Guest guest Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Peacocks and Snakes Dance Together The teacher-philosopher, who charms snakes "He simply exercises some hypnotic tricks, as he says, by which he can subdue even human beings by the movement of his eyes. Singh can identify a criminal, find out a lost article and can help people get cured of some diseases. But he never takes any fees for them on principle, not even a token of gift." http://www.kalingatimes.com/images/Khoka4.jpg By Prof. Ananta Charan Sukla Snake-charmers make the snakes dance. But he makes the peacocks, snakes and mongoose dance together. He is not a yogi or a miracle man at all, nor does he believe in the miracles as such. Meet Subas Kumar Singh, an impressive personality in his late seventies, who has been demonstrating this refutation of the popular snake-charming myths over decades. He has been severally flashed in the newspapers, TV programmes and personal interviews. A permanent resident of Anandapur in Keonjhar district, this retired teacher, awarded amply for his illustrious academic services by both the Governor of Orissa and the President of India, Singh is also a noted writer of children's literature and practitioner of occult. Simplicity, nobility, straightforwardness, humility, greedlessness apart, what Singh projects most is his scientific attitude toward not only the myth of snake-charming, but also toward the mystery of miracles as a whole. He has his own zoo, though a tiny one where he has fostered varieties of poisonous snakes and other birds and animals with whom the snakes have inborn enmity. But strangely enough they all dance together by the direction of Singh, popularly known as `Khoka Sir'. He confidently opposes all the miracle men acknowledged as yogis, gods or god-men of our country who thrive mainly on their exhibition of miracles such as producing articles from air, `sivalingas' from wombs and are said to revive dead men into life. He himself produces such miracles but interprets them as merely tricks of magic not anything divine or extraordinary or due to supernatural power. He never takes out the poisonous teeth from the snakes he fosters, nor does he utter any mantras. He simply exercises some hypnotic tricks, as he says, by which he can subdue even human beings by the movement of his eyes. Singh can identify a criminal, find out a lost article and can help people get cured of some diseases. But he never takes any fees for them on principle, not even a token of gift. He is extremely self-styled in all these practices. He helps men not for any favour at all without any care for any power politics or position people hold. He helps only them whom he intuits as persons needing genuine help without any involvement in legal complicacy. He is even very frank to disappoint people bluntly expressing his unwillingness to help them anyway. Khoka Sir rarely believes in any astrological or tantrik remedy curing persons possessed of by evil spirits or affected by evil planets. He advises immediate medical treatment of persons exhibiting psychiatric symptoms. No miracle can cure them, he says. He can of course cure snake-bitten patients; but within a very limited time. Otherwise, he asks the victims for immediate medical treatment. He is remarkable for his impartiality without the slightest touch of selfishness or opportunism. He simply laughs away the stories telling that god-man can revive dead persons. Once dead, he asserts, nobody can come back to life. The stories narrated as such are simply humbugs. He challenges the most reputed god-men of our contemporary society with concrete facts and proofs the records of which he has collected. But he has a remarkable ability in reading a man by his `meditation'. Extremely unassuming, affectionate, intuitive and intelligent, Singh disposes a man within no time, without any false promise, if he finds, he cannot or ought not to help him. His eyes burn like the eyes of a cobra and pierces through the man he confronts instantly. He is not a fortune-teller, but can predict the near future expressing his inability of foreseeing the long distance of time. You can meet this rare personality. Have an interaction. If possible, be helped by him, solve your problems. Learn from him what are the scope and limits of human life, how can one adjust with the incurable diseases, can tolerate inevitable environments, can love creatures other than humans just for the sake of love. Learn how human life can be successful without any material affluence, socio-political recognition or give-and-take attitude, even if you do not attain any spiritual goal. Life is still meaningful even without the traditionally acknowledged human values and their practices and achievements. (The author, a retired professor of English from Sambalpur University, is a scholar of international repute.) http://www.kalingatimes.com/features/news_20070117_teacher_pholosopher.htm No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go with Mail for Mobile. Get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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