered inauspicious while some
other persons may be considered auspicious and there
are hundreds of such petty superstitions. Roots of these
beliefs may lie in some ancient practices or in some
mere coincidences. Sometimes, it may be explained
that how could these practices and beliefs have been
evolved but mostly the origin of these had lost in the
history. Many people are clear about the worthlessness
of these superstitions but they continue to follow them
as a cultural habit. The main harm of following these
superstitions is that these mould the thinking of the
person to an unscientific pattern. So Tarksheel Society
Punjab constantly exposes their futility and educates
the people to shun outrightly such beliefs and practices.
Low status of women - Low status of women is
another blot on Punjabi life and culture. Due to this
fact there is a strong desire for a son to be born. The
birth of girl child brings grief to the family. This desire
for a male child pushes them to go to Babas, which
make claims that with their spiritual powers, they can
bestow (bless) a couple with son. It is the law of nature
that half of the children born would be male. So in
half of the couples, visiting a Baba, a son is born and
these couples become devotee of that Baba and futher
publicise that this Baba has supernatural powers.
While the other couples search for a new Baba with
'real spiritual powers' and try once again. In this way,
business of babas and population of the country both
flourish well.
Now with the technical advancement, it has
become possible to diagnose the sex of a child in
mother's womb. This combination of technical
advancement and social backwardness, has given rise
to a new malpractice i.e. aborting the female foetus.
Tarksheel Society Punjab is fighting against this new
social evil. Besides being inhuman, this practice will
seriously disturb the male-female ratio which is
already very low on the female side. This phenomenon
has also clearly demonstrated that technical
developments alone cannot solve the problems of
society unless social development and people's
enlightenment keep pace with it. The low status of
women is a matter of concern for Tarksheel Society
Punjab from another point also. Women not only bear
the burden of family but the grunt of male members
also. In our society, there is no way for women to vent
up their emotions. So the women are more vulnerable
to psychological problems. Their living conditions
combined with the prevailing socio-cultural set-up
makes them the easy victims of superstitions and
unscientific viewpoints. Tarksheel Society Punjab
recognises this fact and tries to combine its
enlightenment move with the uplift of women.
Caste system - Caste system is one more well known
evil of our society with which we have to struggle
continuously. Though its hold has weakened
considerably, still it is far from considering all people
as equal human beings. Marriages have not crossed
the boundaries of caste. Even in progressive families
inter-caste marriage is a rare thing. Rationalism
strongly opposes the division of man and man on the
basis of religion, caste, colour, race etc. So fight
against caste consciousness is another sphere of our
activity.
Religion - Besides all these and many other negative
factors is the hold of religion on minds of people.
When this religious hold is used for political
manoeuvring, it results in communalism and
fundamentalism.
Every religion, after it is fully established,
becomes a hinderance to the further development of
human thought. This happens because every religion
claims that its teachings and explanations are the
ultimate truths. Whereas social reality change with
time and the limits of human knowledge about the
world also expand. But what is written in holy books
or uttered by the founders of religions is revered to
such an extent that it is considered beyound any
criticism or revision by their followers. Though most
of that may get obsolete with respect to new social
reality or is proved clearly wrong with new findings
of human knowledge, the followers of religion
dogmatically adhere to them. Thus religious thinking,
with its face towards past, results in stagnation instead
of development.
In comparison to dogmatism of religion, science
keeps its findings open to testing and further
improvement. In this way science always marches
forwards to new horizons of knowledge. The scientific
attitude is necessary not only towards natural
phenomenon but towards social problems also,
because scientific attitude alone opens up the way
towards the progress.
Therefore, it is also an important task of
Tarksheel Society Punjab that the minds of people are
freed from the clutches of religious dogmatism,
fundamentalism and communalism and a scientific
temprament is created so that the problems of life and
society are solved.


Amateur Psychiatrists

Like every society, Punjab too has a considerable
number of psychic cases. According to psychologists,
at any time, about ten percent of population is suffering
from some kind of psychological problems and as a
result shows behavioural disorders. What type of
behavioural patterns are shown under mental tension
and how those are percieved by the society, is largely
determined by the culture of that area. In an advanced
educated society these phenomena of abnormal
behaviour would be taken as psychological problems
and the help of a psychologist or psychiatrist would
be sought. But, like many other underdeveloped
societies, in Punjab this is considered as an act of
supernatural power and the person is taken to some
exorcist who is supposed to have ability to control
over such forces. This person is called a Chela or
Baba. Only a few persons know about psychiatrists.
