‘The expenses of roof of this temple were met by Advocate Chodankar’ reads a board displayed prominently at the entrance of a roadside temple. I was shocked !! Imagine if God decided to show off his doings! Every child, every fawn, every cub and every grub would be labeled ‘By God’, ‘Courtesy God’, 'Made by God’ or ‘ With love from God’ ! Why so ? even the skies, the land, the seas, the oceans, the rivers and the rills all will bear the tag – ‘By God’!! But then that never happens. God seldom lays claims to the things he makes. Although Almighty, far from being boisterous, God is humble!
Every time I see a great creation, especially architectural masterpieces like magnificently carved temples, my mind wanders into their foundations. Although such structures are usually known by the magnificence of the carvings, the reality is that a greater part of the credit for its existence inarguably goes to the coarse, asymmetrical rocks that lay at their foundations all soaked up in mud and water, holding the weight of the massive structure for ages. God is like that – selflessly serving, silent and unsung! God is more likely to be like that selflessly serving coarse rock at the temple foundation than the one standing smeared with vermilion at its sanctum sanctorum.
God has many names or rather we give Him many names. But surprisingly it is not any of these names which surface spontaneously in an event of deep pain, distress and anguish but it is that of ones own mother !! Its then that you realize that God has been really close to you all these years but it was you who failed to recognize Him! Mother is the closest thing that comes to God – selfless, loving, caring and accepting! Like ‘Him’ she brought you into this world, fed you, shielded you, sat by your pillows for nights when you merely coughed or sneezed or had a mild temperature! Sometimes she did your homework or even fought with your teacher. Remember the first day of your Kinder Garten when you were wailing incessantly at the prospect of being taken into the classroom? Probably you stopped crying when you entered the classroom but the poor woman sobbed till your class got over! And see how she has treasured the memories of your smallest of the small things like your love for porridge to songs that you sung. If you show her a bit of interest, she would show you her sons first sketch or how he dabbled with the colours or the first paper boat he made that she has preserved till date. Then in some page of her diary theres a wild flower that you plucked for her long hair when you were young or a greeting card you made specially for her on her birthday. And this unlike your father obsessed with your engineering certificates, your trophies, your visiting cards! God is more likely to be like mothers valuing your sentiments, treasuring worthless things that you offered with reverence and sheer love!! But then the irony of the fact is that despite all this, mothers names are never carried by their offsprings and are often forgotten in a generation or two. Sad but true. Likewise God too never made any religion, cult or sect. Man did. But it was God who served you selflessly without asking you to carry his label or publish a thanksgiving note in newspaper. Yet mere devotion to God or mere love for God isnt enough to define your identity but sadly it is his devotion to the man made religions that spell any individuals identity - so what if you forgot the silent, unsung, humble, selflessly serving and caring God altogether??!!
Bhushan Sarmalkar (JAI)
