I ask so many questions to my mother. But I don’t receive any convincing reply.
I asked – why should we not cut nails after 6 PM? Why should I eat only with the right hand? Why should I not bite my nails? Why do girls grow long hair? Why do we have pockets in left side of the shirt? Why should I pray god? Why should I go to temple? Why should we sit for sometime after our prayers? Why should we keep vibhoothi (ash) on our forehead? …
In spite of myriad of my ‘whys’, I did not get any reply. Whenever I ask her, she says ‘That is how it works.’
After some point of time, I started introspecting and started asking myself many questions. Here starts my conversation between me and my self, (He – my self, they – our ancestors)
‘Now tell me, why we should not cut nails after 6 PM,’ I said.
‘It is easy to ask questions but difficult to answer,’ he said.
‘Let me tell you, in those days, there was no power. So, it would have been dark after 6. When we cut nails, there are chances that nails get scattered on the ground, pricking us whenever we mistakenly step on them,’ I said.
‘Ya, you are right. You know why we eat with our right hand?’ he asked.
‘After using toilet, we use our left hand to clean. Our excreta contain many microorganisms that are harmful to our health. We do not want to intake it and so we use our right hand to eat. That is also the reason behind considering left hand as inauspicious and why we should not bite our nails and take our hands nearer to the mouth when it is not actually needed,’ I said.
‘Well. Even though, microorganisms were discovered only in the 17th century, our ancestors knew long back that there is something harmful in our excreta.’ He said.
‘Yes, but even now people tell them they were superstitious. They are genius, aren’t they?’ I said.
Yes they are and do you know the reason behind girls growing long hair,’ he asked.
‘Woman’s body produces more bad smell than a man’s body. They (our ancestors) knew flowers smell good. So, women were asked to place flowers on their body in order to counter their body smell. That’s why women had long hair and placed flowers on them. But see nowadays, we use synthetic deodorants and scents which are suffocating,’ I said.
‘Women even forgot that keeping flowers adds to their beauty’ he said.
‘Yes, what to do,’ I said sadly.
‘And what is the reason behind you using AXE for some days,’ he asked.
‘Why do you want to pull my legs now,’ I said.
‘Just tell me no,’ he said.
‘I saw an advertisement where three girls were behind a guy who had put AXE. So, I too wanted some girls following me. I tried for two days, but none followed me,’ I grinned.
‘he he. Do you know why we have pockets in the left side of the shirts?’ he said.
‘Most of the Indians are right handed. Therefore, it is easy to use the right hand to take anything that is in the left hand side pocket,’ I said.
‘What do you think about our ancestors, do you feel they are superstitious in some respects?’ he asked.
‘Not at all. In fact, they are very smart,’ I said.
‘Ok. What do you feel about god?’ he quizzed.
I have asked this question to many people and I have got many responses for and against. The first person to whom I asked this question was my mother. She told ‘God is invisible. He is everywhere and you can feel his presence (thoonilum iruppar thurumbilum iruppar) but you cannot see him. He is the superpower and he is watching each and every one of us.’
‘Are you an atheist?’ he asked.
I smiled. My mother once said to me, ‘You should not lie; if you lie then God will poke your eyes’. That whole day, I lied for everything, not to get my eyes poked but I desperately wanted to see God.
‘What are you trying to say?’ he said.
‘It’s not that I don’t believe in god, but science makes ‘God’ unnecessary.’ I said.
‘You think you are smart? I know this has been already said by Stephen Hawking’, he said.
‘Oh, you knew already. Well, God is someone who imparts good values in human. God gives us faith, courage, self confidence, a helping hand when we are in trouble, a pat when we have achieved something. To be precise, God gives everything one needs for his living. Take the example of a child that falls down and cries. Its mother tells the child that she will punish the floor that has hurt him; she even strikes the floor a couple of times with the palm of her hand. The child dries out its tears and goes away, comforted. Has the mother’s act in any way diminished the child’s pain? Then why does it stop crying? It knows that here is someone who will take care of it, no matter what, and that it need not worry when its mother is around. We are very much like the child who falls down: we face difficulties, but we feel comforted when we know that God is keeping watch over us. Our problems cannot be driven away, but the burden seems lighter when we have faith in God.’ I said.
‘Do you feel God is having an eye on all of us?’ he asked.
‘Our ancestors wanted people to live with values. They did not want us to live in whatever way we liked. They had their own set of rules. They wanted – One to be faithful, good to all, not to cause even a small harm to others. They wanted to impart these good values to the fellow humans, but nobody seemed listening to them. They decided that there should be something which monitors each and every move of us. That is how God came into existence. We are told that God sees all our activities and we should do good and be good.’ I said.
