Book Description

Spiritual satire is nothing new. There are many satirical verses in Vedas, Puranas and other Sanatan based scriptures, which despite being full of spiritual knowledge, also provide high level entertainment. Similarly, in our ancient theatre style Kariyala, there used to be many satirical skits on spirituality. Even today Kariyala is prevalent, especially among the hill cultures. In Kariyala, some acrobats type actors would come in the satirical guise of a sage, while others would come in the guise of a guru-disciple. The audience used to hold their belly while laughing. We have seen many Kariyalas in our childhood, and have also got them done at home. It continued throughout the night. There was no trace of sleep, and it was hard to realize when the night passed with laughter. This allowed two tasks to be performed simultaneously. People were thoroughly entertained and their spiritual knowledge and outlook also imoroved. The names of the people in it also used to be sarcastic, like Ridku Ram, Jado Devi etc. Kariyalachi used to spread fun and freshness all around by dancing and singing satirical songs in a satirical style to the beat of real drums along with beating none real drums as ruptured tin containers, dung-baskets etc. laughable things, those even wearing dress made up of torn empty jute bags etc., and showing many more satiric tricks like this, while always keeping themselves in a balanced and neutral way from inside, otherwise religious sentiments of public could have been hurt. No one felt bad about the social jokes made on spirituality or religion. This is a good example of tolerance and universality of Sanatan Dharma. Children and unfaithful people used to get good spiritual lessons unknowingly with entertainment in this way. It is also a psychological fact that something learnt with entertainment is more attractive and productive. I don't see anything wrong in this if the purpose behind doing this is only to promote knowledge and entertainment with sociality, respect, and faith, and not to spread an agenda full of hatred. Today, the world should take lessons from such cultural art styles and try to popularize them by promoting them so that the rapidly increasing religious fanaticism and intolerance can be controlled and the entire human race can be protected. This short book is a small attempt to easily understand the core essence of spirituality in a humorous style. It would not be an exaggeration to call this book an ocean in a pitcher.