Dial-A-God

(This story is in no way related in blood or by marriage to 1-800-GOD, but inspired by the title though…)

Kumaraguru was a fun little boy. He runs around his village – getting customers for his dad’s little workshop. He loved his responsibility – sort of like a marketing manager for his dad. He admired Appa. He taught him how to live honestly and follow God’s path.

Kumar sits atop the mound near the village road a.k.a. the accident zone. The village road was a place with high odds of punctured bikes, bent suspension bars and cycle chain mishaps. And that meant business!

Some days, there will not be any business. Not a single vehicle all day long.

But some days, there will be bounty prizes – like a car or even a punctured bus!

Kumar’s family lived in a tough condition. But his parents made sure he did not feel the pinch. Amma cooked all his favourite meals and showered him with love and care. Appa taught him the lessons of life and survival.

As Kumar grew up, he began to see many facets of the society. He was particularly disturbed by the sight of Lallu Prasad – the village Zameen’s son. They lived not far away from Appa’s workshop. Rich boy, but arrogant and cruel.

He began to see that Lallu Prasad has so much in his life. He travels in chauffeured cars and lives in a mansion.

“Appa, Lallu doesn’t have to run around looking for punctured tires or work day and night repairing bikes and cars. But, he is so rich and has all the luxuries… I don’t understand, pa,” Kumar asked Appa one day.

Appa’s reaction was very mild.

He sighed and said, “Staying good is our biggest wealth, Kumar,” and got back to fixing the cycle chain.

Kumar did not understand what Appa told him that day - he was still bothered.

Kumar was resting on his bed one day and he thought, ‘Lallu Prasad shouted and yelled at his parents. The other day, he kicked a pregnant cat. The next day, he went bird shooting with his cousins. The next day, he got a new bicycle as present – and it wasn’t even his birthday!’

“Why am I so unlucky God?” whispered Kumar to himself, not realizing his words.

It was the usual day at the mound. Kumar was on the watch-out for his customers. He didn’t have enough sleep. Lallu kept bothering him in the sleep.

He looked up and said, “You’re making a mistake God!”

Suddenly he heard a voice – no, not from God – it was the village postman.

“Dey Kumar, you got a parcel!”

Kumar was overjoyed. He never got even a postcard before, let alone a parcel. He dashed down the small hill to the village road.

“What is it Anne?”

“Careful maybe it’s a bomb,” quipped The Postman.

The parcel was heavy. He quickly went up to his workplace at the mound and started unwrapping the parcel.

Kumar’s eyes beamed. It was a phone. He looked around for the name of the person who sent it. There wasn’t any. But the phone had one big yellow button – “DIAL-A-GOD.”

He was sweating all over. His hand quivered as he pressed the big yellow button.

There was a ring tone.

“Hello, Press 1 for Spouse-Related Complaints, Press 2 for Karma Balance, Press 3 to Speak to God”

Kumar was wordless. He was as confused as much as the author of this story.

His hand was making resonating movements as he reached for the ‘3’.

There was another ring tone.

“Hello, God speaking, how may I help you.”

Kumar looked around him. His shirt was drenched. He was scared and doubtful.

“G..g..God…I am K..Kumar..,” he stammered.

“Yes, I know, your question please.”

Kumar cleared his throat. He collected some of the residue confidence lying within.

“God… life is so unfair. The bad guy gets to live in luxury, but good people like those in my family are suffering.”

“Hahaha,” laughed God, God-like.

“I mean, not that I am not happy, but poor Appa has to work so hard to support us. Can’t you see all this?”

“I know, My son. I see this, and beyond,” said God.

“Do you mean to say, we don’t deserve any Grace from you and that Lallu guy gets it all?” Kumar asked – he was in his full form now, furious – with God!

God gave His discourse:
“My son, there are three types of Karma: Past, Present and Future. Present Karma must continue. It is like the carriage behind which is a trail of dust. If the carriage stops, the dust will settle on it. A doubt might be that the carriage cannot forever continue so as to be ahead of its dust. But the carriage need not always travel on a dusty road. It can get on the surface highway where there is no dust.”

“How do we get to the Highway if we can’t even earn a proper living? I am sure you can do something, God – don’t be so selfish!” asked Kumar again, annoyed.

God continued:

“The highway is equivalent to the Grace of God. There is a difference between the benefit of Grace and the benefit of the Bhakthi, or devotion. A patient with pain is given a sedative, which dulls the pain. But Grace is an operation that does entirely away with pain. Make no mistake; Grace does entirely away with Karma. It is like a medicine which is labelled, 'good until 1968'. If used in 1973, the medicine is entirely ineffective. The body is the bottle, the karma in the body is the medicine, God puts a date on the 'medicine'; so it is not effective.”

