Skip to main content

Illusions



What will happen if God incarnates as a man and starts living with us? Of course, we will kill him and then worship him. Gods cannot be easy to live with though they may be great if kept at a safe distance. Richard Bach’s 1977 novel, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah is about God’s incarnation in contemporary America. Donald Shimoda is God’s name.

Both Donald the messiah and Richard the narrator are engaged in the same profession of flying people in their small planes for a fare. Donald resigned as the messiah with God’s permission. Unlike the Biblical God who demanded the Christ’s crucifixion, Donald’s God tells him to do whatever he likes. “Not my will, but thine be done for what is thy will is mine for thee,” the voice on the hilltop tells Donald. “Go thy way as other men, and be thou happy on the earth.”

Thus Donald takes up the job of flying people. But you can’t hide your real self for too long. It becomes clear to people that Donald is not just another ordinary human being. The little girl who had a terrible fear of heights is taken for a flight by Donald. The man on the wheelchair who couldn’t take a step by himself also walks to his seat in the plane when Donald tells him, “Come on, let’s go.”

Donald is interviewed at the Jeff Sykes radio talk show and the right-wing listeners are agitated by his views on human freedom. Religions are inherently about controlling human freedom. What are religions without commandments and other restrictions? Donald advocates freedom, absolute freedom. But he does not impose his views on anyone. In fact, he doesn’t teach anything anywhere. He is answering questions that are being put to him in the radio show. That’s all. He is not bothered whether you accept his views or not. You are free to do what you want.

People don’t want teachings. They want miracles. Donald knew that. People don’t care about your truths and teachings. They just want miracles. Miracles. Heal their diseases. Change their water into wine. Entertain them by walking from New York to London on the ocean. Pull gold coins out from nowhere. They will love those tricks. But they won’t care for what you really want them to: internalise your message.
 
A page from the novel
And what if they start taking your words seriously? They won’t like you. They will hate you positively. They will crucify you. They will shoot you. They will lynch you. And then, maybe, worship you.

Richard Bach is not a literary writer. You won’t find any student of literature doing research on his books. His books won’t be prescribed by universities. Yet Illusions deserves to be read for one reason: he forces us to take a look at our religious views and beliefs. What do they mean?

What does your religion mean to you? Does it liberate you or enslave you? Does it make you a nobler human being or a belligerent creature worse than the animals? What does your God mean to you? These are questions that need be raised again and again, especially in a world where there are too many religions and too little compassion.
 
A page from the novel
PS. By coincidence, today is Good Friday, commemoration of the martyrdom of a messiah. Jesus was crucified for the same reasons as Donald Shimoda was shot dead: liberating or trying to liberate people from enslaving canons and rubrics. The essence of Jesus’ teachings is love. Where there is love, commandments and rituals are redundant. You can break the rules for the sake of love and compassion, Jesus taught. The priests of Judaism couldn’t accept that because that would erode their power over the people. So they decided that Jesus had to die. This would be the fate of any god who incarnates among men at any time. Will god dare to descend among today’s people?


PPS. This is part of a series being written for the #BlogchatterA2Z Challenge. The previous parts are:
Tomorrow: Jude the Obscure


Comments

  1. Seems to be an interesting take on the concept of religion and God. Good to remember the essence of the life of Jesus on this day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The book sold millions of copies in 70s and 80s. I read it first as a student.

      Delete
  2. This is another one I haven't read. I'm not a religious person but it doesn't mean I don't believe in God.
    Nonetheless that on line caught me...People don't want your teachings. They want their water changed to wine. I've got hooked to it. And it's making me think a lot. Because just the other day while having a conversation about the existence of God, I did say that as long as the doctors don't come up with something we need His miracle. I'm just wondering.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Faith has its merits and advantages. But it's also a terror. I stop one step this side of it.

      Delete
  3. Let alone God incarnating even if a man is more idealistic we tend to idolize to isolate and dehumanize him by building temples and placing statues so God cannot expect much from the Judas called mankind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is indeed true that people are afraid of freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. Most people are interested in religion sdo that they can bind themselves with chains of comfort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why Marx called religion the opium of the masses.

