Will You Have One More Date With The Satan? Just One More?

Will You Have One More Date With The Satan? Just One More?

I am moved by your kind gesture of actively listening, even if it was just the usual Satan quoting the ancient Vedas.


Encouraged by your response, by your support, and by the genuine affection shown by you, (A few raised doubts about Satan’s identity. And of course a few had absolutely no doubts about it. For me both are signs of love and affection, qualities ILites possess in abundance) I have decided to come out again with some spiritual meanderings.

I have said often in this forum that sitting tight and focussing the thoughts on a burning candle or a rose flower, has never been my brand of meditation. Many times it was not I who meditated, but meditation happened.


For me meditation happens at times, for example, when I go out on long solitary bike rides with no purpose, with no agenda, hidden or open and with no worries or concerns in my mind.

The other day on a humid evening when I was cruising on my powerful machine in a crowded street meditation started to happen. But there was an interruption this time.


The vehicle that went before me had this inscription written in golden letters: “God is coming. Are you prepared?” It appeared as if the letters were written exclusively for my attention. The bold, 30 inch-size font used for that strange message hit me on my head and then started working on my nerves.

Probably the car belonged to an evangelist and he had chosen the statement from out of a million others he uses in his fiery speeches.

Too stunned to react to this totally unexpected statement I shifted the gears and slowed down the motorcycle. As I was following the evangelist's car my mind lost its meditative state and started thinking on the statement.

Am I prepared for God’s coming? A man of many sins, past, present and future how can I ever hope to prepare myself for Her arrival? When She comes may be I can show Her an impressive score card. But did I play the game of life strictly by the rules? If God out of Her infinite love and compassion uses the “B&L Rule” then I stand a good chance.

What’s the “B&L Rule?” B&L Rule is what we accountants use many times to defend our clients from the clutches of rigorous tax laws.


Our tax laws have innumerable provisions, humongous procedural regulations that only a very few can boast of perfect compliance. So for those who are caught violating a small provision, we tell the Assessing Officer, “You see, Sir, my client has, “By and Large” complied with the applicable provisions. Please be kind enough to condone minor violations.”

May be with God I thought I can use the same defence. But I was not very sure. Not that God would not condone minor infringements; but I am not sure whether my infringements can be classified as “minor” and my compliance termed as “by and large.”

I was ashamed of myself. When the Great God Herself was coming to see me, even on that momentous occasion, I was thinking like a mofussil accountant, thinking of God’s Law as Income Tax Act and trying to defend myself. Shame on you, Sridhar, my conscience hollered!

 

If God Herself is coming, why should I be prepared? Do you need any preparation at all to receive God? And how the hell can you prepare yourself for God’s arrival?

This is a very profound moment to pause. Suppose my lover is coming to see me in my bachelor’s digs, then I should definitely prepare myself. I should wear the best dress I have.


Should tidy the room and arrange things. May be a close shave and a dash of mild perfume would help. Oh, I forgot, should hide all the “indecent exposures” hanging on the walls. And may be hang a few neat pictures to impress her. And may be I would get that Music CD as a gift for her.

Suppose my boss were to come home to see me, yes, I should be prepared. I should ask my wife to prepare some delicacies. Clean the drawing room and decorate it. Dress up every one in the family. May be even rehearse the introductions. Hide all the junk in the attic till he leaves.

So what is preparation? To hide whatever is unpleasant and to show in better light, whatever brings happiness to the visitor.

But when God Herself is the visitor? Can I hide anything from Her in such a way that She cannot see them? Can I show anything - anything for that matter- better than what it actually is? She knows everything about me. There is nothing to hide and nothing to show. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be ashamed of and of course nothing to be proud of, in Her glorious presence.

To the Loving Being who knows me in my absolute nakedness, in body, mind and soul, how can I show myself in a better light? To the omniscient God, who knows my conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious minds, inside out, and who knows about my thoughts even before they arise in my mind, I have nothing to show and nothing to hide.

Some one visits you to know you better and to love you more. A lover comes to your place to know about how you live and to love you more for that. A mother visits her married daughter in another country to know about her life there and to love her even more. How can we hold these statements to God, who already knows us better than we ourselves do and who loves us with all His heart in spite of that knowledge?

Then it dawned on me that God is the only person for whose visit there is no preparation and there cannot be any. You are ready to receive him any time, any place. At <st1:time minute="0" hour="0">midnight</st1:time> when you are half asleep, or in your office when you are extremely busy, or in the middle of a nasty fight with your mother-in-law, you are prepared to receive the Great Visitor.

Wait, wait, wait. Like a typical accountant I have missed the woods for the trees. I was so enamoured by the second statement, “Are you prepared?” that I completely overlooked the first, “God is coming.” Yes, that is a blatant falsehood. How can God come? It is not possible. The emphasis is on the word “come.”

Now tell me ladies, what can “come” here? Only that which is not here till now and is there somewhere can come here. But She, I mean God, is present here, there and all the places in between. She was, is and will be thus present in all the times. So will it not be absurd to say that God is coming?


Did not our seer tell us that She is perfect bliss who fills up all the places that we can see?

பார்க்கும் இடம் எங்கும் ஒரு நீக்கமற நிறைந்திருக்கும் பரிபூரணானந்தமே

 

For a change, Manjureddy, I have got Thats right Varalotti ! from you.
I think I am more able in instigating you to write finest posts than writing one myself.
That was a really good one.
regards,

 

dear sundari,
I know She is omnipotent and omnipresent only at the level of information. At that level everything is insipid.
Let me attempt a metaphor here. Someone tells me that there is a very beautiful girl some where up north. For me that's as bland as saying 'Consumer price index for July is 631 points.'
But when I see a beautiful girl right across the road, I stand on my tracks. When I see her, when I sense the beauty of her eyes, her face and all, something is happening inside me.
In the first case I just "knew" about beauty. In the second I experienced it. Even my experience was only partial.
The same is with statements like God is Omnipotent. God is Love. First these assertions are heard as if they were the NIFTY indices. But as the statements slowly soak in, experiences start to happen. I would say that the incident I described just gave me a trillionth of the real experience of the statement that God is Omnipresent.

Love,