I completed my MBBS in 1970. Until 1982, I ran two clinics and also managed a hospital. In 1982, I shut down both my clinics and closed the hospital as well. Since then, I have been a full-time worker of the Anti-Superstition Movement.
When I shut down my full-time, well-running medical practice and became a full-time activist, there was one question people asked me then—and still ask me even today: “Doctor, is it really necessary to shut down a successful business in order to work against superstition?” My answer is: yes, it is necessary.
Why is it necessary? Understand this: if you light a candle in a dark hall, there is some light. If instead of a candle you light a petromax, there is more light. If instead of a petromax you light a tube-light, there is even more light. And if day breaks, the sun rises overhead, and sunlight enters from all directions, then darkness disappears completely. As light increases, darkness recedes.
Similarly, in human life, as the light of education and science spreads, ignorance and superstition should disappear. According to this way of thinking, nothing extra needs to be done. If this were truly the case, I would have been the happiest person. But what is the reality? I will give you just two examples so that the reality becomes clear.
The train, the lemons and the chillies
In 1853, India’s first railway train ran from Mumbai to Thane. Until then, people in this country had never imagined that a vehicle could carry hundreds of people from one place to another without animals like horses, elephants, or oxen. At that time, schoolchildren recited poems like:
The sahib’s child is extremely clever,
How did he drive a cart without oxen?
In those days, travelling from Thane to Mumbai by bullock cart took a full 24 hours. Compared to this, the railway was an extremely important and useful facility. At that time, there were no tickets for the train. In fact, to persuade people to board it, the British officers used to pay people one rupee to sit inside.
Why? Because people were not ready to get into the train. They believed the train was some kind of witchcraft. Fatwas were issued saying:
To encourage travel, one rupee was given to passengers—an amount that was significant at that time. Gradually, it was reduced to eight annas, then four annas. Later travel was made free, and eventually tickets were introduced.
But because the train was seen as something magical, whenever it departed—from Mumbai to Thane or from Thane to Mumbai—married women would come, perform rituals, apply turmeric and vermilion to the engine, and tie lemons, chillies, and inverted black dolls to it.
Whenever I narrate this, I see smiles on many faces in the audience. But honestly tell me—when a two-wheeler or a four-wheeler enters your home or your neighbour’s home today, don’t we do exactly the same thing?
We accepted the products of science, but not the scientific mindset. We adopted scientific tools, but not scientific thinking.
We once conducted a survey of twenty thousand auto-rickshaws in Pune. On every new moon day, eighteen thousand rickshaws had lemons, chillies, and black charms tied to them. Now, lemons contain vitamin C, which is extremely useful for nutrition—everyone knows this. This country has serious nutritional problems. Yet, every month, in Pune alone, we waste the vitamin C of eighteen thousand lemons.
Have we ever thought about this? We don’t wear clothes from 150 years ago. We don’t eat food from 150 years ago. We don’t follow education from 150 years ago. We don’t use vehicles from 150 years ago. Then why do we preserve lemons, chillies, and black dolls from 150 years ago?
Because we learned how to use science—but we never learned the scientific temper. But this issue is even more serious than it appears.
Ash for us, gold for the Chief Minister
Let me give you an example from the movement. Recently, Sathya Sai Baba passed away. Sathya Sai Baba used to say, “My miracle is my visiting card.” He claimed that the supreme controller of the universe had given him the power to perform miracles, so that people would believe that he was the great saviour performing miracles for their salvation.
If you visited Sathya Sai Baba, he would wave his hand in the air and place sacred ash in your palm; wave his hand and place gold or silver rings; wave his hand and give gold lockets or gem-studded necklaces—many such stories exist. But notice this carefully:
- If an ordinary person like you or me visited, he would give ash.
- If an MLA or MP visited, he would give a gold or silver ring.
- If the President, Prime Minister, or a big industrialist visited, he would give a gold chain—to them or their daughters.
Even Baba, it seems, gave according to the devotee’s status. Our status entitled us only to ash. Ash is just ash—but because it came from Baba’s “holy hands,” it was called vibhuti.
Now, Sathya Sai Baba was scheduled to visit Chakur in Latur district, where a massive temple was under construction during his lifetime. At that time, we were running an anti-superstition campaign in Latur district. I was speaking openly about these matters in public meetings and colleges.
The day Sathya Sai Baba arrived in Chakur happened to be the first day of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly session. The Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, was expected to attend the assembly—but instead, he came to Chakur for Baba’s darshan. There was an enormous crowd. Since we were planning protests, the police arrested all our activists from Latur, Beed, and Nanded districts 48 hours in advance.
The program began. Sathya Sai Baba started speaking. Five minutes later, he suddenly stopped. He waved his left hand in the air, produced a gold chain, and gave it to the Chief Minister’s younger brother, Diliprao Deshmukh (he still wears it today). He resumed speaking. After twenty minutes, he again stopped, waved his right hand, produced another gold chain, and gave it to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh himself (he too still wears it). At the end, he waved his hand again, produced ash, and distributed it among the gathered men and women.
Exactly what we had been saying—people saw it with their own eyes. I have written this incident in my book Struggles Against Superstition.
The award I refused
But the real irony comes later. One day, I received a letter from the Maharashtra government’s cultural department secretary, Patel. It said:
My reply to the Chief Minister is published in my book Aise Kaise Zale Bhondu. Among other things, I wrote one particularly serious line:
I do not wish to accept an award from a Chief Minister who behaves in a manner inconsistent with the Indian Constitution.
I am not an arrogant activist who rejects appreciation casually. Then why did I write this?
