Spiritual Blossoms

[Guest guest]

Spiritual Blossoms

 

During the last couple of weeks, the BBC has been airing many

programs on religion. I managed to listen to quite a few of them and

found \ them most absorbing as well as interesting, especially as the

BBC has done an extensive global survey on what people round the

world think of God, religion etc.

 

Many interesting conclusions have emerged and those interested may

visit the BBC web site. Let me mention just a couple of interesting

observations that I heard. One was that even atheists pray!

The second is the observation of one person who when interviewed

said that Spirituality looks Inward while Religion looks outward.

 

I found this observation extremely interesting as well as thought

provoking. My purpose in bringing up the BBC features is not to

comment upon them – perhaps I shall do it later – but to draw

attention to an interesting story narrated by one of the panellists,

a Professor of I forget what.

 

Anyway, the story narrated by the Professor is more interesting that

the subject that he/she professes. The story is about a Sufi saint

and goes as follows:

 

One day, the Sufi saint prayed to God.

" Oh God, You are so wonderful. You have created marvellous things in

this world. Yet, in this beautiful world created by You, there is so

much misery, suffering, pain, violence and what not. Why don't You

do something about it? "

 

" I have done something, " replied God.

" You have done something? Where is that? What is that? I don't see

it, " said the Sufi saint in reply.

 

God then slowly whispered, " Son, I created you! "

Wonderful story is it not? I think there is a deep message and if we

reflect carefully, we would realise that Swami is telling us

precisely the same thing over and over again. Yes, all we have to do

is to serve mankind, remembering that service to man is service to

God. If we wipe one tear in one eye, we would be not only making God

happy but also experience Ananda ourselves.

 

By the way, this reminds me of an incident recorded by late

Mr. J.R.D Tata, a towering figure in modern India. He was half Parsi

and half French, and India was his home. He was an enlightened

citizen who incidentally was also a great business manager.

 

He won the highest honour in India, the Bharata Ratna. Once he

invited Mother Teresa to Jamshedpur, where the Tata company

has a huge steel plant. Mother came there to participate in a

function. After the function was over, Tata took Mother back to

Calcutta [about 200 km away] in his private executive jet. The Sun

was setting and Mother took out her rosary to pray. Just then, the

plane was flying over big slums near Jamshedpur. Tata then said to

Mother, " While you are praying to God, why don't you ask Him to do

something about poverty and misery? " Mother turned to Tata and said

in a stern tone, " Mr. Tata, God does not require our advice. You

might instead concentrate on doing your bit by trying to create more

jobs! " This has been recorded by Tata himself.

 

Yes the world is packed with misery by way of providing opportunities

for us to experience Ananda. Pure and true joy comes not from

expensive vacations, but from service to the Lord. Think about it!

 

Ram Chugani

Kobe, Japan