NAMO NAMO JI SHANKARA

 




“Sometimes, God’s blessings are not in what He gives;

but, in what He takes away.” 

-– Anonymous

 

Yesterday, a dear friend of my wife and me, Anisha, had invited us to watch the Marathi play –- ‘Mukkam Post Pandharpur’. As Anisha’s friend was one of the producers of the play, the front-row tickets were complimentary for us… We loved the play…

It’s the touching story of young army recruit, Mawli, who was born and brought up in the holy land of Vitthala (Lord Vishnu) –- ‘Pandharpur’ (near Sholapur). As another friend of mine has been undertaking the padyatra to Pandharpur every year (hundreds of kilometers), I knew how powerful such faith in Vitthala was. But, not for the protagonist of the play, Mawli. He didn’t have any faith in either Vitthala or any of His Vasudevas… He would argue angrily with whoever displayed devotion to Vitthala… To him, it was a blind faith… Vitthala was dead.

So, young Mawli, just after getting married, is posted at Siachen base. Soon, the news comes home, that he and his unit members are buried under a deadly avalanche… His wife and other family members are devastated… While everyone in the family and the neighbourhood has lost hope, the wife hasn’t… “He will come back… I have full faith in Vitthala,” she declares…

There, in the mountains, we see how miserably Mawli is trapped under a heavy weight of ice… He is alive; but, he is left with no strength, no help, all alone… He is struggling, he is remembering his wife and family… but, he is still unwilling to remember Vitthala…

Then, that unthinkable happens… Mawli is saved. But, by his fellow army men, or by Vitthala? By now, the icy heart has melted…

Mawli is home… to Pandharpur… ‘Vitthala, Vitthala…Vitthala’!

“On a sinking boat, there cannot be an atheist.”  Well, strange are Vitthala’s ways!





As I was returning home after the play, my mind was flooded with the painful images of devastation in Nepal… What an irony it was! The hundreds of devotees, who were washed away and trapped under the avalanche of another kind, weren’t any hardened atheists like Mawli… They were indefatigable devotees of Lord Shiva… They had undertaken the long-cherished pilgrimage to His abode…

I am an insignificant human to question Lord’s ways… While it’s easy to shout at Shiva, “Why have you abandoned me?”… It’s, also, easy to find peace in times like this…

Yes, Lord’s ways are strange… Faith is strange… Coming Home is strange… The old proverb reminds us:

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over,

it became a butterfly.” 

Lord, Thy will be done.

 





GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: 1. www.alamy.com  2. www.indiadaily.com   


Video: ZEE Music Company

 

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