Walking the Path

God may only show the way, and it is for us to walk the path; after all, God cannot force us to walk the entire journey. As the famous Indian proverb goes, we may only take the horse to the waterside, but we cannot force it to drink water. The drinking part has to be done by the horse. When we are confronted by problems and challenges, God may help us, but he may not force us to be freed from the tricky situation. We need to cooperate with God in order to help ourselves. If God were to force us to live in safety and security, then it would not be we who live, but it would be God, who would be living our lives, and that would be quite contrary to the plan of God. He may provide us with the finest food, but we need to undertake the eating part; he cannot eat for us.

God invites us to help ourselves, though he does his part in clearing the hurdles which block our way to freedom and happiness. There are numerous miracles that Jesus performs, where he invites the sick to do their part to be completely healed. Look at the story of the ten lepers coming to Jesus and asking him to heal them; Jesus who respected the role of the high priests, tells the lepers to show themselves to the high priest… that is the little bit that they could do without much difficulty. The second part of the story only shows how wicked and cunning we could be, forgetting the goodness of God, and even failing to be grateful to him for the healing we have received. The Gospel says that as they were going to the high priest, they all were healed, and only a Samaritan returns to thank God.

Or let us take the story of Namaan from the Old Testament… the prophet had invited him to go and dip seven times in the Jordon river, so that he might be cleansed of leprosy. He was indignant, the Bible says, because he claimed there were cleaner rivers such as the Euphrates, and why he should have come all the way… But strangely what God asks of those who seeking healing is something so negligible and insignificant that we might think it silly and too trivial. If Namaan was too upset for being asked to take a dip in Jordon river, he might not have experienced healing. Perhaps we might be prepared to do something more demanding and challenging, but to do what is silly and trivial is too hard for us; if God does the 80 per cent of the job of healing, he wishes us to do the 20 per cent, to bring home the point that we have our role to play in the process of healing, for part of the healing comes from within our own selves.

We could take the story of Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, and now they have come to bank of the Red Sea, and find it difficult to decide what they would do. Was it impossible for God to separate the waters so that his people could walk through it? Then why should he instruct Moses to tap his rod on the water, so that the water might divide? Similarly, when the people of Israel were asking for water, the Lord asks Moses to strike the rock with his rod, and water gushes forth. What is the point in these stories that God seeks the instrumentality of human persons? God is all powerful and nothing is impossible for him, and yet he depends on the human persons to bring to fruition his own divine plan, and therefore we become the collaborators in God’s salvific plan. For God, the little that we might offer to him is sweeter and tastier than all the rest.

Let me conclude with the famous story of the widow’s mite; what she had offered to the temple treasury is insignificant, and not worth mentioning, but Jesus takes note of this gesture of the widow, and appreciates her for the generosity with which she had offered to the temple. What is more important here is not how much she had contributed, but with what disposition she had done this act of contributing to the temple. One thing is sure, God cannot demand from us something which we cannot afford to give him, and he would ask us only what we can happily give to him, and he could multiply manifold what we offer him. Let us remember the wonderful story that Rabindranath Tagore narrates in his Song-Offerings about the Greedy (Kripon) man, who offers one gain of rice to the king who begged of him, and finds on reaching home that the grain he had gifted to the king had returned to him as golden grain, and he cries bitterly, ‘Why did I not give all that I had?’

Life in Abundance of Losers

Life is quite charming and enticing for the people who like to see the brighter side of things; these are the people who would look at the darkest clouds with a magnifying glass to trace thin silver lining, and that is all that is required for them to get back the zest and zeal that they require to fight back in life. There is no failure or challenge which is insurmountable to these people, because they have the inner strength to withstand all adversaries. These are not the brightest, cleverest and the smartest of people, but they know the art of living, and have learned it through the hard way, by submitting themselves to innumerable trials and errors. They have no pride to claim that they are beyond all vices; they know how vulnerable and fragile they are and yet they depend on a power which can put them at a level too difficult for the brightest, cleverest and the smartest to scale.

Let me again fall back on the wonderful miracle stories found in the New Testament. Every miracle that Jesus performs presents to us people who are weak, vulnerable, incapacitated, voiceless, unable to fight the odds by their own strength. The first step towards recovery for them comes from the fact that they do not shy away from acknowledging the situation they are in. Jesus helps them to acknowledge their vulnerability; it could be deemed as a testing on the part of the master healer, who plunges to purge their inner self, before healing them physically. What do you want? or what can I do for you? Or look at the mighty Centurion, I am not worthy to receive you, but you say only a word and my servant will be healed!