Kumar was smiling by now. “You mean to say, you can give us Grace as in… a mansion like Lallu and a car, with a driver?”

God smiled. (not through the phone but to himself)

He said, “Look at yourself. You are an embodiment of Divinity. The Divine Principle in you is eternal. That lives today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. Hence, treat the past, present, and future as one - even though our experiences in the three phases of time are different. Do not give much credence to these experiences. Past is past; it will not come back. We are not sure of future. Present is the only reality with which we should be concerned. This is not ordinary present, but omnipresent, because the past as well as future are present in it.”

“But we are suffering,” demanded Kumar.

“Are you? Think again, My son. All your experiences in this changing world are only momentary and unreal. They are like passing clouds. You need not be too much worried about them. You are marching forward. Continue your life’s journey with steadfast faith in God. Why should you have to look back and brood over the past? Money comes and goes, but the morality that your family has will bring you happiness now and forever.”

“Thank you, God,” said Kumar, finally realizing his good fortune. Tears welled up in his eyes. He couldn’t believe that God just spoke to Him.

“It’s my pleasure – contact me anytime you like. If you will excuse me, I have to go now, there is another call from somewhere in Damansara Utama. I guess it must be something urgent.”

And thus spoke God.

May 13th - A Message on Unity

I have always watched Anas Zubedy’s ads in the newspaper. It carries important messages of unity and seeing oneness in all. Although they are a business entity, their blend of business with ethics is something worth commenting.
Today, commemorating May 13th here is an extract from letusaddvalue.blogspot.com by Anas Zubedy…

Quote

" I’d like to recolor May 13th. I would like to breathe new spirit into the date, to dilute and eventually erase the negative aspects and memories and replace them with positive meanings and values. I want our future generation to see this date with kind and loving recollections. We can always change things, if we so willed it"

Unity is our only option to live in peace, love and happiness.We want to promote HOPE. We want to convince you that individuals like you and I can make a difference; we may be not be effective individually, but together, we are powerful. The combined actions of individuals, ordinary Malaysians like you and I, can make this country greater – beyond our dreams – so our children will inherit a Malaysia that is more united, stronger and beautiful.

It is a big dream, and yes, I am a dreamer. We will start with small steps each day because “sedikit-sedikit, lama-lama jadi bukit”. Will you dream with me? Will you join me in making this dream come true, no matter what it takes? Imagine…our nation united.

It promotes understanding as we practice muhibbah and open our hearts and homes for Deepavali, Chinese New Year, Wesak, Christmas, Aidil Fitri, Vaisakhi and Hari Malaysia. The significance of all these festivals from a Malaysian point of view is illuminated. While others around the world celebrate most of these occasions, we Malaysians have our particular ways that are uniquely ours that we share with other Malaysians, regardless of race or religion.

My dear brother and sister Malaysians, if we really want to make this country great, peaceful and vibrant, we must play an active role. Regardless of whom we are or what we do, we must take right actions. While whining and complaining will give us temporary relief, it does not get us anywhere.

Let us all take small steps each day – do something pleasant for our neighbour, get to really know someone from a different background, and speak something good about the ‘other side’.We must see Unity in diversity, unite and be one. Unity Rocks! Let’s be Bangsa Malaysia.

Many Colors, One Race.

Unquote

Of Trees, Faith and Greener Pastures

Swami said once, Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business. I shall be the one who will think about them. I am waiting for nothing else than your surrender to Me, and then you do not have to worry any more about anything.

How true.

Let me narrate to you an amazing journey that I personally experienced recently – some call it mere coincidence, but to the believer, it’s a miracle.

It was a busy start in 2009 as we embarked on our next journey after the Human Values Drama Competition held successfully in September. The challenge was to create a sustainable awareness campaign to raise consciousness of the human values into the society suffering from countless maladies. This maiden effort was themed after the most pressing issue currently – the environment. Go Green was the theme.

Back in the office, January 2009 saw a shift in roles and responsibility. I was moved to a direct opposite function within the company in an effort to prepare me for future positions. I was given the first task to complete by April – to lead a team to streamline business processes within the division and prepare for a group-wide audit. There were 3 ratings within the scale of process effectiveness: green, yellow and red; green being the most effective. It was a daunting task, but with Swami by my side, the burden was lesser.

Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business.

