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Dear God

Dear God,

I lost faith in you long ago.  You did nothing to reinstate my faith.  You don’t care either way, I guess.  When millions of innocent people have been killed brutally in your name (which may be spelt differently by different people) and you never seemed to bother a bit, why should the loss of faith by someone as insignificant as me bother you?

Nevertheless, I’m curious.  Do you really care about anything at all?  I can put aside the earthquakes and tsunamis and other natural calamities in the name of natural laws which you might not like to fiddle with.  I prefer to see you as a law-abiding entity.  Then will arise a question: are you the creator of the cosmos or are you just a part of it?

If you are the creator, couldn’t you have done a little better work?  Couldn’t you create creatures capable of a little less evil and a little more goodness?  Why was evil necessary at all?  Or is goodness impossible without evil?  Are you also a blend of both?

What about the other guys up there?  In my country there are some 33,000 crore versions of you, it seems. Do you all fight with one another for supremacy?  For more acreage of the heavens?  Do you have elections to choose a leader or do you fight wars like our ancestors did to decide the occupier of the throne?  Do some of you indulge in manipulations and swindling like your creature here on earth do?  Do you find us, your creatures, amusing or silly or just not worth bothering about?

Do you hold some occasional conclaves like we do in the United Nations Organisation or OECD or OPEC to pull out the thorns planted in the flesh by one another?  Do Krishna and Jesus and Allah have a drink together?  I mean, at least a cup of coffee?  Or do you fight among yourselves allocating soma to the Indian gods and wine to Jesus and his variations and halal liquid to Allah?  Do you organise ghar vapsis for bringing back gods who might have deserted the fold for some reason or another at some time or another?  

I have a lot more questions.  But I’ll ask them once you answer these.  Hope to start an enlightening dialogue with you.

Yours sincerely,
Tom (Dick or Harry)

PS. Written in response to the latest ‘indispire’ theme [Unsent Letters] at Indiblogger.




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Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 7, 2015 at 4:32 PM

    With the recent happenings around this world these questions are so obvious to come into our minds. But I have decided that none of these should make my faith dwindle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 7, 2015 at 6:29 PM

      I admire you, Namrata. You are able to retain your faith in spite of all ....

      Delete
  2. Nima DasMarch 7, 2015 at 6:35 PM

    LOL this was good one. A letter for the ONE and only God of all gods.Enjoyed reading it with a smile!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 7, 2015 at 6:49 PM

      If there indeed are as many gods as India believes in, then there has to be a Narendra Modi or Hitler among them, Nina. My letter is addressed to HIM.

      Delete
  3. Roohi BhatnagarMarch 8, 2015 at 3:38 AM

    Your faith as an Atheist is stronger than the faith of a believer.
    Your questions are far more spiritual than all the rituals of all religions done together.
    As for the good v/s evil, I feel they cannot do without each other..
    For HE has given us free will to accept any of them as our brother..
    But if we want to get rid of Evil, still..
    Than better we stop distinguishing between everything and nill..

    Just scribbled some rhymes.. hope they are nt too bad :P.. btw nice letter.. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 8, 2015 at 9:07 AM

      Thank you, Roohi. I'm delighted probably because in spite of all the intellectual and rational objectivity I uphold I still have a very subjective and "evil" ego that likes to be boosted. :)

      I liked your highlighting HE for god. Long ago, as a student to priesthood in a Christian philosophy seminary, I raised the question whether god was necessarily masculine and was told that I was running the risk of being a heretic. Such is religion.

      Delete
  4. AnonymousMarch 8, 2015 at 10:11 AM

    Having been a believer myself, I asked so many questions. Finally I have realised that the version of God we are taught about is so skewed. I have decided to have more realistic beliefs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 8, 2015 at 10:14 AM

      God haunted me for too many years, Jaibala. I couldn't escape, I thought. Finally I managed to.

      Delete
  5. SangrywordsMarch 8, 2015 at 10:43 AM

    I really wish that he answers to your letter real soon ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 8, 2015 at 11:28 AM

      :)
      But HE doesn't exist, does HE?

