THE TRUTH ABOUT HIM ( OR HER OR IT)

 “ To truly try means to accept God's love, his healing, to accept the world can be ugly, but your heart doesn't have to be...”

Jenny B. Jones, There You'll Find Me

You are always where you want to be, for you carry your world within you. If your world has faith in it, it is reflected in every action you do. Once we realize this the yearning to “seek” God in the multitudes of systemic institutions that are designed for this very purpose would cease.

There are religions and there are religions in this world. The followers of each wanting to establish the  supremacy of their “God” over the other lesser gods. Killings in the name of religion, vandalism of public property and hate speeches against other religious groups are so much of a common site now a days that we mourn the deaths, discuss the degeneration of moral fibre of our society for a day and are back to dealing with the daily struggles of our lives as if those killings never took place. We are all His children (or so I have heard.), yet no two people or societies are the same. If He wanted sameness he would have all his creations  created in one single mould. The celebration of diversity is inherent in the very nature of this world. Why then, we humans, in the name of defending and protecting “our" Gods, want to harm the ones who are even a slight bit different from us?  Believers tell me  that God is omnipresent and omniscient. Someone who is this powerful is definitely capable of defending and protecting Himself. Let us not underestimate the creator and  misuse  His name  to further our own parochial goals.

I see God, every where I go. In every nook and cranny of every city, every village I visit. In the birds that sing, in the soft murmur of the streams, the gushing flow of a waterfall, in the smile of a child.  I also see Him sometimes in a Fire- Temple, sometimes in a synagogue and other times in mosques and  churches. And then I see God nowhere at all. Hundreds  of innocent children were killed in the name of “jihad” in Peshawar. The religion and the nationality of the children are least bit significant. Even more insignificant is the relationship of the Pakistan army and the Talibans there. The single most important factor is the targeting of children in the name of serving one’s God. If we are all made in the image of God, each one of us is Him, may be a very tiny part of Him , but Him nonetheless. By this logic we are all connected with each other, whether we realize or not. Why then, our hearts don’t bleed when we destroy a part of our very self by harming a fellow human being?

The Quran mentions 99 name of Allah, each one talking about HIS benevolent relationship with His followers. The Bible tells us that Christ was crucified for our sins. Ram was a lonely soul after he killed Ravan. His wife sollowed by the Earth and his beloved brother Lakshman dead in the course of duty. I am a non- initiator in the in realm of religion .However, I am sure that the many religions that the world has contain many such stories where the God or His incarnations have gone to great lengths to show  their love for their creations. Someone who loves us so much that He readily suffers for our benefit can never even imagine to harm us. This is precisely why I can’t digest the “fear factor” that is instilled in us humans in the name of God. God who is ever so loving and compassionate will never want His children to fear him. He know that  fear will only chase them away from Him.  Why is  being God fearing”  regarded as a virtue in the society we live? Why are we constantly told to fear God? Why is there  a distinction between hell and heaven? Good guys go to heaven, bad guys to hell? Every natural and man made calamity , every personal failure and tragedy are very conveniently blamed upon God. Every such occurrence is termed as  an evidence God’s wrath. We are so preoccupied with this blame game that we have completely forgotten a minor detail. The detail being that God has made each of us a free agent. The life we lead to a great extent is contingent upon the choices we make.  Holding God responsible is exonerating ourselves from the decision making capacity that  has been bestowed upon us.

Who knows what will happen after our souls are freed from the entrapments of our body? Sufisim and Bhakti movement emphasise on the “here and now”. If here and now is all we have, our hell and heaven are also here and now. Both of these are within us , not outside.

Does a parent ever stop loving his/ her child no matter how deviant the child is? God’s love , like a parent’s, is unconditional and forever. He does not distinguish between an obedient child and an errant one. The “business of fear” does nothing to make us more loving towards God. It only serves the so called “mouth pieces of God to invent ludicrous ways to diminish the wrath of God.  Some would tell you to fast on Mondays, some on Thursdays .and some others to donate humungous amounts to already prosperous places of worship.

God has come to be viewed as  someone who can be bribed to fulfil your most desired wish. Be it going barefoot to a place of pilgrimage, fasting for nine/ thirty / forty day or buying the various ornaments that are advertised as God’s blessings in disguise. All these are proof enough that God is treated as a mere shopkeeper who gives you want you want at a fixed price. He is not an angry patriarch who imposes endless restrictions for his children.

It is this business of fear that leads people to wage wars against each other. Should the war not be against the impurities that we carry within? As Shamz of Tabriz said , we are all delegates of God on this earth. As His delegate it is our duty to further His mission on Earth. The mission of loving and helping another human being. What use are these ritual if we can’t fulfil our duties as delegates of God?  A person without the capacity to love a fellow human is a dead person inside and no amount of ritual would cleanse the heart and make it beat.

If God is everywhere, within and without, then why is there a mad race to imprison him in systemic institutions of religious rituals?  Unimaginable amount of money is spent like water in the name of  constructing a place to venerate and honour Him. The same amount  that can feed hungry children or provide basic health care facility to its citizens. It is only ironic to see the apathetic attitude of people towards a hungry begger just outside the temple or the mosque where they make a hefty donation. The places of worship are supposed to heal your pain. However what they end doing is just numbing the pain.   When the numbness fades away, the pain returns with manifold intensity.

  If God is a parent, His love is limitless like an ocean.  Ocean that is open to its children always. It is for the child to not be scared that the high tide will swallow him up. For when the child stops being scared of being swept off, can he drench his feet in the ocean of love. Only if we can love HIM for thesake of loving Him and extend the same sentiment to all His creations. To love is to remember that love is the essence of everything. It is the  the goal, the journey and the destinaion. Love seeks no reason. Is is the reason.