A MISERABLE EXPERIMENT

“God is always looking after you, so chant His name n be at peace” thus concluded the only discourse I ever heard on ASTHA channel. It was a chill morning n my parents were rapturously watching the live telecast of some saint whose name I am not hiding but I really don’t remember, n how can I ? Everyone is either some shri shri swami shri or some ‘anand’ in the end, so its quite a task to recognize nowadays saint by their names.

Anyway, after its conclusion, I went to my study room but was unable to forget the concluding remark “God is always looking after you....” I wondered how can it be possible! Saints only say that god is ONE. So how can that one look after so many people on earth. Of course, I didn’t believe in it even a bit.  So I thought to put this statement to a test. I made a plan. Next day I had an exam n had to go to Varanasi from Allahabad. Its roughly 150 Kms apart. I departed the same afternoon by bus towards Varanasi n deliberately took minimum money with me, I just had Rs 200 in my pocket. The fare was Rs 85. I paid it from the money I had. N in the middle of the journey, bus stopped at a point for some refreshments. I took this opportunity n gave the rest of my money to a nearby beggar. Now I was penniless. Bus reached Varanasi nearly at 5 pm. As I was not having any money, I thought to roam aimlessly in the city. I didn’t have any other choice. Till    7 pm, i wondered here n there appreciating the beauty of the city. But after all that travel n aimless wondering, I got very tired n hungry, the latter was more dominating. I said to myself- Don't worry, if god is looking after me, he has to make some arrangement. One hour passed, the hunger took an intense form n there was no help from the so called GOD! I thought may be He is checking my trust n patience . Another 2 hour passed but my hunger got worse n my little belief in god started diminishing exponentially. I was cursing myself for deliberately putting myself through all this. It was 10:30 pm n I was so tired that I sat under a nearby tree. I tried to sleep but the damn hunger was not allowing my body to fall asleep. I started cursing that saint “how liar he is! Misguiding so many people in the name of God”

Suddenly I remembered, that I had a 500 rupee note inside one of the chains of my bag. Actually a week ago, a friend of mine returned me rs 500 which he once borrowed from me. I am in the habit of keeping high value currency in my bag instead of my pocket so that time also I did the same thing. When i checked my bag, yes, it was there!! I can’t tell you how happy I was to find that... I  first managed my hunger by visiting a restaurant, then took a very ordinary room for one night within that stringent budget n even managed to return home the next day comfortably.

HENCE....my conclusion after that incident was-“ If I have even a ten rupee note, my belief in that note will always be million times more than on some abstract concept like GOD “

We  should always use our common sense  more, rather than believing in god, blindly. God is nice n good in books n theories. But in reality, if you have a better means, choose that always instead of sitting in a hope that god my descend to you n say-“ Are you hungry my child? Here is a burger n coke for you.”

-Kaavya