      Delete
    2. SangrywordsMarch 8, 2015 at 4:47 PM

      I keep changing my views on it, while I have to confess I find it comforting to believe he does exist .. :)

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 8, 2015 at 5:41 PM

      Can you send me a response imagining yourself as God, Sangeeta? Seriously, I would love that.

      Delete
  6. UnknownMarch 8, 2015 at 12:15 PM

    As a kid I believed in god and in his magical powers.. but as I grew up, reality struck me hard.. when see the world and sufferings and things that are happening in the name of religion and god, I strongly believe he is not there.. There is a supreme power.. it could be sunlight or anything that is helping us survive.. I am not saying Rama, Krishna were not there.. I believe they were just kings not gods.. There are saints, messengers but I believe they are just good people believing in good.. There is no god.. If he is, he wouldn't just create us , watch us fight and kill and have fun.. right???? I liked your idea of god being a part of the cosmos not the creator.. May be he is as helpless as we are

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 8, 2015 at 12:38 PM

      Shruti, many years ago I wrote a poem on the theme of god being a part of the cosmos. It's one of my favourite poems (our of my own, I mean). Let me paste it below. It was published in an anthology of poems at that time.

      God's Love Song

      I willed my being into an extension
      And the cosmos was born in a Bang:
      Every birth is a terror and a joy,
      Every creation an extension of a core.
      I live, move, and have my being
      In all that is, and that shall be,
      Much as in the core that sits here.

      Hypothesis is what the creation was
      When I let myself go in a bang:
      An overflow of love infinite.
      Experiment is what the creation is
      When I add patterns in the mosaic:
      A sporting game of love unremitting.
      Abel was I, much as Cain was.

      I am the turbulence of the rolling waters,
      The rage of blasting bombs and fleeting bullets,
      The hunger in the eyes of widows and babies,
      The roar of the clouds, and the grace of the rainbow.
      And the nailed wail on the crucifix.
      Evolution is what the creation is, of
      The hell and the heaven that I am.

      Delete
  7. Anita SabatMarch 9, 2015 at 11:20 AM

    I guess your post has been submitted to IndiVine instead of IndiSpire.
    Do write to Team IB & they will shift it to the list of all posts for the same topic.

    Incidentally, my post has a similar premise! Even I have shared about letters to God with questions like- if He's the creator why does He destroy?
    Someday, hope all our letters will get replies...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 9, 2015 at 11:27 AM

      It was my mistake. I realised it after posting.

      The answers may be destined to be mysteries.

      Delete
  8. AnonymousMarch 10, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    "Couldn’t you create creatures capable of a little less evil and a little more goodness? Why was evil necessary at all? Or is goodness impossible without evil?" these are my questions too. Why bad things happen to good people. And bad people get away with whatever they do? I have seen it multiple times. But I was taught that we need to be good and good will come to us. When I realized that this is not true in most of the cases my faith is shaken. Wish Almighty read your message as in the movie Bruce Almighty :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 11, 2015 at 9:46 AM

      There are many experiences in my life too which show that wickedness is much more powerful and hence successful than goodness. The other day, after reading this post, a friend of mine rang me up to argue that truth will win in the end. I said, "We have that motto (satyameva jayate) inscribed on our national insignia for decades. Has truth really prevailed?... Even if it does, in the end, it would have taken much painful toll on the honest persons..." I read a lot of philosophers in order to get a satisfactory answer to this problem. Finally I accepted the view that 'God' is also evolving with the cosmos. After all, God is a human creation!

      Delete
  9. Yogi SaraswatMarch 10, 2015 at 10:32 AM

    If you are the creator, couldn’t you have done a little better work? Couldn’t you create creatures capable of a little less evil and a little more goodness? Why was evil necessary at all? Or is goodness impossible without evil? Are you also a blend of both? impressive and true questions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 11, 2015 at 9:48 AM

      God's agents on the earth (priests, preachers, reformists) are usually more evil than the simply layman!

      Delete

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