It is in this context that Tarksheel Society Punjab has
made a very meaningful contribution to correct the
approach towards such neurotic or psychotic cases.
Before we discuss how the Tarksheel Society Punjab
has acted to make an impact in this field let us have a
look at the external factors responsible for producing
abnormal behaviour.
We know that certain persons have a
predisposition towards certain neurotic or psychotic
disorders. But it is also clear that such mental disorders
are usually precipitated by his/her environment or
external factors. These external factors are closely
related with the social, economic or cultural set up of
a particular society. The main factors which are commonly responsible for such
disorders are sexual
factors, emotional factors, economic factors, cultural
factors, family factors etc. The role of these external
factors in individuals life is discussed below.
First of all let us take the sexual and emotional
factors. Sex is a powerful psycho-physiological need
of a person. While in the other animals it is mainly
limited to physiological level but in man it has also
acquired a strong emotional position in the psyche of
an individual. So the famous psychologist Sigmund
Freud considers it the strongest emotion of man.
According to him mental make-up of a man totally
depends upon his sexual passions and the reactions of
outside world to his sexuality. We may not totally agree
with his sweeping generalisations of considering
sexuality as basis of all human behaviour, as a large
number of other factors are responsible for the
psychological development of a man, nevertheless it
is a fact that sexual factors play a very prominent role
in the psyche of any individual.
The act of sex is related to procreation, so it can
not be allowed to happen in an irresponsible way.
Moreover it may also result in blind competition and
querrels among various members of a social group.
So every society has set some norms to fulfil this need
in a regulated way, usually it is allowed only inside a
marital relationship. But these regulations by society
are not fully according to individual desires. Moreover,
ours ia taboo society, particularily in the field of sex,
where social restrictions are heavily against the
individuals longing to have pre-marital or extra-marital
sexual relations. Many persons have to suppress their
sexual desires to such an extent as to produce
psychological fall outs. For example, the passion of
sex is very strong beginning from puberty, but up to
marriage no means are devised for its fulfilment, so
this period i.e. from puberty to marriage is very critical.
Similarily after marriage, problems may arise if any
of the partner is sexually not compatible with the other.
Moreover in some cases boredom arising out of
monotony of sexually relations results in seeking
partners outside the marital relationship (this
tendencey is more prevalent among men). Likewise
there are many other causes due to which individual
desires related to love and sex come in conflict with
social sanctions. To a certain extent this contradiction
is unavoidable and does not do much harm to the
individual or the society, but when this contradiction
exceeds the bearable limits, it tries to get solved in
favour of one side i.e. individual or society. If this
contradiction is solved in favour of individual then
social problems arise ; on the other hand if individual
desires are suppressed by social sanctions then
psychological problems crop up in the individual. Thus
the social norms should be sufficiently elastic to
provide channels for the discharge of individual
passions as well as capable of preventing the
disintegration of social life. But in our society norms
are quite rigid and therefore this contradiction is very
powerful giving rise to social as well as psychological
tensions.
Actually no social norms or moral values are for
ever. Technical advancement influences the social life
as a result of which, the basis of pre-set social norms
erodes. For example, contraceptive means have
delinked sexual activity from procreation. Due to this,
the basis of constraint of sexual activity only within
marital relationships has eroded. Similarily
industrilisation gives rise to urbanisation where strict
rules of rural community do not work. Movies, T. V.
Video etc. have exposed the life styles and ways of
liberal societies of west to our people. So these tools
of media are playing a very conspicuous role in
exciting the individual passions of our people,
especially of younger generation. In the changed life
style of our times, marriage is postponed to later age,
as a result of which the period between puberty and
marriage has increased considerably. Many other
factors can be enlisted which are accentuating this
process. But it is also a well known fact that cultural
values change at a slower rate than the technical
developments, which is called cultural lag in
sociological language. In this situation, on one hand
the above-mentioned factors are inciting people to
satisfy their personal desires, on the other hand, our
cultural values do not allow this to happen. Intensified
contradictions create mental tensions and in many
cases these mental tensions give rise to abnormal
behaviour, which may be depression, hysteria or any
other such form. In some cases persons consciously
do some strange actions. Our people, instead of
analysing the root cause of such behaviour or activity,
consider him/her to be possessed by spirit of somebody
already dead. This factor of our culture also provokes
some persons to consciously plan his/her activities in
such a way that, while those activities are considered
to be the work of some supernatural power, he/she
can continue his/her affairs under the cover of such
misinterpretations. How this happens can be
understood from the glimpses of some cases that were
referred to our organistation.
