IDLE WORSHIP

It could be idle, idol or even ideal, depending on what one wants to worship. An idol is something that is fired by human imagination and fashioned by human hands. Humans create their own idols – what they want to look up to. The idol is determined by the idolater or adulator. This may sound funny, but true.

The classic idol in the Bible is the Golden Calf, actually a young bull. It was not just an innocuous animal. It was a fore runner of Baal, the god of sexual gratification. So what were the makers and worshippers of the Golden Calf saying – for us sex, free and uninhibited at that, is what we prioritise. This is our aim in life – sexual gratification. I'm no prude, and quite frankly admit that, as a married man, I enjoy God's gift of sex. As a human being I am also not ashamed to admit that I have strong sexual desires that could "lead me astray" if my wife doesn't keep me on a tight leash. But that does not mean that I idolize sex.

What do most people idolise? As I have already said, we tend to idolize what we want or desire, not necessarily what we actually need. So we hear of matinee idols, Indian Idols, American Idols, and a host of other idols, often the fruit of idle minds. As the old saying goes, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."

The latest idol to have fallen off its pedestal, and shattered into smithereens is Michael Jackson (MJ). Gory details of his death are still emerging. Millions of fans around the world went hysterical at his death, and even attended a funeral service for an empty casket! Idolaters are so blinded by their own enthusiasm and media frenzy that they look at the "king who has no clothes", lavishing praise on his non-existent garments. This is the art of self-deception. It required the candour of a child to say, "What are you all admiring? The king has no clothes".

In death, MJ has been stripped naked. He was bald, had myriads of needle pricks all over his body. He had no food in his stomach, only undigested pills. He was a mere skeleton, weighing less than 50 Kgs. He was heavily in debt and even more heavily hooked on to drugs. He faced serious charges of paedophilia. And yet there were millions who idolised him and are still not shaken out of their stupor, despite the bare facts. Comparisons are now being made with the drug induced premature deaths of other matinee idols like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. As a teenager I enjoyed Elvis the Pelvis' rock-n-roll music. Marilyn was gorgeous enough to make any normal man drool. But idolising them?

Here is where I see some connection between the idols and the idle. The idle mind fantasises too much, allowing one's imagination to run wild. It becomes an obsession. Today's all powerful media can make instant idols, sooner than you can make instant coffee. Osama bin Laden is also an idol for many, as is Barak Hussein Obama. Nearer home we have icons like Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati. The latter has already idolised herself by erecting several of her own statues! If Michael could be a living idol, why not Mayawati? Who is there to say, "The king has no clothes"?

Be it music, movies, politics or sports there are many icons who could gradually metamorphosis into idols; and we humans are all prone to the idolatry syndrome. There was a time when I was hooked on Shabana Azmi and Steffi Graf. But when does an icon become an idol? Perhaps when one is blinded, to the exclusion of all else. It would be pharisaic to say, "I am not an idolater". The candour and humility of a child is required to correct the imbalance in our adult or adulterous adulation.

The fall of MJ reminds me of an incident in 2000. Pop star Remo Fernandes of Goa had come with his troupe to my hometown Kanpur, for a show at IIT. Fans went mad trying to just touch the "stars". The next day four of them died in a road accident. Their mutilated bodies were dumped on blocks of ice in the IIT morgue. Nobody wanted to touch them now. My wife pleaded with me to help a fellow Goan. Ultimately I brought those mutilated and decomposed bodies to my home. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with a "fallen star". So much for fleeting stardom.

I also referred to icons like Obama, Osama and Mayawati. They are not revered for their looks, but for their books – I mean their ideology. So apart from physical attributes, mental dispositions also play an important role in determining our idols.

No human is perfect, and therefore cannot really be idolised. However, I do find a perfect person in Jesus, not the Son of God, but the son of man (bar-e-nasa) as he repeatedly called himself, in his native Aramaic tongue. I find his thinking, his approach to situations, to suffering, to sinners, etc most edifying. I think he was a perfect management guru. He had no inhibitions in interacting with the opposite sex. He was genuine and empathic. Yes I would like to idolise him, not by putting him on a pedestal "up there", but by following him on the ground "down here".

With MJ gone, each one of us perhaps needs to stop and ask one's self the question, "Who is my idol? What is my ideal?" The idle mind will off course be too busy to stop and ask such a frivolous question.

# The writer has been deeply involved in youth and family counselling for several years.

JULY 2009