“Your Religion? Money!” – The Lamentations of An Accountant!

Sudha,
you are such a dear ! always lavish in praise and ever encouraging .Thanx buddy .
That mantra is close to my heart and as i have mentioned, i TRY to live it. If i had your talent, i'd even dance to it !
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Dear Varalotti
that was magnanimous of you. But please dont write things like " pray for us"etc. Its so embarassing; sounds like i'm some meloncholic , half starved figure with joined palms and tilted head standing in a dusty alcove of a forgotten shrine. Eeeek !
And you went and nomitated it for FP too ! I'm grateful for your encouragement , and as already said, for flagging off the train. You were the Engine , we bogies just followed . And yes, i second your vote for making this a regular forum.
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Kamla dear , oh dear ! are you EFFUSIVE or what ! I can almost see you tossing your cap in the air . How can i ever thank you enough for your consistent (wild)cheering !.
Please, i'd like to know whose hindi couplet is it that you have quoted.Meera? (Quite poor in that dept.)
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Dear Senthan, thank you for sharing your beautiful thoughts about that mantra. Yes I agree that most of our rituals are very scientific, but their meaning is usually buried deep under centuries of possible misunderstanding, interpolations and varied interpretations. Thats the beauty of our vedas and philosophies. There are ways and ways to understand them. All valid. For at the end of the day, what matters is the equation found between " I and The Brahman" . All streams, all rivers originate from the same rain and lead to the same ocean, after meandering through different routes and terrains.
Yes, please do share more of your thoughts with us.
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Thank you for the responses, dear friends. I am extremely happy . My shiva is happy with me; and for me. For i have just uttered what i always do: "Shivaarpanam"

Regards
manjula

Dear Kamla,
I am like catalyst in this thread. Manjula called me the "engine." An apt metaphor. The engine pulls the train no doubt. But people are all there in bogies. Anyway I am very happy and proud as an engine, to pull such wonderful bogies. Thanks for the participation, Kamla. I know you would come the moment you saw that in FP nomination.
I am yet to bring out the best from out of me. At least I am happy I am bringing that from every one else.
Love,
sridhar
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Dear Manju And All ILites,
Thanks for your wonderful contributions. Thanks Manju for seconding the weekly-thread proposal.
Instead of posting in this same thread, let me open a thread in the same name, let's say every monday, and as an engine post something. In this case though might post may technically called the Leader post, all of you ILites, who posted, lead the discussion.
Come let's all try to understand a billionth of the Love our Maker has for us.

regards,

Dear varalotti,

It is interesting to read the posts on this topic and what people think about God. In my rational view, God is a faith and that helps man in his time of need to muster self-courage and overcome odds. I feel it is amusing if someone claims to know better than others about God. God is not someone who is sitting in Kailash or lying down in sea of milk nor God is in high heavens. If God is visualized as a force that force pervades all of us and is there everywhere. I strongly feel that given the framework of earth where we live and the limited capacity of brain to imagine or visualize, perception of God is impossible.

What does GOD ( the word is coined by man only) stand for? G in God stands for Generator or one who creates ( in Hindu mythology it is Brahma), O stands for one who protects ( Vishnu in Hindu mythology) and D stands for Destroyer ( Shiva in Hindu mythology). Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv again are not the ultimate Gods. Goddess Shakthi is portrayed as the ultimate God in Hindu mythology.

The incident I quoted and I have quite a few incidents to narrate where my faith in God as being within has been strengthened. When I think of Lord Anjaneya, I am addressing to my self-courage and as is said that Anjaneya was not knowing his own strength, we also do not know what strength we have and in time of need praying to Anjaneya helps to muster that inner strength. Each God and Goddesses in Hindu mythology symbolise various aspects like wealth, education etc. and praying to them is like addressing our inner potential to realise these things.

Regards,

TDU

Dear Friends,

As I promised I am posting a sequel to this thread this week. I have retained the same name for easy identification.

This is not like the other threads where I post and you comment. This is where all of us post and all of us comment.

This is just an attempt to express our Love for Her, I mean God.

With Love,

It is like we are testing God, to see whether He is going to help us or not.
This article reminded me of a story where a devotee asked God where he was at the time of distress in his life, God replied it is Me who is carrying you, after the footsteps beside him disappeared at the time of distress but was there when he was in his happier days.
Footsteps are nothing but the journey of his life which the devotee saw after his living on the earth.
We must realise that God is always with us and we don't recognise Him.

