"I don't believe in God.." A few years back, we had gone on a sanctification visit to a new house in Mumbai. Since this gentleman's family venerated God and saints, they requested one of the volunteers to arrange the visit of the saints. Two of us saints made our entry into the house. The volunteer, then provided the family with our preliminary introduction. Before we could say anything, the head of the family greeted me with his atheist belief saying that, he did not believe in God. We informed him that "we have not come here to preach about God or to make a theist out of him. We have simply come to pray that your children do well academically, may there always be happiness and peace in your home and may your business flourish in these times of recession." He said, "Yes. My business is not doing well. What should I do, please tell me?" "Pray to God." We advised him, to which, he reluctantly said, "ok..ok.." We frequently meet many such individuals like this gentleman. On seeing us, they immediately express their disbelief in the existence of God or His worship.
There are many who do not believe in God. Often people believe in God, but when something untoward happens in their life or some kind of disaster occurs, then people immediately start arguing about existence of God or stop going to the temple.
There was a gentleman living with his family in Mumbai. He had a good income and was very well to do While everything was going well, this gentleman got infected with Corona. Despite receiving the best of treatment, he could not survive and died at a relatively young age. The family got panicky and fell into dire circumstances. All were distraught, especially his young daughter for whom this shock was unbearable. Though, she didn't stop eating, drinking or playing, she abandoned her belief in God. After that, whosoever she would meet, she would have only one thing to say," why did God take away my father? Didn't He have any mercy? Why did this happen to me? I am not going to believe in God from now on.." Now how does one explain to her that the fact remains that millions all over the world lost their lives during the period of Corona. Whether you believe in God or not, is it going to make any difference to God? I heard about another such similar incident. A boy was studying in a college in Mumbai. He was quite good at studies and invariably he used to score good marks. Then it so happened that at one point of time he got wayward and started wasting his time in wandering rather than spending it on his studies. During this period of time he secured low marks in a very important exam. While conversing with one of his relatives, who had come to meet him during that time, the boy declared that there is nothing like God. The relative asked him the reason. Thereupon he replied, "ever since I got low marks, I have started feeling that there is nothing like God." Everyone was taken aback. The relative was simply left wondering how can God be blamed, when this boy didn't study well and wasted his time in roaming around ?
Some time ago a known person came to visit our Dadar temple along with his family. His son, who was quite young had also come along. The saint, on understanding that the boy was visting the temple for the first time to do Abhishekam met him affectionately. But instead the boy was contemptuous and said, "I don't believe in this Abhishek and such rituals". The saint said, "That's alright, come back to the temple when you believe in rituals like abhishek. We are not in any kind of hurry." Then it so happened that this very intelligent boy was stressed out about which vocation to take as he had secured a very good score. The family consulted many people but they couldn't come to a conclusion. After spending several sleepless nights, his father asked the saint for advice. The saint immediately said that Mahant Swami Maharaj should be asked about this because it was a question of his entire life and his bright future. He agreed to consult Mahant Swami Maharaj. After the saint had written about all the career options available to the boy through a letter to Swamiji and asked which option should the boy choose? Swamiji immediately gave a decision. The boy and everyone else in his family found the decision to be very fair and apt and thus were immensely relieved. It immediately occurred to the boy that he needs God and saint in his life. Then he came to the mandir to offer his devotion and yes he offered abhishek too.
In the year 2000, we visited the house of Dr. Badrinathji, the founder of the globally famous Shankar Netrayam hospital in Chennai. After a bit of conversation, he took us into the interiors of his house. Here, just as he opened one of the doors, we saw a very big temple. I said, "Sir! You have made a very big temple for God, which is so beautiful!" In all humility and with great pleasure, he replied, "Swamiji! In life, it is eventually only God, who is finally there for us."
Thanks Giving
This article is written and submitted to The E Today by Sadhu Amrutvadandas. We thank swamiji for his research and analysis and hope to see the awareness about life and peace being spread ahead to larger mass of our citizens.