GOD'S EXISTENCE DOESN'T DEPEND ON MY BELIEF

“No class tomorrow.” When I declared this, Kavish was very happy.

“Pray to Lord Ganesh,” I teased Kavish, “He is the Vigneshwara.”

“No Sir, I don’t believe in God,” Kavish quickly reacted.

“Even I,” came Suraj in support of Kavish.

“What a liar,” I teased Suraj, too, “Just two days ago, you said, that you were in the organizing committee of your building Ganeshotsav!”

“I am there only for fun,” clarified Suraj.

Namrata, who seemed to be a devotee of Lord Ganesh, couldn’t believe, that her two fellow-learners were ‘Nastiks’. She asked me,” Sir, do you believe in God?”

Now, I was a bit hesitant to answer this question in the presence of two staunch nastiks. If I said, “No,” I would disappoint poor Namrata. On the other hand, if I said, “Yes,” I had to be ready for the next Nastik attack, “Can you prove there is God.”

Well, at 61, this roller coaster called ‘There is God… There is no God’ sounded too familiar a ride. I tried to explain, “Dudes, I have been a Nastik myself, once, when hot blood ran through my veins. The God, Who was packed inside my soul, was very much there in me till I became a young man like you two. Then, one day, I declared, ‘I don’t believe in God’… Many years passed by, many highs and lows… Then, slowly, as blood in my veins turned colder, I called back God, So, presently, yes, I believe in God.”

As expected, Kavish wanted a proof!

Namrata was angry!

“Raja, I cannot give a proof, that God exists,” I said calmly, “But, I can show you this computer.”

Two days ago, my office computer started behaving weirdly and, finally, it went into sleep. I had no clue about its cause. Naturally, I called Anup, the hardware-cum-software technician. After spending some thirty minutes trying to figure out the cause, he said, “I will have to take the processor… Will let you know in two days.”

Two days got over today… Anup hasn’t called back, yet.  And, I am not at all in a hurry, thanks to my sleek-fast-laptop!

My two young Nastik students were looking at each other as if to ask, “What is the connection between God and this goddamn computer?”

“Dudes, I have no idea as to how a PC works… Leave alone ‘this software and hardware’,” I said, pointing to my head and body. “All that I know is, that ‘Someone’ has put this ‘machine’ together, so beautifully… The heart beats on its own, the breathing happens on its own, the brain thinks on its own and the blood flows on its own… The eyes blink, they see… The nose smell… The ears hear… The kidney filters, the liver and pancreas quietly do their job… Someone out there lets these things happen without even asking my permission. And, the more I think about it, the more silent my tongue becomes. I have stopped asking about God’s existence… His existence doesn’t depend on my belief. But, my existence, certainly, does.”

Well, it’s not possible to convert atheists into theists so easily, with the kind of ‘naive proof’ and ‘arguments’ I had just put forward. So, I narrated to my two young atheists this Mulla Nasruddin story…

One day, Mulla was feeding and caressing his beloved donkey. Just then, an all-knowing Scholar came to him and asked, “Mulla, do you know where the center of earth is?”

“Oh, yes,” Mulla answered casually as he continued to feed and caress his donkey.

“Where?” the Scholar challenged.

“Here,” Mulla pointed, “right under my donkey’s right foot!”

Was it a good-enough proof for the Center of earth? I looked at my own Scholars. Before, they could come out with a strong rebuttal, Namrata came to my rescue. Unable to contain her joy, she asked curiously, “Sir, did the Scholar bend down to check it?”

By now, the class for the day was over… Tomorrow will be a holiday…

A Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all… To my awesome twosome, too!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Yuliya Kosolapova