Indian Ameri

Coldness of the grotesque marble;
Wailed the infant of first prayer,

Identification of the idolized ‘baghwan’;
Understood the existence of first spirit,

Explanation of the victorious ‘tilak’;
Answered the cosmos of first energy,

Depiction of the holy ‘kahanis’;
Blinded the boy with first belief,

Experience of the burning ‘vrath’;
Subdued the teen of first pleasure,

Exacerbation of the stoned ‘pradarshan’;
Resisted the will of first failure,

Questions of the twenties ‘parikshas’;
Fuzzed the legend of first God,

Symphony of the conscientious ‘dharma’;
Motivated the truth of first life,

Regularity of my nine ‘Chathurdashi’ days;
Muted my minds to first blankness,

Tomorrow in the ‘Anantha Chathurdashi’;
Will I be the infant of first prayer?

- H2S

In spite of all the commotion in life, I had made sure that I go everyday for the ganesh puja. Nine days of scheduled hell and burning will power to understand what my faith is made of, I had gone to a friends place for the ‘ganesh puja’. I had stood in front of the deity and recited mantras and slokas which my dad taught me years ago, but never had been a moment I asked or prayed or thanked the Lord for whatever reasons.

All I realized from these nine days is that it is not necessary to blame the past and the Lord and thereby detest the principles of the way the Lord works. Yet it is also not necessary that every visit to the temple or the deity has to end up with a prayer. Confused? Well what I am trying to say is, I can still recite my mantras and slokas and use capital ‘L’ for the word Lord, can still talk to people about religion, explain the similarity between the various religions and that every religion is in fact humanly social in nature, and yet believe in the fact that I need not pray or thank the deity in front of me, be it Ganesha, Jesus or even Allah. All I am going to do now is believe in science and for those miracles that can’t be explained by knowledge, I am going to believe them as just miracles that shall remain unanswered by science and walk the path enlightened by my conscience. So the next time someone asks me ‘do you believe in God?’ I would answer ‘I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in religion’. Still confused? In simple words, I’ll attend all religious functions, recite mantras, slokas, sing songs, have tilak, take prasadh (I don’t blasphemies religion in the name of going for food), do namaskars, but I won’t ask or thank the God/Lord/Deity for anything – be it the toughest of the situation or the happiest of a blessing. Kapish!! If you don’t, then forget it and do your prayers. May the belief in you guide you for the rest of your life to success and happiness!