A man of no/all religion

I received an email from Wasi yesterday who offered to answer my queries, if any on the principles of Islam. I replied back with thanks stating that there are no queries as such. Moreover life already seems to be on direction of becoming a true Muslim.

I later received an email from Poul who asked whether my parents were Christian looking at my inclination to quote Bible.To him I replied that though parents were born Hindu but they nurtured me to become a true Christian.

Oh my goodness! I myself was surprised of the replies I gave, but those were not replies out of confusion, also not to confuse them. I wanted to bridge the gaps that might have existed based on outer layers of religions. Therefore I tried to create a comfort factor to instil a feeling that I belonged to them.

The feeling next to surprise was of gratitude - To understand such basics of religion was never in my capability. While there are people who go to extremes for converting someone into "their" religion, and here was I who was himself converting his religion with every email. That too because of one simple message.The simple message that prophets have given from time to time is such a powerful tool to resolve all differences. Wish whole humanity could understand, and then the peace - both internal and external - would become a reality. 

I later wondered what would Wasi and Poul think of me? I didn't know the answer May be "A man of no religion" or "A man of all religion". 

But one thing I was sure of was that they would have pulled their hairs if they had read what my replies were to other person's email :)

Are you religious?

Yesterday he was after me - Aapne bhagwaan ko dekha hai? I tried my best to ignore the question but he seemed rigid too - Aapne bhagwaan ko dekha hai? Quite surprisingly, I took few more minutes before we started talking of God Realisation.
I just look back and see those years of Bangalore, where I wanted to fly high and share this with everyone around. Nothing much has changed and yet everything seems changed. A small incident as from yesterday, when some one was asking about God Realisation and I felt like better not to answer.
Recently I read this on one of the banners from Samagam, and also received this as text, "Dharam ki sabse badi shiksha hai sehansheelta". "The greatest teaching of religion is tolerance", everyday there are numerous incidents where I see that the tolerance is no where around. Ofcourse, the answer is 'NO', if asked a question "Are you religious?". If religion teaches tolerance, there has to be tolerance in my life if I am religious. It has always been easy to talk of religion, God realisation, God knowledge but been tough to act religiously.
Perhaps it was the same thought yesterday when I didnt want to talk of God Realisation. Didnt want him to carry an impression of God Realised soul, if I still havent managed to live fully in God's realisation.
Having said that, there's more to ask from you - I do wish to fly again but this time with both the wings - realisation and practical living.

New to business

Just after Sheelu returned from his Israel trip, we all gathered around him in 1998. He started sharing his experiences, and one of the things that he shared was the words of his Cab driver who had said, "I am quite new to the driving business, its been just 50 years I got into this Job". Quite recently these words came back to my mind, how beautiful would it be if I start viewing others around with the same vision.
At times when I see people around not able to do what they have been learning since so many years, or even while seeing my own self, there are times when I get disheartned. Take example of spiritual world, anyone speaking about tolerance for past 50 years and yet not able to tolerate things...Before I judge any other person, may I remember this line that person is quite new to this Spiritual world, its been JUST 50 years. When I myself fail on the scale that I have set for myself, may I rememeber that I too am quite new to this Gyan..JUST 20 or so years...It takes a life time to imbibe these virtues of humility, love, compassion, tolerance and everything...and for me its been JUST 20 years of Gyan.

Oh God !

Caz, as she likes to be addressed as, is a friend from work. Often Caz and I together have walked on way back to home from work. Our talks revolved around TV shows, Indian and English cultures, colleagues etc and not forgetting the most important topic – God. Out of all these topics, God is the one where she has patiently listened without any comments. On one such walk, Caz mentioned – ‘Sunil, I don’t believe in God.’
Respecting her sentiments, I decided that I won’t discuss this anymore. Probably that was the reason why she kept quiet while I talked of quotations, parables etc from scriptures or other sources. That was April 2009.

Not many days passed before we both had to work late nights. The project had gone really bad, and the only way to deliver it on time was to put some extra efforts. We both sat late hours, spent weekends, holidays in office trying to make code work. Every time she made some change, and I tested – result was a failure again. ‘Oh God! Let me try something else’, ‘Oh God! Why doesn’t this work now?’, ‘Oh God! ..’, nothing seemed to work – Caz’s face would go pale as mine. Her sadness and helplessness was obvious from her remarks – and to be honest my state wasn’t different either. Just that I tried to show my balance with my silence. Both of us were exhausted and finally thought of taking a short break.

As I grabbed a piece of Pizza, I couldn’t resist adding – ‘Caz you know?’
Caz – ‘What?’
I – ‘The other day you mentioned you don’t believe in God, and now you were taking His refuge is every single line. Were you making fool out of me? You…..’

I still recall smile on her face which accompanied one on my face.

From the same experience, I admit that being a believer (at least I call myself one) I never thought of seeking blessings when I felt exhausted. But one who called herself as a non-believer made efforts to include and pick strength from God. Her talks may not have sounded like prayers, but at least she called our Savior. And Savior too fulfilled His promise – Include Him in all your ways and He will make all your paths straight! Soon her prayers were answered and we found a fix for our problem. Miracles like this happen now and then, can’t say that I sat down to write a Miracle, instead an experience where I learnt that even if child rejects the existence of father, father still clings to the child.

I meet people who call themselves atheists, I meet people who call themselves believers, I meet people who call themselves religious, I meet people who call themselves spiritual - trying to distinguish themselves from the others. And I wonder where lies the difference? Does vision from Moon distinguish India or England?