Publicity was well on the way by January and as February approached, we fine-tuned the efforts. Once again Swami’s lessons during the Human Values Drama Competition proved useful this time. We did not take chances with publicity. We were all out to get 1000 participants to walk with us, walk for nature and walk for the environment. There were children, youths and adults – as well as the public.

Rounds and rounds of checking and corrections were done to some ailing processes. The process was tough, being new to the division itself, I relied fully on the confidence given by Swami. People from all strata of the organization observed lack of control. They predicted low ratings. The HQ conducted a pre-audit in March and they warned of a red rating.

But the wallpaper on my PC had the flier for Walk for Values – it said “Go Green.”

It was time for more promotions for the Walk and the real work began right away. We met so regularly that the team became one big happy family. We endured the pain and pleasure together. We laughed away the trials and we giggled when we found solutions.

I am waiting for nothing else than your surrender to Me, and then you do not have to worry any more about anything.

We had the whole team, adults, children and youth working on one single goal for the whole first quarter of 2009. They were all going green. As we finished our day jobs, we had Swami waiting for us at our night jobs at Bangsar and SS3 centres.

“If we get a yellow, I am happy enough,” said one senior colleague to me. I smiled. I looked at my wallpaper. It smiled back at me. Swami said Green – that is enough for me. I was telling everyone to believe that we could get green. And then the human flaw came in and I said, “At least we aim for green in three out of the five categories!”

Why get agitated? Let Me take care of all your business. I shall be the one who will think about them.

The day arrived. 10th May 2009. We had worked all through the night. Completing the 500 odd paperbags, decorations and stage setting. It was the first of its kind in Malaysia and Southeast Asia – Walk for Values - Go Green. There was a sea of green at the SS3 basketball court. Close to 500 children, teens and and adults. We walked. And what a walk it was… truly amazing. We were mesmerized by the event. Swami was there – every step of the way.

Take one step towards me and I will take a hundred towards you.

11th May 2009 – It was the end of my task at HQ, and once again I was on the move. I was shifted to the branch office in Petaling Jaya for a new change in responsibility. My PC was not set up yet – so I had to bring it over from the main office. After fixing the PC up at my new desk, I opened up my Lotus Notes. There were a significant number of mails on Walk for Values. Each one carried a tale on how Swami carried all of us on another wonderful journey.

Then I paused. There was another email from the Group Auditor of my company.

It read, ‘Dear all: A good news for everyone. We just received the official announcement. We obtained an overall GREEN report as well as GREEN results for all categories. Congratulations and well done to everyone involved!’

I was awestruck. What a miracle. A double green whammy, by Swami… (and that rhymes!) My feeble mind asked for a three out of five but the divine showered a full score of five out of five!

There is no conclusion to this narration. This is just an aspect of the vastness of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. He is so personal to each one of us in our own way and yet, subtle in the messages that he sends to all of us.

Thank you Swami, I surrender this to your lotus feet.

When Values Walk Out...

The crazy things people do in Malaysia doesn’t reverberate that much outside our shores. Or even if it does, it doesn’t really matter for those outside of this beautiful country. But lately things are getting too comical especially in the Silver State of Malaysia. I can’t begin to describe the tussle over there… and today I saw a photo of the year nominee at one of the sites…



Hmm… if a speaker of a state assembly can be dragged out like this, I am quite worried about where the country is heading.

I mean, politics is one thing, but there is not even a trace of basic human values such as respect for an individual.

It’s not that the others who are in this tussle are God incarnates but the overall situation looks very sad and depressing at times. And that picture…Sigh…

And now in time for my second promo: Let’s stand up for human values! Come walk with us this Sunday at the SS3 Basketball Court, 8am to 12pm, WALK FOR VALUES: GO GREEN!

Star Trek Premiere

Being someone who has never watched Star Trek before at all,
I was quite pessimistic when Hari offered me the Premiere tickets to
watch the latest flick at One Utama.

I was at Studio V to collect my invite and I saw crazy fans everywhere,
some wearing weird glasses, fake Star Trek ears and masks... There
were even a group of people calling themselves Singapore Trekkies.

It was quite a culture shock for me, and more so for my parents who had no idea
of what the movie was about...

As we entered the GSC area, there was a counter to deposit handphones
and electronic equipments. Luckily we were told to leave the phones behind.
The security was as tight as post 9-11 at the entrance as they scanned everyone
before letting us in.

Hmm... for all you know the projector guy might be taping the whole show for release in Chow Kit tonight.... Malaysia Boleh!