In pursuit of a treasure trove

Saints and holy men are known for miracle dreams. There are others who try to present themselves as wielders of great spiritual or miraculous power. It is indeed difficult to differentiate the genuine holy men from the pretenders. When men commanding spiritual power are supposed to have risen above mundane considerations, they sometimes baffle the ordinary mortals by succumbing to the lure of lucre. Some makes a choice for the easy way out to accumulate wealth by appealing to the susceptibility of common people. Then there are a few who do not quite give in to the temptation of money but cannot resist the intoxication of getting famous overnight. Or, are they fool enough to live in a world of delusion where they cannot separate the real world from the practical?
Whatever may be the case, a swami or a Hindu holy man named Sobhan Sarker based in Uttar Pradesh, India has not only embarrassed himself but also the archaeological department of India. He somehow made it known to the public that the spirit of King Rao Ram Baksh Sing, a patriotic king hanged in the 19th century for rising up against the British colonial rule, appeared in his dream to tell that 1,000 ton treasure was hidden under the late king's fort at Unnao. No sooner had the words spread than people from all around started to gather at the site of the treasure trove. The archaeological department was also convinced that there were gold underneath.
It was a gold rush that began with a bang and ended in a whimper. After painstaking digging as deep as 16 feet below the surface, not an ounce of gold was found. But the cordoning of the area and posting of security to repulse people's rush has left a lesson. The lesson is that one man's dream treasure has become a focal point of millions or perhaps billions. Swami Sobhan Sarker's dream represents the unexpressed ethos of uncountable number of people the world over. They want to strike such treasure finds any time and every time. The only problem is that it does not translate into reality. Only rarely do people prove lucky in striking a hidden jar or iron safe containing riches.
People everywhere are more or less gullible when it comes to hidden treasures. The gold rush of the Wild West surely does not dismiss the notion that people there are no less preoccupied with the idea of finding gold, diamond or any other gem. People bear a kind of undiminished hope in their bosoms for a miraculous or supernatural gift that will make them rich overnight. A dream drives them towards the impossible, only more so at a time when materialistic consideration gets the better of prudence and rationality.
The holy man from Uttar Pradesh has only given expression to the inner urge of the multitudes. It has, on the one hand, exposed the irresistible charms of so called pious people's message, no matter if it has no rational basis whatsoever; on the other, it has highlighted to what extent science and logic can be derailed on the pretext of superstitious beliefs. Science is marching unstoppably forward now but then there are small chinks through which the supernatural and the make-believe enter and take the stage by storm, at least for a while.