Faith of Farce?

In the month of October, during the nine days of Navratri, Chandi Homam is carried out at all parts of India. As a part of sacrifice, innumerable jewels, saris and immeasurable quantities of food grains are offered into the sacrificial fire. Though this is all done in good faith, I fail to believe that anybody would reap the benefits of such a sacrifice. In today’s world, when people don’t have clothes to wear or food to eat, children roam around the streets for want of a few morsels to fill their starving stomach, how would such a waste of resources be justifiable? Besides, there is no account of the pollution this yagnya causes. Instead, if all these were distributed among the poor or children were fed the same grains, we would definitely make this world a beter place to live in.

I too have faith in God but I firmly believe that service to community is the best method of saluting the Lord. After all, who gave us these grains, the cotton to spin yarn or milk to prepare ghee? Isn’t God the creator of all these? Why then do we have to offer his own things back to him? Who gave us the right to burn his own creation on the pretext of worshipping him? If we are true bhaktas, we must respect all that He has given us and help in preserving the nature.

In the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krsna says “Those who follow ritual religion and perform action with some interested motive as laid down by the Vedas, do seek access to heaven. However, when the stock of their merits is exhausted, they fall back into the cycle of birth and death.” If we want to rise above rebirth, then we must indulge in selfless service in the name of the Lord. We can do whatever little is possible for us by educating the poor children, giving food at the orphanages, distributing clothes among the lesser privileged, or simply spreading joy by spending some time talking to the aged in the old-age homes. We must always keep in mind that we are all messengers of God and our prime duty is to pass the message of love. We must feel obliged to do good to others without expecting anything in return. This is the only way we can show our gratitude to the Lord.

If we dedicate our services to the needy always chanting the Lord’s name, we need no yagnya to please Him. A person who is focused on Krsna alone is the one who attains Nirvana. He who carries out his duties keeping the supreme Lord in mind, thinks of himself as an object in the hands of the Lord, remembers always that he is a medium to spreads goodness and joy to the world; he alone is a true devotee of the Lord.

I wish the learned and the educated understand that service to man is worship to God.

Does Krsna Exist?

Can you love someone who you haven’t even seen? Yeah!! You speak to him a couple of times, write perhaps, enquire about him and you fall in love with his thoughts, feelings, voice, and chuckles. You probably get your hands on a couple of his pictures. Oh man!! This is possible. But, what about someone who no one has a fair idea about? No one has seen, heard or met him. Books talk about him in abundance but there is no proof whatsoever of his existence. His life is described to almost all children of India but it is never sure if the narration is a story of a biography. I fell in love with this man.

Krsna, with his blue body (as depicted in most books), his beautiful and playful eyes, curly black hair, the flute in his hand and the cows by his side; memories of my earliest childhood talk about my marrying him. No pomp, no show, just him and me and a mala made of simple beads. I would cautiously look around to check if amma is watching, then quickly put the mala around his neck and almost immediately take it out and string it around mine. Dreams of him coming down to earth and picking me in his arms and walking away while my parents watched in awe were almost an everyday affair. As I grew, my imagination only went further on. I would go to pluck flowers for my grandfather’s Siva Puja, I would touch the trunk of the tree with the hope that it would go up in smoke and my lord would emerge, and take me to heaven.

If you thought these were just childish games, maybe you are right. As I grew, and got busy with school, studies, tuitions, etc. these thoughts started thinning. However, they never went away. They probably just took a back seat for a short period. I would think of him occasionally, take his name a couple of times during the day (more often when I needed help). As I reached high school I developed a keen interest in the Bhagavad gita only because it had to do with Krsna. I read and re-read the verses understanding nothing (I don’t know Sanskrit). I would blame him for all my failures and started complaining that he didn’t help even though I prayed to him all the time. I would talk deals like ‘you do this for me and I’ll visit your temple once a week’ (As if I was doing a favour on him!!) There even reached a point of time when I started challenging his existence. I would angrily say,”If you exist, I will be successful in this”. I am not sure if I ever got proof that he was not just imaginary.

By the time I joined engineering college I had fought with him and hence didn’t regard him anymore. I was convinced that the entity called God was not an entity at all. I thought it was farcical and just some tale spun by old hags to keep themselves and children occupied.

Sometime during my second year college, I heard about a discourse to be held at a hall near my home. The speaker, Shri. Sunil Ramamurthy was going to explain the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. I attended the seminar because the thought of understanding the Gita intrigued me. The speaker did an excellent job of giving real life examples which I could relate to without much effort. By the end of the 2-day discourse, I was keen on understanding the meaning of the whole text. On enquiry I came to know that Sunilji was conducting classes on every Sunday morning. Though attending these classes meant getting up early even on Sundays, I decided to go for it. As time went by, I started taking more interest on the subject and my buried love for Krsna was rekindled. I stopped expecting from him and started realizing that there was always an ulterior motive behind all the setbacks I faced in life. I gave my whole self to him. My mind was set that Krsna would only give me what I deserved and what was good for me. If there was something I yearned for but did not get it, I was convinced I was asking for the wrong thing. I started taking life more lightly. I never got too worked up about anything, neither victory nor failure. Before any test I would tell Krsna, “You do the talking, I will lip sync”, or, “You write and I will move my hand”. I started liking everything I got from life.

As time went by my love for Krsna kept growing. I strived hard to unleash the true knowledge embodied in the Gita. This is sufficient for a headstart. In my following posts, I would probably talk about verses in the Gita that caught my eye, I would also like to address a few rituals carried out in most Hindu families and try to uncover the reason of their existence even after so many decades. I do not say these would be the truth as they are going to be nothing more that my speculation.

I would love to hear your feedback. Do feel free to let me know of your thoughts after reading my posts.