Prayer!!

A school prayer was distracting my business thought process. I wanted to think and go deep into my thought lane to come out of the worries and the problems I am facing currently. The more I was thinking, I was going more into the fearsome worries den. Now the distracting prayers were irritating to me. Unintentionally I opened my mouth to say, “This 3rd grade schools teach students these third grade prayers. You are the one to save from when I lose my way. You are the one to save me when I get in to trouble. What nonsense is this. Is this a school ?”.

“God is not going to save you when you are in trouble, you have to save yourself. You should make yourself capable enough to fight against the odds. Don’t expect some funnily decorated god to come with ammunitions to protect you.”, I said without realizing that somebody could listen to me.

“Hi, I am headmaster of this school! How can I help you?”, the person standing next to me asked.

“No, thank you. I am just waiting for my friend here who went home to collect some stuff. He stays the next door.”, I said.

“Oh! Okay. I thought you were complaining about the prayer of my school. May be I heard wrong”, he said.

In order to not look like a loser I said, “Ohh!! Yes, I do have a problem. Why do you teach your children that god our best friend and he will come to save us in every situation. You know it’s not true. Our power within is going to save us not any external entity.”, I explained with pride and confidence.

“You need education.”, He said and held my hand and dragged me towards his office. There was a mirror in his office.  The office I am referring to is a 4×6 ft room. He said “Look at yourself. At mid-thirties you have more grey hair than me, you are completely out of shape and you look tired at 8:00 AM in the morning. You think you can help yourself. I can read thousands of thoughts in your mind are trying to drag you down. You look unhappy and dissatisfied. Do you think you can be any good for anybody in this world. If I am reading correctly the energy source within you has extinguished. How many times have you felt good about yourself? How many people you make happy a day? I am sorry to ask you or tell you tough things but I see you need education.”

“What do you mean by education? I am a MBA post B. Tech. I own a big portion of India operations of a big multinational with 400 employees reporting to me. I can teach you and your staff about 100 things which you losers have never heard of. I am standing here should be an honor for you. So cut these crap and go back to what you were doing.”, I said with anger and left the place. By that time my friend or rather my boss came out from his home and waved at me. I went near him and we both sat in his car to go back to office.

“What was my father telling you?”, he asked.

“What!! who is your father?”, I asked with surprise and embarrassment.

“The head master of that school. I studied in that school till 10th. It looks like a small street side shop but for me that’s where I learn most of my life lessons. The other schools just refined and reemphasized my thoughts.”, he said.

I just went blank. I preferred to stay quiet and not to complicate the matter.

My worries at work and life was not reducing. No self help book was good enough. I was gradually seen as a failure in my professional circle.  I was hurting more than helping. I was getting emotionally hurt more than ever. I was getting into a stage called depression. None of my skills were able to get me the solution I needed.

While coming home at late night to home I heard the same prayer was playing in radio which I heard in the school the other day. My usual reaction is to change the channel to hear some catchy number but tonight I stopped. I listened to the prayer completely. I thought, “Is there any chance god is there and can help? I need external help now. ”. I started having palpitation and sweating. Breathing was fast and deep. I thought I must speed up my car to reach home early. Speeding the car  was not the right decision but that’s what I could think of at that moment. I was almost there. It was few hundred meters to my home but suddenly I felt a jerk within and lost compete control to hit the roadside garbage bin. Half a dozen stray dogs were distracted from taking their dinner and started barking at the car without stopping for a moment. Some people from the nearby societies came running to rescue me and took me to doctor. “A mild heart attack”, doctor said. Series of treatments and strict diet and lonely days and nights in hospital made me think more about external help. At the same time my boss and his father came to meet me. After their visit my boss went office but his father stayed for a while. Actually I requested him to stay.

I asked, “Sir, I need education. I realized that I need education. Please help me. I am sorry for rudeness the other day. I am sure you have forgiven me.”

“Not a problem. He smiled. I chose the profession of teaching to educate people so you are asking me to do my duty not a favor.”, he replied.

“There is a energy source within ourselves. But it can’t self ignite. It’s like your car. It has petrol but you have to turn the ignition key to start. This energy I am talking about is not the energy that makes you walk or talk. Rather the energy that keeps your intellect running. A calm and relaxed mind will help igniting the energy within. When you study with concentration, when you surrender yourself in front of your parents you actually ignite it. But there is another always available way to ignite it. That’s god. Somebody who you think is super powerful and can do everything is god. Can’t be human because no human is super powerful. You have to build that entity but don’t waste your time in doing it yourself. Our ancestors have imagined the best possible forms and created them already. Pick one of those powerful imaginations and surrender. You have to truly surrender without any doubt on that power. These prayers can help doing that.”, he said very patiently.

“You are ready to take on from here but if you need help do call me. Don’t forget I am a teacher by profession.”.

Namaste!!

– Stray Dog