The divine statures

It’s just yesterday in my national news channel that I’ve learned that a “Guru” was charged of making black money to white. I always believed that faith and money is two different entities which shouldn’t be pooled in one lot. This was not an exception as we Indians usually are really superstitious and can often be taken for a ride by Godly figures. I may not be the one to pass on judgment on this particular incident, but feel I should be writing on some experiences which I am quite sure of.

I always believed in God and also believed that miracles are done by the hands of God. It was this belief which made me go to various retreat centers in Kerala. I must admit that this did help me understanding what is God all about (as per their version and also as per my conscience) and how spirituality helps an individual to help the people in need. I was in my early days and it did surely made an impact on my life – for certain period of time. Keeping the same spirituality out side the walls of those retreat centers was really challenging and am guilty of failing miserably many a times J

Divine Retreat Center was one of the prime centers for the evangelization drive in Kerala and I was there about a month attending various conventions, helping as a volunteer etc… There is no doubt that the intention was good from its directors but as any of the growing organization this particular center was also vulnerable to unwanted attention and filthy elements getting into the system. It has grown so big that there is a criminal case charged now against the director of this center and the matter is in the court now.

The main accusation charged is the “mysterious” deaths of the inmates and the illegal treatment of patients such as drug addicts, AIDS patients without proper treatment or infrastructure or trained personals. Another charge might be corruption and the rest is unclear to me at the moment.

With my experience about this organization I think its my duty to clarify certain things to who ever is reading this article. The charge is that from early nineties till date there have been about 800+ deaths reported from here. Let me tell you, most the inmates bought in here would be suffering from fatal deceases such as Leukemia, Cancer, AIDS etc… 95% of the time they would’ve been written off from the hospitals and their relatives will be bringing them in this place as the last resort thinking that GOD will intervene in their life through miracles. I must admit that I had seen such miracles happening with my own eyes. So its quite natural that few of that inmates die because of their illness and if take the average, its about 4.5 deaths in a month. This is much lesser than any of the hospitals I know.

Second allegation is about the treatment of the inmates. Well, I must tell that this center was never meant to be a hospital, rather a place for prayer. So the infrastructure might not be as good as private hospital. One must admit that here there are patients which don’t fall in to one particular illness. They are ranging from skin deceases to AIDS and Cancer. To handle such variety of cases itself is a big challenge.

Having said the above I do not write off the chances that there are malpractices happening here. The center is huge with more than 2-3 lakhs people attend a week long prayers and often volunteers struggle to run the show without any incidents.

There are few things I think will be helpful to avoid any such allegations in future

1. If the accounts of this organization are audited, make it public at every fiscal year end.
2. Report any births or deaths to the nearest registrar office with a post mortem report or the relatives consent letter if any.
3. Bring more clarity in disposing the narcotic items which the inmates give up during the retreat. This is something long pending.
4. Appoint more trained professionals in counseling, nursing care, doctors etc… I don’t see the center is financially weak by any means.
5. Any mishaps need to be reported to the police. Nobody is above law… after all we are humans; not GODs

Let me also state here that if at all there is an element in the system to be repaired it should be dealt with immediately. I will be the happiest person if the investigation helps identifying anything wrong as it would only help the center in the cleansing process.