In one case, clothes were found torn, household
articles disappeared and many were found broken.
After sometime letters were found signed by the ghost
of a dead girl in which apart from some other things,
demand for a pink Chunni (Chunni - a light head
cloth for women) was constantly mentioned. The
family sought the help of many exorcists and occultists
but of no use. Ultimately the problem was solved by
Taraksheel Society Punjab. After investigating the
problem thoroughly, it was found that their 26 years
old daughter was responsible for it. She had done all
that damage and letter-writing in a subconscious state
of mind. The demand for pink chunni symbolically
presented the demand for marriage. Due to cultural
training of shyness among girls she was unable to
express her desire in a straight way. So unable to
suppress her desire, sub-concious mind took over the
command to express this demand and also found an
outlet for her irritation and frustration by damaging
the household articles.
It is a typical case in which a desire for sex or
love is expressed by the subconscious mind through
some abnormal acts and is then interpreted as
something supernatural. Usually such cases are of
unmarried girls or of married women who are
unsatisfied with their marital relationships. Male
members are less prone to this type of acts, as for them
many other channels are available to vent up their
desires.
The girl/woman is usually taken to dera
(headquarter) of some exorcist who firmly puts in the
minds of the subject as well as other family members
that it is a case of evil spirits who are possessing her
and then the nefarious activities of such babas begin
doing a great psychological as well as financial
exploitation. Moreover many times these babas
themselves or their assistants establish sexual relations
with those girls/women and these female patients
pretend to get relief due to supernatural powers of
baba and the exploitation goes on.
As said earlier, sometimes a conscious planning
is done to exploit the prevailing faith in ghosts etc. for
their own purposes. For example, some common land
near a village in Ropar district was covered with
natural vegetation. People crossed that area in
mornings and evening without any hesitation. Then
strange events began to happen there, pieces of bones
and bricks were showered upon the passer-by and
bizarre sounds were produced. Common people
considered that an evil spirit was wandering there and
avoided that area. When members of Tarksheel Society
Punjab investigated, it was found that a young man of
the village had some illicit relations with a girl. It was
conscious planning of that man to use the area as their
meeting place by creating fear about that area among
the village folks.
In one case it was not a desire for sexual act rather
a fear of sex which was responsible for periodical fits
in a well-educated girl. The case could be solved as
the onset of this problem coincided with the fixation
of her marriage. And in another case of abnormal
behaviour, the boy was having some apprehensions
about his ability to do sex.
In the prevailing cultural tradition of arranged
marriages many cases sought help from Tarksheel
Society Punjab, where the marriage partners were not
according to their expectations (or rather fantasies).
All these cases needed psychological counselling and
not the charms or mantras of babas.
Similarily there are economic problems which
generate tensions finally resulting in depression,
anxiety and other such psychological ailments.
Whereas the worries of lower strata of society are
associated with the fulfilment of their daily needs, the
persons belonging to upper economic class are
involved in a neck breaking race to out-pass each other.
With market economy and consumerism engulfing our
society more and more, the role of this economic factor
has increased manifolds.
In one case, there were five daughters in a lower
middle-class family. In that family, some puzzling incidents had been occurring for
some time. These
incidents happened mainly with the belongings of girls
like their clothes, books, photographs etc. were found
torn or damaged. On analysing the situation it was
found that their mother was doing all this, though
subconsciously. Actually with their meagre financial
resources, the parents were finding it very difficult to
arrange their daughters marriages. So the mother felt
her daughters as a great burden and thus a hatred was
created in her subconcious mind towards the daughters
which was unconsciously expressed in that way. In
this case their economic condition was not the sole
factor as they were able to fulfil essential necessities
of daily life, but were unable to arrange for their
dowries and other major expenses of marriage. So it
happened when the economic factor combined with
the custom of dowry prevalent in our culture.
