Faith

 
"God is omnipresent", please don't be alarmed I have not embarked on the path of renunciation as yet! This is my usual reaction when I observe people of all faiths devoutly paying obeisance to the deities even when they are not in the premises per se, but just happen to go on the road, which happens to house the temple or a mausoleum or church or any place of worship. We Indians are people of immense faith and would not like to invite the wrath of the Almighty by crossing their paths without as much as a glance and a nod with hands on the heart, the usual way of conveying our salutations. After all most of the people have understood just that  from their interpretations of scriptures that the Almighty if not pleased will result in misery being heaped on them and their families. God on his part must be quite amused at this display of devotion by this gesture which is best described in a Mehdi Hasan gazal, "Dekhna unka kanakhiyon se..."( her look through the corner of her eyes). This fleeting devotion or spirituality is almost akin to the "Momentary lapse of Reason" with due apologies to Pink Floyd fans. Reason and logic are given a go by and faith reigns supreme. Some may term this as superstition, some others may scoff at it in their private moments but nobody dare challenge the beliefs of the devout. Just let them be, to each one his own!

There are many such acts of commission, such as throwing of coins in rivers and water bodies when crossing them or going under the Tajiya, observing a no non-veg dry  days on Tuesdays and Thursdays as these days are Hanuman ji and Pir Baba days respectively. A soldier in the field needs some pillars of support, his family provides that from back home, his unit camaraderie and espirit-de-corps is the heady potion which keeps him highly motivated and inspired to give his best to the extent of laying down his very life. The deities could be humans too who have already met their mentor, such as OP Baba in the icy desert of Sia-Chen or Baba Harbhajan Singh of Nathu La. Soldiers have revered them over all these years and they in turn have provided an inner strength to their devotees to withstand the rigours of such a precarious life. Folklore has it that each of these Pir Baba mausoleums, Churches, temples were targeted by the adversaries in the border areas in the wars they imposed on us, but miraculously none of them were damaged. Even the fury of nature spares our temples as was evidenced in the Kedarnath temple a few years ago with a huge rock sliding down the mountain side as part of the deluge but stopped just short of the temple premises and channelised the Mandakini in its fury to bypass the temple totally, even when nothing else survived in the town.

I often wonder when the Almighty can perform such miracles how come He let the invaders defile and destroy our temples over all these years in the past. Was it by design that He wanted us to suffer, as was the case in the Biblical period of subjugation till Moses came and delivered them? He is omnipotent, omnipresent, all the religions are unanimous in this aspect, although their interpretations may differ and He is also supposed to be merciful and forgiving then how is it that sometimes He goes against His basic nature. May be what Nietzsche said is true,  "God is dead!" or is it our Karma? Perhaps that is what we need to fathom and that is the key to Moksha, Niravana, Salvation or may be just plain and simple " unwavering faith" is adequate. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Mathew7:7)