Oh My God! Episode 13

Dear Kamla,

Thanks a lot for that liberal compliment which I am sure will fill me with inspiration to pull on this series for ever and ever.

You are right. When it comes to matters with God we are quick to judge and slow to love. That's our whole problem. In worldly matters we normally do not question the wisdom of those who are above us in terms of age or expertise or position. It's ridiculous then to judge God who is infinitely better than us, in terms of all the above factors. This sobering thought alone is enough to keep us sane so long as we live. It was Fr.Anthony De Mello who pulled out this fable from the ancient mystic literature.

I have been thinking of this story every now and then. I am yet to find a better stress buster.

And thanks for the kind words you have about the epilogues too. Hopefully there would be one in the next episode too.
thanks once again for the great fb which was nothing short of an inspiration to me.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Pooja,
Yes, you are right. We have frequent powercuts in our place. When power goes almost instinctively we look at our neighbours house. We heave a sigh of relief only when he also has no power. But if he has power and we don't have we tend to blame the Electricity Department more.
And we would be more peaceful when the Department Staff tells us that almost the whole city is without power. If he says that the problem is just confined to our street we wont be that peaceful. You see IDMM is simply hardwired into our system. Stories like these would short circuit that thinking process and put us on the right track.

IDMM multiplies our sorrows and divides our joys. As far as examples are concerned I am convinced that there is no valid concept without a solid example. To tell something abstractly is of no use. Though the idea for the epilogue appeared only a few days before and though I coined the term only after I got the idea, the original concept has been reinforced in my mind by several examples which I have been seeing all my life.

Thanks for the nice fb, Pooja. See you tomorrow in OMG 14.
love,
vara

 

We think of God's love as chocolates being distributed by a mother to her children. Psychologically we are still children in this regard and do not hesitate to crib to our Mother "why he has got two while I have only one?" When there is so much difference between the wisdom of a mother and that of a three year old, how much difference will it be there between us and God?
I am happy you got the answer for the question which has been in your mind.
Thanks for the nice words about the epilogue. Yes, so long as He gives, who am I to stop them from coming?
thanks once again for the fb.
rgds
sridhar

 

Dear Indhu,
thanks for stepping in amidst your busy engagements, and amidst irritating demands on your time by your bothersome husband.
The two brother's story has been in my mind ever since 1991 when I read it for the first time.
Once we know that we are not entitled to anything as a matter of right we will be happy with whatever we get.
Will you have the time to visit again? I wont mind if you dont find the time for that.
love,
sridhar

 

Aruna,
thanks for the nice words. You are right. It's easier said than done. Now I will go one step further and tell you where the problem lies.

Most of our activities do not give us inherent pleasure. In many instances we nevertheless do them because we expect something else to happen. For example why do we (I am talking of a majority of people generally) go to the temple? Because we think going to the temple is a good deed and it will lead to our account being credited with some specific units of punyam. Our ego mentally calculates all these punyam units as if it were the frequent traveller points or the credit card usage bonus points.
Then we become proud that we have so many thousands of points to our account. And we also pity our next door neighbour who does not have any punyam in her account (to our knowledge).
We are quite smug in our knowledge. Then it happens. While we have some mishap the neighbour wins a million Rupees in the lottery.
Now like a typical outraged customer of a credit card company we run to God to question his wisdom.
Let's stop here for a while. If only we had been to the temple in the first place to enjoy the beauty, the experience the calmness and to see some form of the Divine love beautifully standing there... well then we would have cared a damn for our punyam and merit accounts. We would not have bothered about the frequent traveller bonus miles. And we would not have blamed God.
The simplest and the surest way out (again as you said easier said than done) is to question ourselves before every activity - whether we do it for some ulterior motive. If so just drop that activity. IDMM will never come a mile near us.
Sorry for the outburst, Aruna.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear bas,

My kind regards to Mr.Shivaguru for his kind words. It is really kind of him to have spent some time reading the story and to top it all give those beautiful compliments to me, which made my day, (and will make my day for many days to come.

You are right. The words I put on the Government official's mouth are the words of most good people. Most believers. People who go to temple regularly.

All your doubts are valid. First I would like you to read the outburst I had while replying to Aruna. (the preceding post). We have become a reward-seeking species. When we worship God we want a kind of insurance against all worries and tragedies in life. Well, God is not interested in giving that blanket insurance - for our own benefit. But for our tragedies and miseries and pains we would not have spiritually grown at all.

The questions you have raised about your sil is quite powerful and poignant. And that too after having seen her in person I can understand what she has gone through in life.