In another case, some gold and currency notes
worth few thousand rupees were found missing. But
before this, certain substances like Sandhoor
(Vermilion), red yarn, rice, grains of other cereals etc.,
were found in the form of Tunas (incantations), and
this happened many times in this or that corner of the
house. Actually this was a case of pure theft by younger
daughter-in-law of that joint family who came from a
relatively poor family. With this theft she wanted to
solve two problems - first to help her poor parents,
secondly to raise her status in the family by bringing
some articles which were shown as gifts from her
parents. To conceal all this she performed some
planned activities in such a way so that loss of gold
and money would be taken as the work of some evil
spirit let loose on the house by some outsider enemy
of the family.
As described earlier, our society is passing
through a transitional phase. The joint family structure
is giving way to nuclear families. But this is not going
on smoothly. Economic considerations, emotional
factors or other socio-cultural factors exert pressure
to remain in joint family, whereas the desires for
freedom, privacy, enjoyment etc. pull to disjoin the
joint family and establish a nuclear family. This is
again mainly a problem of women and is responsible
for a very large number of psychological problems.
In majority of cases, where such problem exists, it is
not expressed directly in a straight-forward way as to
disjoint a family is not considered a good act according
to our socio-cultural values. So this desire is expressed
in an indirect way by creating problems in family
through clandestine activities. As these activities are
done in a concealed way, the family, unable to solve
the riddle, soon seeks the help of some tantrik or
godman.
Non-availability of proper respect and status to any member of family has also
been recognised as the
root cause of many psychic cases. Similarily
alcoholism or other such bad habits create problems
in family life.
A number of causes, universal in nature or
particular to our Punjabi society, may be enlisted which
provide the basis for psychic cases, and a variety of
cases can be described where involvement of some
ghosts, spirits etc. is assumed, but in fact they are the
conscious or sub-conscious menifestations of some
underlying problem. Though these are related to sociocultural-
economic issues of our society but we have
to educate, counsel or provide a solution to such
problems of individuals, in order to prevent
supernatural misinterpretations of these events. We try
to educate the people that these are psychological
manifestation of such and such social or individual
problem and has to be dealt as such. Otherwise, all
this abnormal behaviour or consciously planned
monstrous activities are presented as a proof for the
existence of super natural entities i.e. ghosts, demons,
spirits etc.
Thus the practical necessities have compelled
members of our organisation to assume the work of
amateur psychiatrists or psychological counsellors.
Inspite of the fact that they had no formal training in
this field, many members of our organisation have
acquired requisite competency in solving the cases of
abnormal behaviour and mysterious happenings.
Work of Dr. Kavoor presented a model for our workers
to deal with such cases and practical experience taught
further lessons.
As said earlier abnormal behaviour is usually
precipitated by some external factor/factors. We try
to find out those external factors by analysing his/her
emotional, economic or familial problems and
suggesting the ways to overcome. But in some cases
the main factor may be genetic, harmonal or some
functional disorder of brain requiring medication or
other professional treatment, then they are referred to
psychiatrists. It is a fact that a few years back, not
many people had any knowledge about psychiatrists
but after the Tarksheel Society Punjab had come into
existence, more and more people are getting aware of
the psychiatrists and visiting them.
Our success rate in solving cases of mysterious
happenings is almost cent percent. These cover a large
variety of events, for example - clothes are found cut,
burnt or damaged ; jewellery, currency notes or other
such valuable items disappear from almirahs/chests ;
household articles are broken or damaged ; drops of
blood are seen ; sand, filth or other such material is
found mixed in eatables ; pieces of bricks or stones
are showered on house. These are some of the most common happenings but many
many other such
miraculous events are reported to Tarksheel Society
Punjab for which help is sought. These acts were
formerly attributed to the work of some ghosts, evil
spirits etc., but now almost all these cases are referred
to Tarksheel Society Punjab and the person responsible
for all these acts is invariably discovered, whether he/
she does those acts consciously or sub-consciously.
The course taken for analysing such cases usually
involves following steps - to interview all the members
of family or persons related to event one by one, to
know the history of the family, to diagnose the main
problems which are being faced by the whole family
or some of the family members, to note the behavioural
patterns of family members, to work out the presence
or absence of suspected persons when the reported
events occur, to note who reports the events most
frequently and likewise other necessary information
is collected. From all this information the culprit and
his/her problems are guessed. Then the suspect is made
to confess by simply putting his/her problems before
him/her or by other pressure tactics. He/she is asked
to abandon this, some counselling is done, hypnotism
may be used if necessary (e.g. if acts are done
subconciously). As can be easily imagined, the culprit
does not want to be identified before his/her family
members or in neighbourhood, so in lieu of concealing
his identity he is made to promise that he will not do
that kind of acts again. On the other hand, intensity of
problems faced by some member/members is put
before the whole family and suggestions are made to
settle those problems.