      Delete
  5. I love Richard Bach's books.
    Thanks for sharing & reminding about Illusions.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A book that raises questions about religion and god will always interest me. Will check this out. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. "People don’t want teachings. They want miracles. Donald knew that. People don’t care about your truths and teachings. They just want miracles. Miracles. Heal their diseases. Change their water into wine. Entertain them by walking from New York to London on the ocean. Pull gold coins out from nowhere. They will love those tricks. But they won’t care for what you really want them to: internalise your message."

    So very true.... And I also wonder if it was today.. Would God like to come down and live a life like man?

    Will add this book too to my reading list!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have this book lying on my shelf and I tried reading it not once but twice. And gave it up. This time round I think I will read it up. I agree with the line People want got for miracles not for his teachings!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your book recommendations are very interesting, and so are your reviews of them. Another great pick. I don't think much about God and religion. For me, it is just about faith and hope. Prayer gives me strength to carry on in difficult times, and gratitude keeps me happy in good times. Its been good this way!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As long as our religion or faith keeps our conscience clear, it's good.

      Delete
  10. I have read Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull but not this one. Reminded me of Bruce Almighty! Adding Illusions to my TBR. Thanks for recommending it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'll love it if you found Jonathan interesting.

      Delete
  11. This is what I think is called brain-expanding. The idea that if God were to incarnate today, he'd be killed is depressing, but also realistic in a weird sense. The bit about people only wanting miracles is true too.
    I've heard Bach's name a few times, but I've never read his work. Maybe I should.


    Fantastic post. Thanks for this.
    Best wishes for the rest of the A2Z. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you found it interesting. Welcome to this space.

      Delete
  12. Life itself is an illusion. When we live and love without any fear and with freedom of choice, life is worth lived!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Ugly Duckling

Source: Acting Company A. A. Milne’s one-act play, The Ugly Duckling , acquired a classical status because of the hearty humour used to present a profound theme. The King and the Queen are worried because their daughter Camilla is too ugly to get a suitor. In spite of all the devious strategies employed by the King and his Chancellor, the princess remained unmarried. Camilla was blessed with a unique beauty by her two godmothers but no one could see any beauty in her physical appearance. She has an exquisitely beautiful character. What use is character? The King asks. The play is an answer to that question. Character plays the most crucial role in our moral science books and traditional rhetoric, religious scriptures and homilies. When it comes to practical life, we look for other things such as wealth, social rank, physical looks, and so on. As the King says in this play, “If a girl is beautiful, it is easy to assume that she has, tucked away inside her, an equally beauti...

Helpless Gods

Illustration by Gemini Six decades ago, Kerala’s beloved poet Vayalar Ramavarma sang about gods that don’t open their eyes, don’t know joy or sorrow, but are mere clay idols. The movie that carried the song was a hit in Kerala in the late 1960s. I was only seven when the movie was released. The impact of the song, like many others composed by the same poet, sank into me a little later as I grew up. Our gods are quite useless; they are little more than narcissists who demand fresh and fragrant flowers only to fling them when they wither. Six decades after Kerala’s poet questioned the potency of gods, the Chief Justice of India had a shoe flung at him by a lawyer for the same thing: questioning the worth of gods. The lawyer was demanding the replacement of a damaged idol of god Vishnu and the Chief Justice wondered why gods couldn’t take care of themselves since they are omnipotent. The lawyer flung his shoe at the Chief Justice to prove his devotion to a god. From Vayalar of 196...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

Sex and Sin

Disclaimer: This is not a book review The first discovery made by Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God was sex. Sex is sin in Christianity except when the union takes place with the sole intention of procreation like a farmer sowing the seed. Saint Augustine said, Adam and Eve would have procreated by a calm, rational act of the will if they had continued to live in the Garden of Eden. The Catholic Church wants sex to be a rational act for it not to be a sin. The body and its passions are evil. The soul is holy and belongs to God. One of the most poignant novels I’ve read about the body-soul conflict in Catholicism is Sarah Joseph’s Othappu . Originally written in Malayalam, it was translated into English with the same Malayalam title. The word ‘othappu’ doesn’t have an exact equivalent in English. Approximately, it means ‘scandal’ as in the Biblical verse: “ If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around t...