BackWeb Exclusive | God rules the world?
Web Exclusive | God rules the world?
PremiumRaj Liberhan, Director, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
New Delhi: Among the principal architects and creators of this world, God is given maximum credit for having set the ball rolling. When it it all happened does not matter so much. And lest we forget, he also runs the place. It is hard to say if he owns it as well but in the absence of any competing title deeds, it would be safe to say that it belongs to him.
There are not more than a handful who have claimed to have seen him and even they have not been able to give more than an inexact description. Some others have felt him while there is always a decent majority who believe in him.
Indeed, there are, many of the indecent majority, who too believe in him, especially when we are counting humankind only. There are zillion other varieties and species, who are in his care as well and only he knows how they talk to each other. He has also been around before the world started, and will be there much after. He takes it all and he gives it all.
The foregoing under any circumstances, is an incomplete but a generic description of the world and its inhabitants of which God is the managing director. There is chaos and there is order here, there is tranquility and there is turbulence; there is the hope of a new dawn and there is the despair of the long wait that seems to have no end – and this is the scene, everyday for as long as it is known.
It has not stopped for any one in all this time. The variety is a bit staggering for no two shapes of human beings are alike on this earth. Verily the description closest to the truth is that it is a stage. Men and women come to play their part and having done so, move on. For a time the player is remembered, for a little longer the performance and then the future takes over from the present. Indeed, only the present rules as the past becomes irrelevant every moment.
Who can dare to contemplate the role of its managing director? More so when nobody has heard from him, nor seen him and no one can describe him with any degree of reality. Only his manifestations are visible. There is no patented management style nor can a pattern be discerned, except that the world moves every little nano second and is never still. He stipulates the journey and the experience of it. The destination has never been marked by any uncertainty.
The only means of communication with the maker of the world is prayer. No particular time and place is prescribed nor is there any standard form. One can use the prototypes given out by the self-appointed intermediaries or agents of local faiths but in the ultimate, you have to connect yourself. Just as you cannot get to the heavenly paradise without giving up on this world, you cannot bond with the maker of this world through an agent, notwithstanding the claims of some of them. The direct link works the best to the extent it works.
Does he keep a watch over us? This is really a moot question. He has to, if he is truly running the world. He may not though, at his watch, given the crime, jealousy, infamy, misfortune injustice and poverty that abounds in his domain. It is generally suggested that his accountant Chitrakoot, keeps a mirror image of all human and inhuman transactions. Unlike earthly accountants who, at best; faithfully, record business transactions, God’s man does not want to falter in the transcription process. He goes for photo imaging so that when the time for rendition of account comes, there cannot be an argument over the integrity of any transaction.
Let us not forget he has a low down on each one of us and can call us to the bar of justice without any advance notice. But to all of us who are witness to the goings-on in the world everyday, the call to justice looks more like a theoretical presumption. We cannot find a good answer for the wanton killings, plunder and pillage, untold human hunger and deprivation and much else that any hands-on management could not be proud of. Yet, this master arbiter of all destinies, controls and moderates time which is the key to all human condition of prosperity or deprivation.
The fault, dear Brutus, is ascribed to us and not to the stars. The maker is never at fault. He keeps the before ‘this’ and after ‘this’ a well guarded mystery and no one with a memory has a clue to the hereinafter.
After trying so hard, it appears that there is no single perspective on the World Inc. There are as many sights, as images. As many minds, as many perceptions. Many sighs, many splendours. It would be sinful to call it only interesting. The ruler is omnipresent as is the rule that prohibits all takeovers of this company. The saints aver that mergers into His spirit are the way to salvation.
Raj Liberhan is Director of the India Habitat Centre at New Delhi. Send your reactions to socionomics@livemint.com
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