Why should the Centurion acknowledge what he is incapable of, and what was the need for him to strip himself naked in front of the wonder worker? But it is only when he stands naked could he expect the Master cover his nakedness with his own cloak. It is only the empty pitcher, which can be filled. If I do not acknowledge that I am empty, no one can fill it. I shall present one lovely poem by Rabindranath Tagore from his Song Offerings (Gitanjali, 77) : “The day is no more, the shadow is upon the earth. It is time that I go to the stream to fill my pitcher. The evening air is eager with the sad music of the water. Ah, it calls me out into the dusk. In the lonely lane there is no passer-by, the wind is up, the ripples are rampant in the river. I know not if I shall come back home. I know not whom I shall chance to meet. There at the fording in the little boat the unknown man plays upon his lute.”

Those who cannot accept what comes in life knocking at their doors, do not want to accept their vulnerabilities, their weaknesses. It requires far more guts and courage to acknowledge one’s weaknesses than to accept the strengths. That is why Jesus strengthens every person why present their vulnerability in front of him. The first lesson towards freedom, and its subsequent peace and happiness comes from accepting my own frailties. No one on earth is perfect; even the most perfect person would be quite impure in the sight of God. Thus to acknowledge one’s weaknesses is not a heroic act, but one which requires quite a deal of humility and submission. True healing can come only when I have the disposition to surrender myself fully before the all-powerful God, and prepare to follow his counsel.

Any loser who accepts and acknowledges his or her own defeat or loss immediately springs to hero or heroine. The healing that Jesus bestows is as an acknowledgement for the heroic act that they have displayed by accepting their weaker selves. Consider the story of Barthemeus, who is fully aware that he lacked sight and longed to see. ‘That I may see’, he cries out to the Lord, and he restores sight to him. The woman who had been suffering from haemorrhage for twelve years knows that only Jesus could restore her health, because she is aware that that was her real self, which had been haunting her for all these years. If I want to taste life and be enveloped by the aroma it emanates, all that I need to do is place myself before the Lord and accept my vulnerabilities, so that he could touch and heal me; why a word from his mouth may be enough to bring wholeness to me!

Lighting my Little Lamp

Today is Diwali, the festival of light, and there is an array of colorful lights all around. Most of the houses around have been lit with light of different colors and shapes. It is so wonderful to see the display of light, it is sheer pleasure to behold light. I look at the convent, facing our corridor near the main road, a series of lights (diya) have been lit, and it was a beautiful sight. Women are known for decorating houses on this day, with light. I had known that it is a wonderful day to light candles at least on the corridor near the main road, and brighten up the space, and luckily I found an old packet of tiny candles in one of our cupboards, and made use of them to light up the corridor.

The candles were too tiny to last even ten minutes, I thought, and after lighting some 20 candles, I went for my customary walk; when I returned after about 30 minutes, I could see the light at the corridor, and there were some candles which were still burning. It was a beautiful sight to see a line of candles burning. I hurried to light up some more candles which were left earlier, and I wonder if the corridor had ever seen such candle light soothing its space in all the years of its existence. There is nothing that equals the soothing light of candles or of diyas (earthen lamps). I was happy that I could light up my own little lamp during the ‘festival of light’.

When I first thought of lighting up the corridor today, the line which was flashing in my mind often today was from Rabindranath Tagore, in his poem ‘There are numerous strings in your lute’: “Amidst your numberless stars, Let me place my own little lamp!” There is light all around, and it is not necessary for me to add to the already existing light; however my “little lamps” are sure to add yet another dimension to the light! However small these candles be, they add something new to the world around me, and that is my joy! Often I have the tendency to take for granted: there is already so much light, why take the trouble to light my little lamps!

Looking at the world around, there is always a tendency in me and in others to keep away from what makes the world noble, beautiful and colorful. Why should I take the trouble to do my little part, while it is too tiny, in comparison to what others contribute? Little drops make an ocean, is true, and it takes a little effort on my part to add that little drop; if the world is still worth living and beautiful, I should acknowledge the millions of little drops contributed by millions of people down the years, and several other millions still contributing each and every moment. Then why should I hesitate to light my own little lamps?

If everyone lights up his/her house, the whole locality is sure to be beautifully lit, and that is exactly what the festival of light invites all of us to: to light my little lamp, and I can expect the world to be bright and beautiful. However if I fail to light my little lamps, then I will have no right to blame the world for being dark and damp. It takes very little effort to light my courtyard or corridor, and I don’t need to light up others’ houses; looking at me, probably others may also be inspired to light up their homes, just as I was inspired to light up our corridor after looking at the neatly lit convent! And what a joy it is to celebrate light, which is another name for LIFE!