Because on 26 January 1950, when the Constitution came into force, it granted citizens rights—freedom of movement, freedom of expression, right to property. But just as parents later tell grown children that rights come with responsibilities, in 1976 the Constitution was amended to include Fundamental Duties. One of those duties is:
It is the duty of every Indian citizen to promote scientific temper.
It does not ask whether you want to do this or not. It declares it your duty. Later, in 1987, the new education policy included “development of scientific temper” as a core element. In Maharashtra, value education explicitly mentions nurturing scientific outlook.
Scientific temper, in one word
We live in the age of science. From morning till night, we cannot perform a single activity without science. A hundred years ago, Maharashtra had no toothbrush, toothpaste, or washbasin. People cleaned teeth with twigs and fetched water from wells.
Many of you are science graduates. After explaining all this in colleges, I ask one simple question: what is scientific temper, in one word? Ninety-nine percent of the time, the answer does not come—or comes wrong.
Scientific temper, in one word, means causality—examining cause and effect.
Every event has a cause. That cause can be understood by human intelligence. Even if all causes aren’t known yet, they will be known through causality. This is the most reliable path to true knowledge.
Before understanding causality, humans were helpless creatures. Everything was attributed to fate, destiny, karma, divine will. Once humans understood cause and effect, they became free. This is one of the most thrilling moments in human history.
Humans were the weakest creatures on Earth—unable to fly, swim endlessly, run fast, fight with claws or fangs. Yet they became rulers of the planet. Why? Not because of prayer—but because they made tools, worked on nature, developed language, and expanded their brains. The human being is not just a thinking animal. Man is a tool-making animal. Brains grew through labour and interaction with nature—not through worship.
So when you fall prey to superstition, you are not harming Dabholkar or the movement. You are surrendering the inheritance of 50,000 generations—the evolved human brain. To forget scientific temper is to give up the title of “wise human.” And that is why the fight against superstition is not optional—it is essential.
Galileo before the Church
But remember, the full scientific name of the human being is Homo sapiens sapiens. That means not just “wise,” but a being that is becoming more and more wise. Then the question arises: when did this scientific temper—this quality that made humans wise—arrive in our country in the modern sense? When did it arrive in the world?
In reality, even in our own tradition—from the times of Charvaka and Buddha—a basic understanding of causality existed. But if we talk about the modern era and the modern meaning of scientific temper, it emerged roughly 400 to 500 years ago in Europe. This is what is known as the Copernican Revolution.
Copernicus, using mathematics, demonstrated for the first time that although it appears as if the sun revolves around the Earth, in reality it is the Earth that revolves around the sun. Aryabhata had stated this in India a thousand years before Copernicus, but we failed to preserve it, failed to advance it, failed to honour Aryabhata.
Nearly a thousand years after Aryabhata, Copernicus made the same claim. Initially, Europe paid no attention. But then Galileo emerged. In 1609, Galileo invented the telescope—a revolutionary invention for that time. Ships far out at sea appeared as if they were close. Ambassadors across nations informed their kings that this man had invented something extraordinary—enemy ships could be seen even from a distance.
Galileo was praised—but then he committed what proved to be a fatal “mistake.” He turned the telescope toward the sky. He began telling people, “People, come and see—”
- The moon is not like a beautiful woman’s face; it has valleys and craters.
- The sun is not spotless; it has black spots.
- Venus has phases, just like the moon.
- And just as the moon is Earth’s satellite, Jupiter has three satellites of its own.
I am certain that among those listening to me today, perhaps one—or very few—have actually seen Jupiter’s moons, the phases of Venus, the sunspots, or the craters on the moon. Galileo said all this 400 years ago. But Galileo was not praised for this.
The supreme authority of the Christian Church—the Pope—summoned Galileo before the Church tribunal. The Pope’s name was Urban VIII. He was Galileo’s friend. He was himself a scholar. When the order reached Galileo, he was ill. Galileo requested time, saying he would come once he recovered. But the Pope ordered that if Galileo could not walk, he should be chained and brought on horseback, because his crime was extremely serious.
Galileo was brought to the Vatican. A Church council was convened. Bishops and cardinals were seated. The Pope presided. Galileo was made to stand before them. Two charges were brought against him:
- “You are a liar.” Why a liar? Because “we see every day that the sun moves around the Earth, and you claim the Earth moves around the sun.”
- “You are a heretic.” The second, and more serious, charge. A heretic—one who rejects true religious belief. And true belief was defined by what was written in the Bible. The Bible stated that the benevolent Father in heaven hung two lamps in the sky—one sun for daylight, one moon for night.
Until the early 17th century, this was taught in Europe. Even though science had spread to some extent, Aristotle’s words were considered absolute authority. It was said: Aristotle was the master of all who know. Aristotle proposed two kinds of causes:
- One was efficient cause—the search for cause and effect.
- The other was final cause—the will of the heavenly father.
Galileo was told, “You are speaking against the Bible. You must apologise.”
After narrating this incident, I often ask audiences, “What do you think—did Galileo apologise or not?” Most people optimistically answer, “No, Galileo did not apologise.” But history tells us the truth. Galileo knelt down. He apologised unconditionally. He struck his own mouth and said:
I was wrong. I will never again speak such foolish things. What you say is correct. The sun revolves around the Earth.
Today, we teach first-grade students that although it appears the sun revolves around the Earth, in reality the Earth revolves around the sun. Then why did the man who proved this apologise?
Because 25 years earlier, a scientist named Giordano Bruno had been tied to a stake and burned alive for saying the same thing—and refusing to retract it. Galileo did not have that courage. Because he apologised, Galileo escaped execution but was sentenced to life imprisonment. During the final seven years of his life, he was blind and kept in solitary confinement.