There was a similar outpouring by one of the ILites in a pm addressed to me.
Now I will paraphrase the reply I gave her.
I know Mr.Shivaguru personally. He is an intelligent and a responsible bank officer. Having been in this field for donkey's years I know how difficult it is to be a Manager in a public sector bank.
Shivaguru takes decision on a number of loan applications that are preferred to his bank. In some cases he sanctions the loan. In others he rejects it. Believe me Lalitha, it is not just a mechanical decision. Then they would not have appointed somebody of Mr.Shivaguru's stature to the post. They would have got some computer program instead.
A clerk or a substaff working for Shivaguru might be wondering.. why my boss has rejected the loan application of A Industries, a hundred-crore concern while he has sanctioned loan to a petty shop owner.
He can never understand what kind of judgmental process that went through Shivaguru's mind. So if he says Shivaguru is not fair, then it would be ridiculous.
On the other hand if Shivaguru's boss the GM asks him to explain the decision, he would do it with aplomb.
The problem then bas is the difference in the levels of intelligence and understanding.
The difference in the intelligence levels between us and God is a billion times (infinite times) more than those of Shivaguru's clerk and him. I am not saying we should not judge God; we can't judge him. Period.
Like your sil there are a trillion questions. As we grow into higher and higher levels we might understand Gods reasoning.
Lets forget judging and just love God.

You would have read the story in Ethanai kodi inbam vaithai. I elongated and added dialogues to suit the OMG format.

thanks for the fb. Please bear with me for the long reply.
love,
boost

 

Re: Oh My God! Episode 14

Most Gracious ILites,

The time is evening. Half past five. The usual time for me to post the announcement for the next episode. Followed by the posting of the episode. OMG 14 ought to have been posted by now.

But I could not do that this time. Travel, office work, some writing commitment and of course some pleasant news... all these held me back this week. Of course if you had seen my log you would have exclaimed, "sridhar, I can see time-gaps here and there. And you could have used it to write the episode and post it on time."

But honestly ladies I can never bring myself to write OMG under pressure. And writing OMG is not a chore for me to be finished by Friday evening come hell or high water. It's an expression of love. And it's a labour of love.

And to do that one needs to be free in all the senses of the term. Which I am not, honestly.

God willing, I will post the episode by tomorrow. I also hope to finish responding to your queries by that time.

I posted the last episode a day earlier. Perhaps God sort of compensated that by making me post this episode a day later. (You see accountants are always accountants, come what may)

Whatever it is I owe you an apology which I now offer unconditionally.

Take care and God bless.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Sudha,

Thanks for the great words. You were not alone in your asking God about good people suffering and bad people enjoying. In fact that is the first step in spiritual growth. But soon we have to leave that first step and climb higher to experience His pure love for all of us.

God is fair, but in the highest sense of the term. It is nearly impossible for us to understand His concept of fairness and equity.

"Even if I had known beforehand that I was going to suffer in an alien country and my brother was going to lead a happy life, even if I had known earlier that God would give the same reward to both of us, even then I would have opted to carry out God’s command and suffer for him."

I appreciation your selection of the above passage from the episode. These lines are the very crux of the post. And I polished these lines several times over to bring out the intended effect.

Happier still to know that you love the epilogues too.

I could not post OMG 14 on time. I am sorry. Will hopefully post it before tomorrow night.

And there will be an epilogue too.

Thank God and God bless.
love,
sridhar

 

Dear Sowmya,
thanks a ton for those nice bow-down smilies. Actually Sowmya, God's love is the real eye-opener. Let's chant the mantra that we don't deserve anything from God. Not even the air we breathe or the water we drink, we can claim as a matter of right. In fact as a race we have polluted the air and water so much that even if God shuts down all air and water, we would richly deserve that punishment.
But as you said we are all human beings who are slaves to our ego. My mission here is to atleast loosen the bonds of slavery that binds us to our inflated egos.
thanks for the nice fb, Sowmya.
love,
sridhar

 

Andal,

You have brilliantly captured the essence of the leader post. The trouble with the honest person in my story is that he just takes his honesty as a quality and expects God to bless him with wealth, health, intelligent children all because of the honesty he practices between 10 am and 5 pm in some damned Government office.

God takes into account the whole life, the whole heart and gives or takes accordingly. Whatever may be God's methods we are not equipped with enough intelligence to question it.

In the two brothers story though the elder one had suffered much he was given the same reward as the younger brother. Does that mean God is unfair? Not at all. He weighs our actions by a different scale which we cannot even begin to understand. There is no need to understand God's actions before we love him.

We love our spouses, our children simply because of the relationship we have with them. We love our children even if they insult us, they hurt us and shout at us. If we are capable of such love just imagine how much love He should be capable of.

Thanks for the nice fb, Andal.
love,
sridhar