Faith

Two events of the past few days lead to this blog. The first was my ride to Tirupati and the subsequent climb up to Tirumala. The second one was the Ganesh Chaturthi pooja in my P.G. today. Let me give a brief sketch of each before I start off.

The Tirupati ride was a spur-of-the-moment ride. I had resolved to go to Tirupati many months ago, but on Friday evening, I decided to miss college the next day and go. A few family friends there were contacted and informed. The plan was to ride up to Tirupati, park the bike there and then climb up to Tirumala via the Alipiri route (3500+ steps). The Alipiri route is the traditional, longer of the two pedestrian routes from Tirupati to Tirumala. The ride was decent (except for a broken speedometer cable, rendering my odometer non-functional) and I reached Tirupati by 11.30 a.m. I was at the starting point of Alipiri steps by 12 sharp and began the climb without further ado. I reached the town of Tirumala by 3.45 pm, met up with my grandfather, freshened up and joined the 'darshanam' queue again at 6. Thanks to a stupid mistake on my part, I wasted 2 hours and came back to my grandfather's room at 12.30 a.m. after the darshanam. The next day, I hit the road again and reached Bengaluru at 1 p.m, thereby fulfilling the 4 month old promise to myself and family.

The other event was today's pooja in my P.G. The caretaker cum errand boy of the P.G. is a lazy boy named Shiva. He rarely does the stuff told to him on time and has the habit of talking back when reprimanded. Some other residents of the PG get him drunk weekly and he always hangs around with them. No wonder their rooms are the cleanest in the whole PG! So, 2 days ago, this epitome of laziness started going around to all rooms collecting money. For what? For a Ganesh Chaturthi pooja in the P.G. I was pretty surprised by his commitment to the cause. I gave my contribution but was pretty skeptic about how the thing would turn out. My skepticism got an egg on its face. It was a small pooja, but it was well done, with a nice idol, fruits, sweets, incense sticks and all other pooja paraphernalia. The aforementioned PG residents were the priests and organizers too.

So, what is the significance of these two events? As you might have noticed, the common thread that runs through both of them is devotion to God. For those who don't know, I declared myself an agnostic many years ago and continue believing I am one. A blog dedicated to this was posted too (http://bkatreya.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html). But the climb to Tirumala made me give all this a serious re-think. They say, faith moves mountains. I witnessed it first hand on 3500 steps. Everyone was huffing and puffing their way up but there was s difference. I was doing it just because I wanted to, because I had promised myself. The others were not doing it for anybody else, or even for themselves. They were doing it because of the sheer force of belief. 60-70 year old people, who might moan and groan about moving a chair were climbing with me. Young children, accompanied by their parents were taking the stairs two at a time. Even more surprising were young couples lugging around chubby babies and still climbing! Another class of climbers were those who might have taken an oath in front of God to do something if some wish is fulfilled. These people either lighted camphor tablets or applied a paste of kumkum and haldi on each stair. At the end of the climb, I was left with lots of thoughts. Primarily, I was thinking, what kind of strength do these people have to have SUCH faith in God? How beautiful their lives were because of that faith and belief! I trudge through life, I have my happy and sad moments, I take things as they come by, I get respect and I lose respect. These people might be living similar lives but add to it, their immortal faith in God. It is like, we all are mountains. But mine is a barren mountain whilst a beautiful stream of water runs through theirs. That stream cuts through the rock of the mountain but at the same time, beautifies it with greenery. My mountain, on the other hand, stands strong with them but there is a certain something missing, evident to all and sundry.

The pooja today intensified these feelings in me. Again, a whole community slowly built up around the pooja table. All were just connected by their faith in God. I stood with them with folded hands, but somehow, there was something missing.

I think I am going insane

I AM AN AGNOSTIC!! I DON'T BELIEVE IN WORSHIPING GOD!! But I now have faith in faith. Yes I have faith, not in God, but in faith!

Have a nice day, people!