Sanal Edamaruku refuses to be killed!

Sanal Edamaruku challenged a senior tantrik, Surinder Sharma, to kill hum using tantra. The encounter was telecast on India TV and the video is now available on YouTube. Be sure to watch all the three parts and spread the word. The tantrik tried four times, every time promising that his victim will feel pain and lose consciousness and finally die. However, Sanal refused to oblige and was finally seen laughing. Interestingly, the tantrik was seen pressing Sanal's forehead, doing something with his hands, moving his head around, and so on. If the tantrik needs physical access to the person, then, I guess, the easiest way is to poke a sharp knife (which the tantrik was seen brandishing at one time) into his heart! Congratulations to Sanal for this feat! I am pretty sure there would be people who would explain this off. They are sure to have excuses. The presence of the camera disturbed the tantrik, Sanal was protected by his god (an excuse the tantrik himself gave, to which Sanal said that he did not believe in any god!), the tantrik was not given sufficient peace to be able to concentrate, and so on. I am sure there would be many to believe these excuses, too.

Every few days or so, we see news about some tantrik killing or injuring someone in the name of revenge or treasure. It is pitiable that in this age we still have in India people who blindly believe such things. Recently, a woman was tied up and beaten on the excuse that she is a witch! All this is due to the failure of our economic and educational system. People resort to such things, I guess, mainly due to a sense of insecurity aided by ignorance. Can we hope that this episode will bring some relief from such exploitation? I wonder.

Incidentally, Sanal is the son of Joseph Edamaruku, who was a leading rationalist in Kerala. Joseph, I think, was the person behind the Rationalist Association and the magazine Yuktivadi.