There was a child who was curious to learn things. He shot a question at his mother one day; " mom, what is God?"

Mother started explaining, " Look, God is neither white nor black. Neither a man nor a woman....". She was continuing. But the son interrupted in the middle and said, " now I know what is God mom, is Michael Jackson the God?" the son shot back.

While there is humour in the child’s talk, there is also pain and pang behind it. He is reflecting the background he is growing with.

We look at the smiling face of a baby and exclaim,"Oh, Godlike!"

A Calamity strikes us. A man, like a bolt from the blue dashes into help. We exclaim " oh, a Godly person saved us from death!".

A rich old woman was alone at home. The gas starts leaking. She doesn’t know what to do or how to stop the leak. Suddenly there appears her maid. "Wow, she appeared like a Goddess," exclaims the old woman.

But, do we really mean what we say?

A peep into the thought reveals that such reactions come more due to practice than out of feeling. It is more mechanical than natural.

When I say mechanical, my mind bumps against an anecdote involving an advocate.

With due apologies to any advocates who might be present here; there was an advocate whose family meets with continues catastrophes. Added to it his wife would not allow him to sleep. Not that she is so hot. But she is very very hot ....... Worded!

In order to please her, he agreed to perform prayer every day. He began the first day; " Om Bhur Bhuvaswaha, Tatsavithurvarenyam Bhargodevasya Dhimahi Dhio yonah prachodayath....He was told this should be repeated in multiples of eight.

He did it the next day, the next day, the next day..... He was fed up. He stood in the prayer hall on the fifth day and said Om Bhurbhuvaswaha..and ditto, ditto, ditto. Next day he came and said Dito, ditto.

The advocate in question here was using only his head for prayer and not the heart.

When feeling is absent, we fail to differentiate God from Michael Jackson! This happens because we are either too much in the world or stooped too much in superstitions and dogmas.

Yes. If you tell me Chamundeshwari on the hills is the best, I will rush to the temple. If the temple priest mentions that the devotees from here go to Horanadu for their prayers to be answered, I will go there. Some devotee there hints at a small temple of Lambaniamma, which is very powerful...I will not leave that temple too. Forget about these. Say there is a news item in a newspaper or a TV coverage, which announces that a dog belonging to one Mare Gowda in Mattikere is sitting quite like GOD since ten days. Bands of People throng the place. And will we also not rush to take a look at it? At least few of us will do. And we don’t forget to carry incense and plantains! Never a piece of bone, since God we think is a vegetarian!

"Shit", says a friend. "No, no", I will tell him that it does not shit like a Dog now, but sits like God!

I will narrate one more incident. This happened near Bylakuppe. Two decades are over now. A cyclist was carrying pooja materials to his house. You know how thin these polythene bags are. It gave way and the materials fell over a roadside rock. Poor cyclist collected the materials whichever he could pick. After sometime, few pedestrians were taking the same road. One among them, a God fearing sort noticed Kumkum on the rock. And he prostrates before it! He returns next day with flower and more Kumkum. Sure a crowd following him. A lady announces after two days that God appeared in her dream and directed her to build a temple. Sure enough, ladies and gentlemen, a temple stands on the roadside today!

And today if the person from whose cycle the materials fell tells the truth; he will be split into two. None will believe him.

People are God crazy. They are going crazy.

Even if the creator himself comes and tells us that " now please stop this kind of search, I AM RESIDING IN YOUR HEART", we will tell him " you are gone crazy, now shut up and get out for Gods sake!" That’s why I said we are stooped deep in superstitions and dogmas.

By the by, which God are we talking about? Rama, Krishna,Allah, Jesus, Budha?

Most of us are not 100% sure about it. Each one in India will name one God each. Or even may be ten Gods! As long as we try to see God in external form, we will only say Oh the baby is God like. And will never say God is present in it. We will only say, he arrived like God. But will never agree that God arrived in his form. We cannot dare t say so because we lack knowledge and we lack personal experience. And this leads us to accept, if ten people say that the dog has three legs, we will also say, yes the dog has three legs.

What happens when we go to temples? We make such long and tedious journeys and reach temples. Even when we stand before the idol, peace does not exist. Happiness does not exist. We feel the presence of peace and bliss only when we close our eyes and put our attention within. Then, where was the necessity to make such a long journey, tedious journey? Are we crazy? Can we call this experience a blasphemy?

Deep within us we know that God is exactly not what we generally think him to be. Our subconscious mind recognizes his omnipresence in everything and in everyone. That’s why when a child smiles at us we experience an inexplicable joy. When the Sunsets dipping the sky in colour, bundles of joy embrace us. During this moment an interaction takes place between you and God. God and me. We forget all external differences and the world itself. The procession of thoughts buckle down before one word, the powerful word, the potent word GOD. At that powerful Divine moment we are not what we think we are.

But how long can we hold on to this experience? Or why can’t we hold on to it, throughout? Someone says, 80 of the people belong to Be negative group! The pity is that we don’t trust ourselves. We can hold on to this experience only till we return to ‘our bag of rice’, this body. You please recall what Dharmaraya tells Yaksha. Yaksha asks him what is the strangest thing in this world. Dharmaraya answers that people have been watching births and deaths. Births and deaths. Day in and day out. And yet they think and act as though they are never going to die! And to try stopping the death we rush to temples, churches and mosques and indulge in rituals. And yet we die.

A Master one day told three of his disciples that they can take a day off and do whatever they want to do. And he will forgive them by offering holy water.

The disciples promptly set out. The Master was ready with the holy water on their return. He was curious to explore what the disciples did the whole day. What did you do? The first one was questioned. I....I stole a shop Master, he said. He was given the holy water. Well, what about you? I stole this Redo watch and winked at a girl and followed her, said the second one. Wow, said the Master and gave him holy water. Since he was listening to the sin, the Master also took a sip. And my dear third disciple, how did you utilise your holiday?, he asked. With fear and anxiety dancing on his face, the third one said, Master I pissed into this holy water!

Yes, this can happen in our day to day life when we depend too much upon or only upon externalities like following rituals and spending time in Mandir and Masjidh. If water could cleanse our sin, if rituals could cure our illness and bring wealth more than I am destined to...this world would have looked different. Service clubs would not have found a place on this globe .

There is an adage. " Aalu maadiddu haalu". If we want perfection in any work, we should not depend upon subordinates. You have to Do it yourself. Compared to Universe, this globe is like an iota of dust. The work we do is like the dust of dusts. We give so much of importance to this dust and say we have to undertake it personally. God or the creator is spread to the full length and breadth of this universe and beyond. To see him, to explore his greatness, to experience Him, is it proper to do it through mediators like priests, pandiths, mukris or pastors? Just think. " Aalu maadiddu eshtadru haale".

Most of us have heard of Brother Lawrence. His only job was to cut potatoes inside a Church kitchen. He was worrying how to find time to be with God. He invents a new practice. He declared, "Bring God To Work, you will never miss Him".

This is what we call as Karmayoga. Many people say, I am a karmayogi, work is worship for me. What is work unless we bring God to it? God minus Karmayoga is only Karma. It becomes yoga only when we connect it to God. When we succeed in doing this, life becomes one great joy. One great festival. Each day, each hour, each second. Like Christ said, ‘love Thy neighbor’, we will love not only the neighborss wife, but also her husband.

B.G.Anantha Shayana