‘So, do you mean to say that there is some reason behind each and everything we do?’ he said.
‘Yes, there is,’ I said.
‘Oh, is it. Ok then, now I am gonna corner you with multitude of questions.’ he said.
‘Yes, go ahead,’ I said.
‘You say God is everywhere then why are temples built?’ he said.
‘Temples are built to show us the presence of God and to let the world know how much faith and respect one has towards God’ I said.
‘Why should one pray God?’ he asked.
‘Life is made of both happiness and sorrow. We will happily share our joyous things to anybody. But when it comes to sorrow, we can’t share some of our sad things even to our parents and also to our close friends. When it happens, the internal stress increases leading to many complications. So, we are in need of someone to whom we can share anything and everything. That ultimately became God who listens to you and gives you courage to face the odds.’
‘Why should one go to temple to get his blessings?’ he asked.
‘Temples are not places where you just unload your sorrow. It is also the place which makes you fit and teaches you values. Our temples are built big. After our prayers, we go round the temple three times (Pirahaaram). This is not just to ask God to fulfill our wishes, but to make ourselves fit and healthy. Nowadays, we see people who did not go round the temple when they were fifteen but now wandering in parks and beaches after turning obese at fifty.’ I said.
‘What is the reason behind priest chanting mantras?’ he said.
‘When a mantra is chanted, vibrational energy is produced which gets distributed in the nervous system and helps to ensure health, healing, prosperity and peace in human,’ I said.
‘Tell me why we sit for sometime after our prayers?’ he said.
‘After doing 3 rounds of pirahaaram won’t our legs pain, that’s why we take rest for sometime before leaving the temple. Additionally, it also gives us pleasure of spending time with our family,’ I said.
‘Fine. Why do they say, we should not eat before going to temple? Do they mean to say we are not respecting God and giving preference to food?’ he said.
‘No, when we eat and do some activity, the blood will go to the moving parts of the body. Scientifically, our stomach needs blood to digest the food particles after we eat. So, when we eat and go to temple, we are denying blood to our stomach which leads to indigestion. Therefore, it is a good practice to eat after having our prayers.’ I said.
‘So, we should refrain from any physical activity after eating,’ he said.
Yes, I nodded.
‘What is the reason behind keeping vibhoothi in forehead?’ he said.
‘We place vibhoothi in between the two eyebrows in the region called as glabella. Pituitary gland, the master endocrine gland is situated beneath the glabella. When we touch the glabella, the master gland is activated, which controls all the other endocrine glands namely pineal gland, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, thymus gland, islets of Langerhans, adrenal gland, ovary and testis. This master gland which is activated when touched, secretes hormones which help in growth, functioning of the adrenal gland and in reproduction’ I said.
‘It sounds Greek and Latin to me,’ he said.
‘I came to know about this when I attended meditation class,’ I said.
‘Great. But this question is going to be very tough, ‘he said.
‘Go ahead,’ I said.
‘Everything is for good. Then why don’t you believe in God?’ he said.
‘Yes, I agree, but there are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The worst thing that God brought us is division in human into different religion which is in turn divided into caste. Based on who one worships, he is categorized into that religion. You know, what all are happening due to these divisions and misconceptions. The well-known Ayodhya dispute where Hindus and Muslims fought for occupying a piece of land. In that tussle, more than 2000 people lost their lives. Few months back, a Muslim girl eloped with a Hindu guy. They were caught by the relatives of the Muslim girl and both were honour killed. There was another similar incident where a Hindu girl eloped with a Dalit boy. Agitated by the incident, the father of the girl tortured and stripped off the boy’s mother and she was beaten up on the road,’ I said.
‘But why do you want to take the bad things when there are many good things to cherish?’ he said.
‘Nowadays people show no interest in good things. You remember the case of Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 69 people in Norway. He, who is a Christian, wanted to expel Muslims from Europe. Similar is the case with India and Pakistan, here it is between Hindus and Muslims. Few days back, I also read a headline where a dead woman was denied burial by caste Hindus in a Dalit graveyard as she got converted to Christianity. If she had believed God is one, then she would not have converted to Christianity at the first place. ‘I said.
‘You mean to say that we should stop believing in God,’ he said.