Tarksheel Society Punjab may not have been
successful in preventing all people from going to
Babas or Chelas, but certainly it has brought a great
change in the thinking of people and has provided a
viable alternative to that. Actually there are many
external factors like social, economic and cultural set
up of the society which do not provide a desirable
environment for a better human living. Similarily there
are many internal factors like genetic predisposition,
harmonal imbalance or certain physical ailments and
deformities which are yet to be overcome by the
scientific development. Thus the struggle to bring an
end of such non-sense may continue for a long time
but presently our main task is to make the people aware
of the reality behind such phenomena, to inspire them
to bring a change in the external reality (i.e. social,
political, economic, cultural environment) for a better
human life and to work for the progress of science
which has overcome and will overcome the problems
of human beings. The Tarksheel Society Punjab is
working exactly in this direction.


Relevance of Rationalism

Rationalism is the philosophical view that
regards reason as the chief source and test of
knowledge. Historically, rationalism emerged as a rival
to empiricism and sensationalism against which
rationalists have sought to show that our most certain
and significant knowledge comes not from sense
experiences but reason. In their view, reason has the
power to arrive at truth directly, bypassing the
empirical and sensory levels of cognition.
This was clearly underestimation of the role of
sensory perceptions. But it was the rationalism of 17th
century and after that great developments have been
occured in the field of human thought and the
rationalism too has been put in the right form.Today's
rationalism or the rationalism as we apply it, is actually
the scientific method of cognition.This may be
described in the words - "from living perception to
abstract thought and from this to practice" or in the
five well-known steps of scientific methodology i.e.
observation, analysis, interpretation, hypothesis testing
and then varifying or changing the hypothesis. So it is
the objective rationalism in which reasoning starts
from objective reality.
A bit more clarity about the concept of
rationalism can be obtained from the Encyclopaedia
Brittanica which describes rationalism in the following
words :
"Common to all forms of rationalism is the
belief that the world is a rationally ordered
whole, the parts of which are linked by
logical necessity and the structure of which
is therefore intelligible.
In ethics, the rationalism holds the position
that reason, rather than the feelings, custom
or authority is the ultimate court of appeal
in judging good and bad, right and wrong.
In religion rationalism means that all of
man's knowledge comes through the use
of his natural faculties, without the aid of
super-natural revelations. Reason, for
rationalists, thus stands opposed to many
of the religions which have held that the
divine has revealed itself through inspired
persons or writings and which have
required, at times, that its claims be
accepted as infallible, even when they do
not accord with natural knowledge."
From the above description it can be noted that
rationalism as a way of thinking is very relevant against
irrationalism, fideism, superstitions, religious bigotry,
ritualism etc. And as described in earlier chapters all
these ills are gripping our society severely. The theory
of Karma, faith in predestined fate of every man, the
unreal assumptions of various gods, demons, spirits,
ghosts, hell and heaven or rebirth etc., and belief in
astrology, palmistry, faith-healing and othe such nonsense
has greatly shackled the forward march to a
better society. Rationalism outrightly rejects all the
above mentioned baseless thoughts and thus paves the
way for progress.
Rationalism says that there is a cause behind
every act, nothing happens without any reason. This
basic formulation of rationalism is very important for
our people to grasp. The religious and irrational
thinking convinces people to take all the miseries of
their lives as a predestined course. But the rationalism,
which declares that there is a cause for every problem,
provokes them to find the cause of their miseries.
When the people will find the cause, they will also
make efforts to remove that undesirable cause. Thus
the rationalism guides to solve the individual as well
as collective problems.
This is an age of science. It is the development
of science which has enabled the man to reach at its
present dominating position in the world. But India is
lagging far behind in scientific development. The main
reason behind this underdevelopment is the dominance
of unscientific and irrational thinking for centuries
among our people. So to spread rational and scientific
thinking among masses is the much-needed task for
us which is being carried on under the banner of
Taraksheel Society Punjab.