Old man goes to church.

One Sunday morning an old man entered a church just before services were to begin. Though his clothes were spotlessly clean they were old, worn and quite a bit ragged. In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally well read Bible.

The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old man had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and jewellery.

As the old man took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled by his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.

As the old man was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the man to do him a favour. 'Before you come back in here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship in church.' The old man assured the preacher he would.

The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged clothes and hat. Once again he  was completely shunned and ignored. The preacher approached the man and said, 'I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church.'

'I did,' replied the old man.

'If you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be for worshiping in here?' asked the preacher.

'Well, sir, God told me that He didn't have a clue what I should wear. He said He'd never been in this church.'

My thanks to Trilok Singh Anand and Sanmeet Singh Anand for this wonderful article.

Must I live in fear?

The other day our friends accompanied by an intelligent and deeply religious man dropped in at our home. He spoke authoritatively on God, and religious practices and morality, which sounded more like a recording of the priestly class. The monologue was heavy and made worse by the lack of life in his lecture. My son whispered a question to me  "why does he never smile and why does he look so weary?"  

It soon dawned on us that the visitor misguidedly believed that  that religious people are not supposed to be joyful. God and religion was a heavy burden to be carried only by the   privileged few such as our visitor. To be joyful was taboo because being happy was considered frivolous. Lost deep in his religious dungeon he refused to enjoy the food, the beautiful weather, the lovely company of the people present.  The man might as well have been a totem pole for all the life he demonstrated.

We saw the light when he uttered the words "I am God fearing". That was it, the man lived in dread. He was consumed by fear that God would smite him down if he made an error, expressed a desire or to have wants.  To be happy was a sin in his belief system.

This belief system is not unique to our guest, for this fear is widespread. This malaise has afflicted a large chunk of humanity and many of them occupy high and exalted position in our society. All they do is spread the gloom. They have surrendered not to God but to priests who have evolved a self serving distorted message of God and the path to reach Him.

More hate has been spread, more blood has been shed in the name of God than in any other name or cause by these peddlers of organised religion. The continuous and ever increasing focus on fear gives rise to even more dread and then society begins to decay from within while maintaining a superficial sheen. This approach by Aurangzeb  is what caused the end of the Mogul empire in India.

God who created everything can only be found by love and compassion. He who creates need not destroy, He merely takes it away. Why would He want to harm insignificant creatures of cosmic dust like you and me?  He who protects and nurtures us looks after us like a loving parent, He would never harm us.

Many of the holy texts have been written by people long after the messenger of God has left this world in their physical form. To build their armies of followers, the leaders of organized religion only want compliance and rigidity, they care not for your spiritual development or growth. 

Compliance from the masses can only come from fear. That is why they advocate fear. Fear of God, fear of living, dying, loving and just being human.

Fear not God, nor tyrants who claim divine right to have the right rule over us by their terrible ways. Do not be God fearing but God loving.

Embrace God and love Him as a child loves the parent. Only the Creator can give you all you  need. Surrender to His will and live each moment as if it is your last, and you will live happily and die blissfully.

“Agni Meele Purohitam”

HMV Company had once published a pamphlet outlining the history of gramophone record, which makes fascinating reading. The gramophone was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the 19th century. Edison, who also invented numerous other gadgets such as the electric light bulb and the motion picture camera.

After inventing the gramophone record, Edison for sake of posterity, wanted the first recording to be that of an eminent scholar. Impressed by the scholar  Prof. Max Muller* of Germany, Edison requested for an appointment to travel to Europe to make the recording.

 Max Muller an admirer of Edison's work suggested that Edison make the recording and demonstration at a conference to be held shortly in England where many of Europe's finest scientific minds would be present.

Soon thereafter Edison voyaged to England. At the conference, after a grand welcome and introduction, Edison invited Prof Max Mueller onto the stage and to speak into the instrument. After making the recording Edison rushed to his laboratory and returned with a gramophone disc which he duly played on his instrument.

The audience was enthralled and after several rounds of ensuing applause and congratulations to Thomas Alva Edison, Max Muller addressed the august gathering. He asked "You heard my voice, did any of you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard on the recording of this afternoon?"

There was pin-drop silence in the huge hall as none of the scholars had understood until it was revealed to them that Max Mueller had spoken in the ancient yet highly scientific language of Sanskrit.

Max Mueller a renown Indologist explained that  the the words "Agni Meele Purohitam", was the  first shloka* of the first verse of  the 'Rig Veda', and he chose this because  "Vedas are the oldest text of the human race.  In the most primordial time, when the people did not know how even to cover their bodies and lived by hunting and housed in caves, Indians had attained high civilization and they gave the world universal philosophies in the form of the Vedas.”

When “Agni Meele Purohitam” was replayed the entire audience stood up in silence as a mark of respect. This verse means; "Oh Agni***, You who gleam in the darkness, to You we come day by day, with devotion and bearing homage. So be of easy access to us, Agni, as a father to his son, abide with us for our well being." *   Prof. Max Mueller was an Indologist & a great scolar of Indian sacred books. ** Shloka - literally means song.  *** Agni - means fire and a manifestation of God who is immortal and the source of all energy and life.

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I am grateful to my noble friend, Capt. Niteesh Krisnhamurti for this wonderful and informative insight.