‘Here, I wanted to narrate an incident that happened. Once, I went to Sabarimalai, had my prayers. I started from Kerala and was returning to Chennai. I was at Dindugul bus stand and wanted to go to railway station which was 2 km away to catch the train arriving at 2.30 AM. My watch ticked 2 and I had 30 minutes to cover a distance of 2 km. I was not in a situation to afford an auto as I had only 150 rupees with me with which I also had to get my train ticket. I asked the route to a man at the bus stand and started walking. The station was not on the main road and I had to walk into the interior streets to reach the railway station. I lost my way as it had many turns. There was no one except few dogs in the streets to help me with the way. I even thought, do I ask the route to these dogs, but I was not sure whether they understood human language. I stood there for a while thinking what to do. I was glad when I saw a bike coming in front of me. I waved hands and stopped him. From his gesture, I realized he was drunk. I asked him the way to the station. He told me the route and said ‘Saami, na kuduchurken illaena naane ungala station la vitruvaen. Enna manuchurunga’ (Saami, I’m drunken else I’ll myself drop you at the station, please don’t mistake me). I replied, ‘No problem. In fact, I’m very grateful to you as you helped me when I really needed you’. I thanked him and I started walking hurriedly. I realized the God in him, but when I turned to see him again, he went out of my sight.’ I said.
‘What are you trying to say now? Did you see the movie ‘Anbae Sivam’ recently? If you speak like this, do you think you can become actor Kamal Hassan?’ he said.
‘Jokes apart. What I wanted to convey is we need not look at human as God; but we should at least see a human as human. We should respect others and we should care for all. Here I wanted to say a few words about kavignar Vairamuthu. Though his sons were born with silver spoon, he made his sons to work in his friend’s shop during vacations to let them understand the other side of life.’ I said.
There are two things which make me see God as a superpower.
Firstly, I observe this thumb rule in each and everyone’s life – there is no person who is completely happy and no person who is completely sad. The ‘happiness and sorrow’ is distributed uniformly in each and everyone’s life. I am searching who made this thumb rule. I always use ‘is’ instead of ‘are’ when it comes to happiness and sorrow as I feel these two words are inseparable.
Secondly– It took me many years to understand and realize the reasons behind going to temple, praying God, sitting back for a while after our prayers, etc. So, I think it will take some time for me to become mature to realize His presence.
Let’s believe in God. Let’s take all the good things in everything though bad things come for free. Let’s be good and do good. Let’s teach our children that “There is only one God in the name of ‘God’ and one race called the human race.”
“Ondrae kulam, oruvanae Dhevan”
-Kannappan.
I asked – why should we not cut nails after 6 PM? Why should I eat only with the right hand? Why should I not bite my nails? Why do girls grow long hair? Why do we have pockets in left side of the shirt? Why should I pray god? Why should I go to temple? Why should we sit for sometime after our prayers? Why should we keep vibhoothi (ash) on our forehead? …
In spite of myriad of my ‘whys’, I did not get any reply. Whenever I ask her, she says ‘That is how it works.’
After some point of time, I started introspecting and started asking myself many questions. Here starts my conversation between me and my self, (He – my self, they – our ancestors)
‘Now tell me, why we should not cut nails after 6 PM,’ I said.
‘It is easy to ask questions but difficult to answer,’ he said.
‘Let me tell you, in those days, there was no power. So, it would have been dark after 6. When we cut nails, there are chances that nails get scattered on the ground, pricking us whenever we mistakenly step on them,’ I said.
‘Ya, you are right. You know why we eat with our right hand?’ he asked.
‘After using toilet, we use our left hand to clean. Our excreta contain many microorganisms that are harmful to our health. We do not want to intake it and so we use our right hand to eat. That is also the reason behind considering left hand as inauspicious and why we should not bite our nails and take our hands nearer to the mouth when it is not actually needed,’ I said.
‘Well. Even though, microorganisms were discovered only in the 17th century, our ancestors knew long back that there is something harmful in our excreta.’ He said.
‘Yes, but even now people tell them they were superstitious. They are genius, aren’t they?’ I said.
Yes they are and do you know the reason behind girls growing long hair,’ he asked.
‘Woman’s body produces more bad smell than a man’s body. They (our ancestors) knew flowers smell good. So, women were asked to place flowers on their body in order to counter their body smell. That’s why women had long hair and placed flowers on them. But see nowadays, we use synthetic deodorants and scents which are suffocating,’ I said.
‘Women even forgot that keeping flowers adds to their beauty’ he said.
‘Yes, what to do,’ I said sadly.
‘And what is the reason behind you using AXE for some days,’ he asked.
‘Why do you want to pull my legs now,’ I said.
‘Just tell me no,’ he said.
‘I saw an advertisement where three girls were behind a guy who had put AXE. So, I too wanted some girls following me. I tried for two days, but none followed me,’ I grinned.
