The God debate

We’ve had this going for a long time, the wife and I, and  it’s always been a stalemate. How much ever i try to explain to her, she doesn’t get it. She cannot fathom my unshakeable faith, the  happiness that pervades my being when I see his visage before my eyes. The ease with which he lifts me from the depths of despair and fills me with unbridled joy without even realising it.  Ever since I can remember, he has been like a beacon lighting up my world.

He is not from some other planet, is he, she chides.  He is human, made of flesh and blood, like the rest of us. You are so rational in everything else, how can you deify him like this, she says, exasperated.

To be fair, she has tried to empathise. She has even accompanied me at times when I’ve gone to see him, trying to feel the fervour that I feel as I sit there for hours on end, transfixed in his presence . How can I describe the feeling when I am in his abode?  The teeming crowds, the chorus of chants.. men, women, children.. hoping, praying, willing him to shepherd his flock. And when he ably and graciously obliges us,  the ecstasy that engulfs the millions who are fortunate to witness the magic he conjures up before our disbelieving eyes…sheer bliss.  The sense of inner peace, the feeling that all is well in this world when he is around, can be only be felt by those who unequivocally believe that he is not a mere mortal. To be a true believer, it must come from within.

But of late, there is a sense of foreboding. Visions of a life when he is no longer around, rear up more often than not.  How will I cope with the sense of loss, the feeling of emptiness that is inevitable, when he leaves this world where’s he’s cast his spell for so long.

And the day is not too far off, when I will be forced to turn atheist again.  Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is playing his 169th test match today, more than anyone ever has, and probably will. The boyishness undiminished, with the same sense of wonder and commitment that was in evidence when he played his 1st, over twenty years ago.

I guess even God cannot go on forever.