A Date with God

It’s almost 7pm.  I will have to rush to meet God, I think, accelerating my Scooty to reach the temple.  He will give us ‘darshan’ at 7pm,  sing some hymns and will then be generally available for the public for the rest of the evening.  But it is very important to catch the first glimpse of God when the door of the temple opens.  In south Indian temples,  there is a conch shell blowing,  loud drumbeats,  trumpets accompanying the opening of the temple door for ‘Sandhya Deepam’ or evening prayers .  There is also lot of singing.   I love this ambience.

But somehow, then the temple door opens, there is a lot of jostling and pushing trying to get a glimpse of God.  I don’t like this.  This makes me stand a bit away to let the pushing and jostling subside.  Post the initial frenzy,  there is enough time to meet God and to communicate with him.

Seeing me stand apart,  I realize someone standing beside me has turned to talk to me.  I look up to see a sweet-faced man with a gentle smile.  He asks me, ‘Why are you standing apart?  You are losing the most important part of the puja by not getting the first glimpse of God’.

I am irritated by this question from a stranger.  My first thought is to retort that it is none of his goddamn business.  But realising that I am in a temple,  and the man seemed to be genuinely interested in knowing the answer,  I decide to indulge him.  I tell him, ‘What is the point of the jostling and pushing to get a glimpse of God? To meet God,  we are behaving inhumanly.  I see no logic as to what will be the difference between seeing Him first, and seeing Him a little later’.

To this he replies, ‘You are correct actually.  I don’t like it either the way these people are pushing’.  Feeling on familiar ground,  I tell him ‘What about the saying that ‘God is everywhere’, eh?’  To this,  he smiles, and replies, ‘Yes, God is everywhere,  yet he is nowhere to be seen.  One can only feel God.  He is there in each particle of the universe.  How do you think that the Universe works so synchronously?  What if there was no Sun or no life on earth?  How did life begin in the first place?  How did we evolve into highly intelligent human beings and have covered all of the earth?  And now humans are trying to find more such earths.  How do you think we are able to get all resources necessary to live in earth itself?  Because,  every particle is created by God and is governed by God.  You are correct again.  God is everywhere,  just wish everyone realises this’.

‘Phew! that was heavy stuff’.  I turn to pray to the God in the temple now that the rush has receded.   I then turn to bid farewell to the man who was speaking with me who has conveniently disappeared, never to be seen again,  changing my perspective in understanding God.

 

 

You realize you’re on a date with God, which both good and bad. What happens? Write.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

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