‘he he. Do you know why we have pockets in the left side of the shirts?’ he said.
‘Most of the Indians are right handed. Therefore, it is easy to use the right hand to take anything that is in the left hand side pocket,’ I said.
‘What do you think about our ancestors, do you feel they are superstitious in some respects?’ he asked.
‘Not at all. In fact, they are very smart,’ I said.
‘Ok. What do you feel about god?’ he quizzed.
I have asked this question to many people and I have got many responses for and against. The first person to whom I asked this question was my mother. She told ‘God is invisible. He is everywhere and you can feel his presence (thoonilum iruppar thurumbilum iruppar) but you cannot see him. He is the superpower and he is watching each and every one of us.’
‘Are you an atheist?’ he asked.
I smiled. My mother once said to me, ‘You should not lie; if you lie then God will poke your eyes’. That whole day, I lied for everything, not to get my eyes poked but I desperately wanted to see God.
‘What are you trying to say?’ he said.
‘It’s not that I don’t believe in god, but science makes ‘God’ unnecessary.’ I said.
‘You think you are smart? I know this has been already said by Stephen Hawking’, he said.
‘Oh, you knew already. Well, God is someone who imparts good values in human. God gives us faith, courage, self confidence, a helping hand when we are in trouble, a pat when we have achieved something. To be precise, God gives everything one needs for his living. Take the example of a child that falls down and cries. Its mother tells the child that she will punish the floor that has hurt him; she even strikes the floor a couple of times with the palm of her hand. The child dries out its tears and goes away, comforted. Has the mother’s act in any way diminished the child’s pain? Then why does it stop crying? It knows that here is someone who will take care of it, no matter what, and that it need not worry when its mother is around. We are very much like the child who falls down: we face difficulties, but we feel comforted when we know that God is keeping watch over us. Our problems cannot be driven away, but the burden seems lighter when we have faith in God.’ I said.
‘Do you feel God is having an eye on all of us?’ he asked.
‘Our ancestors wanted people to live with values. They did not want us to live in whatever way we liked. They had their own set of rules. They wanted – One to be faithful, good to all, not to cause even a small harm to others. They wanted to impart these good values to the fellow humans, but nobody seemed listening to them. They decided that there should be something which monitors each and every move of us. That is how God came into existence. We are told that God sees all our activities and we should do good and be good.’ I said.
‘So, do you mean to say that there is some reason behind each and everything we do?’ he said.
‘Yes, there is,’ I said.
‘Oh, is it. Ok then, now I am gonna corner you with multitude of questions.’ he said.
‘Yes, go ahead,’ I said.
‘You say God is everywhere then why are temples built?’ he said.
‘Temples are built to show us the presence of God and to let the world know how much faith and respect one has towards God’ I said.
‘Why should one pray God?’ he asked.
‘Life is made of both happiness and sorrow. We will happily share our joyous things to anybody. But when it comes to sorrow, we can’t share some of our sad things even to our parents and also to our close friends. When it happens, the internal stress increases leading to many complications. So, we are in need of someone to whom we can share anything and everything. That ultimately became God who listens to you and gives you courage to face the odds.’
‘Why should one go to temple to get his blessings?’ he asked.
‘Temples are not places where you just unload your sorrow. It is also the place which makes you fit and teaches you values. Our temples are built big. After our prayers, we go round the temple three times (Pirahaaram). This is not just to ask God to fulfill our wishes, but to make ourselves fit and healthy. Nowadays, we see people who did not go round the temple when they were fifteen but now wandering in parks and beaches after turning obese at fifty.’ I said.
‘What is the reason behind priest chanting mantras?’ he said.
‘When a mantra is chanted, vibrational energy is produced which gets distributed in the nervous system and helps to ensure health, healing, prosperity and peace in human,’ I said.
‘Tell me why we sit for sometime after our prayers?’ he said.
‘After doing 3 rounds of pirahaaram won’t our legs pain, that’s why we take rest for sometime before leaving the temple. Additionally, it also gives us pleasure of spending time with our family,’ I said.
‘Fine. Why do they say, we should not eat before going to temple? Do they mean to say we are not respecting God and giving preference to food?’ he said.
‘No, when we eat and do some activity, the blood will go to the moving parts of the body. Scientifically, our stomach needs blood to digest the food particles after we eat. So, when we eat and go to temple, we are denying blood to our stomach which leads to indigestion. Therefore, it is a good practice to eat after having our prayers.’ I said.
‘So, we should refrain from any physical activity after eating,’ he said.
Yes, I nodded.
