The Incorrigible!

 

By T.Ganesh U.Pai

From: http://www.indian-skeptic.org/html/is_v01/1-1-3.htm

Most of us are prisoners of our own mind, of our mental blocks and beliefs that are not based on logical conclusions.

After one of my demonstrations on myths of magic and miracles, I was confronted by one of the eminent lawyers presumably also a devotee of one well known godman. He expressed his desire to talk to me after all the guests had left the auditorium.

He complimented me for my performance and expressed his admiration for my mission of exposing fake godmen. "However, I have one personal request to you. Baba, so and so is genuine. You please omit performing the items he performs, as you give an impression that he is a fraud," he said.

"I have not mentioned the name of any one, nor did I say anyone is a fraud during my performance. I had requested all of you who had assembled, to think about the illusions produced during the demonstration and form your own impressions about these," I added.

"Though you have not specifically mentioned, it is implied because you are able to perform every thing he is able to do." he contended.

At this stage I had to tell him that instead of his asking me to stop these demonstrations, why not he request his godman to perform Miracles which cannot be duplicated by others? I cannot restore severed limbs, give eye sight to the blind, normal brain to the retarded and so on. Why not he request his Baba to perform these? Then I continued, "Now that you have mentioned the name of your godman, let me know what you have to say to this!"

I told him, "The godman you mentioned had given a Swiss watch, allegedly produced from thin air by waiving his apparently empty hands,to one of my brothers. Any dispute on this?"

"No", he replied.

Then, let us go into the facts about the watch so produced." I said.

"One of the possibilities explained is that, prior to giving this watch, the godman transforms himself into another form and appears in Switzerland, Hongkong, Japan or such other place, lands in a watch shop, buys the watch and then reappears in his original form before his devotee and presents the watch. Mind you all this is supposed to have happened in a split of a second."

I added, "Granting this was true, then the godman did not go through customs and immigrations before he left his country. He purchased a watch paying foreign currency not released by the Reserve Bank of India and again returned without the knowledge of customs and immigration authorities. This would amount to smuggling the watch. It is not only to my brother that he had presented the watch. He had given to thousands of others. Would this not lead to the fact that your godman is involved in a smuggling racket?"

"If this is not the version, the second possibility explained is that on account of his divine powers, he is able to move things from one place to another. If this be so, I added, "You all say that your god man does not accept anything from any one and if he has no other business or occupation, he could not possibly have any possessions, and so it should be concluded that this watch did not belong to him. Still he has managed to produce it, and it amounts to stealing the same from somewhere."

The third possibility is that as he has claimed to be the Creater himself, he has the power to materialise this watch from thin air! "If this is true", I said. "Had he created his own brand, possibly we could not have said anything. But he has created duplicate watch of well known foreign company's watch with their monogram, serial number etc., without their knowledge, consent or license to produce. This amounts to infringement of their patent rights."

"The only possibility I can think of," I said, "is that some devotee like you might have presented him one watch which he hid some where in his person and brought it out mysteriously as a magician would do. But you all deny that he would do so. If his production is not like that of a magician, the other methods, if true, would amount to a fraud! That is all your honour", I said. The lawyer not being able to give me any logical explanations to the questions posed by me, left the place remarking, "YOU ARE INCORRIGIBLE."