Sriniketan

Dear Sriniketan,
Thanks for reminding me of that beautiful story. I read it several years ago and even now when I am reminded of that, I am moved.
Now I have posted a sequel to this post. Please go to it and leave your 'footprints' there.
regards,

Sorry Kamla!
Of late I have been irregular due to my preoccupations and missed your post addressed to me. After this experience (I have had other such experiences before and after) I was an enlightenrd person and discovered That Omnipotent, Omnicient all pervading being amidst each and every atom around me!

Originally Posted by Kamla

Dear Malathijagan and Vandhana,

Your posts touched me to the core.

Malathi, very often it happens that God is by our side and we do not know of it. Your experience with Venkatachalapathi was thrilling. You are blessed, I can simply imagine your amazement at what happened in the club. Thirupathi is the only holy place I have visited time and again since my childhood. As a child, I remember going there with my parents and one early morning, after the bath and getting ready, I had some free time and just wandered off from the cottage in the direction of the temple all by myself and walked right into the Garbagudi and had His dharshan!! Was that in another era...was that me?! Can you imagine that happening today? The last visit, we stood in front of the Lord for a nanosecond ( to use Sridhar's words!) , that too after my bil thrust some notes into the hands of the priest right under Balaji's eyes!!!!! Now, I am not so keen about visiting that place any more. Like you say, He is right here in my house, in my puja room...I don't need that pujari's permission to see Him :)

Vandhana, it is putting it mildly when you say God was protecting you. Imagine the havoc it would have caused if your little one had not insisted. Sometimes, you never know when and how we are blessed.

L, Kamla

Dear varalotti,

Continuing on this topic, here is my most memorable incident in which my faith got strenthened. It was during my summer vacation in school days I went to the village where my uncle was working as a teacher. The village is called 'Eppothum venran' and it is between Koilpatti and Thirunelveli. The village has a big well and all the villagers used to take bath in that. Most of them including my uncle used to dive into the well and swim. Myself from Madurai being a city bred was not knowing swimming and I used to stand on the steps and pour water over me and take bath. On the fateful day, myself and my uncle went late to take bath and there was no one in the well. As usual my uncle started swimming and I was taking bath on the steps. Suddenly, my uncle pulled me into the well saying how long you will take bath like this and let me teach you how to swim. As I got frightened I caught hold of his hand firmly and to my shock he also lost his balance in swimming with the result we started drinking water and we had gone down and pushed up three times. I had lost my conscience and when I came back to life I found a sizable crowd of villagers had gathered and someone narrated what exactly happened. As we were going down into the well a passerby villager had peeped inside the well and spotted us. He had jumped immediately and wise as these people are he had pulled my hair and brought me shores. Since I was holding onto my uncle's hand for dear life strongly, he too came with me. Later he had brought a cart wheel, tied us and rotated it to bring out the water taken in by us. I still get nightmares thinking of those final moments before passing out. Before passing out I had prayed to Lord Anjaneya. It is like a rebirth for me as well as my uncle. We thanked the villager profusely who magnanimously refused to take money from us.

Regards,

TDU

Most Gracious ILites,

A short while from now SHE 10 will be on air. This episode describes the fate of the very first live-in relationship I ever wrote in my stories and serials. As TDU very aptly remarked, the women over here accepted the relationship without much of a fuss while the men (or the man?) were thrown off their balance.

That goes to prove one of my most favourite theories - that while we men fuss with the forms, women consider substance, when it comes to relationships. But with the gadgets we reverse our roles. Lets take a car; the man is bothered more about what is inside the hood while the woman fusses about how the car appears on the outside. I neither have the brains nor the age to say, which one is better. But I have the sense to discover that each one is different.

Like you I also want to post Episode 11 now itself; as I am sure many of you will be sighing "Oh, next thursday is still a week away..." But two reasons prevent me. First there is no end to that. If I post E11, all of us will be looking for E12, and E13 ad infinitum. Second it is a nice feeling to spend 168 hours in some kind of suspense and expectation, making guesses and criticising the author. Even if you forget the other things, don't ever forget the last item in the list - criticising the author.

Now for the tenth week in a row, SHE is in your beautiful, graceful hands.
Do with her what you will.

With Love,

Most Gracious ILites,

I was like the Satan Quoting the Vedas in this thread. And now I am back to my area of specialisation - the satanic verses.
Yes, I am posting a thread "An Accountant And A Prostitute".
Human minds are very much like parachutes, so the witticism goes. Both work when and only when they are open.
Have an open mind and visit this thread to leave your comments there.

Regards,