‘What is the reason behind keeping vibhoothi in forehead?’ he said.
‘We place vibhoothi in between the two eyebrows in the region called as glabella. Pituitary gland, the master endocrine gland is situated beneath the glabella. When we touch the glabella, the master gland is activated, which controls all the other endocrine glands namely pineal gland, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, thymus gland, islets of Langerhans, adrenal gland, ovary and testis. This master gland which is activated when touched, secretes hormones which help in growth, functioning of the adrenal gland and in reproduction’ I said.
‘It sounds Greek and Latin to me,’ he said.
‘I came to know about this when I attended meditation class,’ I said.
‘Great. But this question is going to be very tough, ‘he said.
‘Go ahead,’ I said.
‘Everything is for good. Then why don’t you believe in God?’ he said.
‘Yes, I agree, but there are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The worst thing that God brought us is division in human into different religion which is in turn divided into caste. Based on who one worships, he is categorized into that religion. You know, what all are happening due to these divisions and misconceptions. The well-known Ayodhya dispute where Hindus and Muslims fought for occupying a piece of land. In that tussle, more than 2000 people lost their lives. Few months back, a Muslim girl eloped with a Hindu guy. They were caught by the relatives of the Muslim girl and both were honour killed. There was another similar incident where a Hindu girl eloped with a Dalit boy. Agitated by the incident, the father of the girl tortured and stripped off the boy’s mother and she was beaten up on the road,’ I said.
‘But why do you want to take the bad things when there are many good things to cherish?’ he said.
‘Nowadays people show no interest in good things. You remember the case of Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 69 people in Norway. He, who is a Christian, wanted to expel Muslims from Europe. Similar is the case with India and Pakistan, here it is between Hindus and Muslims. Few days back, I also read a headline where a dead woman was denied burial by caste Hindus in a Dalit graveyard as she got converted to Christianity. If she had believed God is one, then she would not have converted to Christianity at the first place. ‘I said.
‘You mean to say that we should stop believing in God,’ he said.
‘Here, I wanted to narrate an incident that happened. Once, I went to Sabarimalai, had my prayers. I started from Kerala and was returning to Chennai. I was at Dindugul bus stand and wanted to go to railway station which was 2 km away to catch the train arriving at 2.30 AM. My watch ticked 2 and I had 30 minutes to cover a distance of 2 km. I was not in a situation to afford an auto as I had only 150 rupees with me with which I also had to get my train ticket. I asked the route to a man at the bus stand and started walking. The station was not on the main road and I had to walk into the interior streets to reach the railway station. I lost my way as it had many turns. There was no one except few dogs in the streets to help me with the way. I even thought, do I ask the route to these dogs, but I was not sure whether they understood human language. I stood there for a while thinking what to do. I was glad when I saw a bike coming in front of me. I waved hands and stopped him. From his gesture, I realized he was drunk. I asked him the way to the station. He told me the route and said ‘Saami, na kuduchurken illaena naane ungala station la vitruvaen. Enna manuchurunga’ (Saami, I’m drunken else I’ll myself drop you at the station, please don’t mistake me). I replied, ‘No problem. In fact, I’m very grateful to you as you helped me when I really needed you’. I thanked him and I started walking hurriedly. I realized the God in him, but when I turned to see him again, he went out of my sight.’ I said.
‘What are you trying to say now? Did you see the movie ‘Anbae Sivam’ recently? If you speak like this, do you think you can become actor Kamal Hassan?’ he said.
‘Jokes apart. What I wanted to convey is we need not look at human as God; but we should at least see a human as human. We should respect others and we should care for all. Here I wanted to say a few words about kavignar Vairamuthu. Though his sons were born with silver spoon, he made his sons to work in his friend’s shop during vacations to let them understand the other side of life.’ I said.
There are two things which make me see God as a superpower.
Firstly, I observe this thumb rule in each and everyone’s life – there is no person who is completely happy and no person who is completely sad. The ‘happiness and sorrow’ is distributed uniformly in each and everyone’s life. I am searching who made this thumb rule. I always use ‘is’ instead of ‘are’ when it comes to happiness and sorrow as I feel these two words are inseparable.
Secondly– It took me many years to understand and realize the reasons behind going to temple, praying God, sitting back for a while after our prayers, etc. So, I think it will take some time for me to become mature to realize His presence.
Let’s believe in God. Let’s take all the good things in everything though bad things come for free. Let’s be good and do good. Let’s teach our children that “There is only one God in the name of ‘God’ and one race called the human race.”
“Ondrae kulam, oruvanae Dhevan”
-Kannappan.
