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God

by Arindam Banerjee
(Kolkata, West Bengal, India)

“Do you believe in God?”


The question startled me. I was reading the morning news paper which was very fresh. The paper still had the, what I like to call as, ‘The Crunch Factor’. I had just woken up and was enjoying my hot Coffee and reading. Sunday mornings are always the best.

The birds chirping in harmony with nature. The winter breeze and the cool and foggy morning. Mother Nature at her best.

My head was buried in the newspaper reading about the success of Chandrayan, making me a proud Indian. I looked up when he asked this question. I managed to make a sound from my mouth. “Ugghh??”

“I asked, do you believe in god?” My friend who lived with me in our apartment asked me this. He was his usual self, today morning, till he asked this question. He is not the kind of person who thinks much. He just kind of lives the day as it comes. Future plans don’t seem to interest him. He is much more of a ‘Live in the present’ person. Also, I must mention that he is a complete atheist. He has no faith in god. He believes that there is no destiny. What we do is what we get, that’s his attitude in a nutshell.

I gave back a thinking look to him. “Well, he surely must.” I said. “Otherwise who would think of making beautiful women for us!” A chuckle escaped my mouth.

He gave a light smile. “ I believe that God is a Man’s creation. If man didn’t exist, there would have been no one to start this concept.”

“I disagree. I think Man has the brains to identify that there is a superior being other than us. God was always there. You just need to see where He is. It is a question of belief as well.” I replied.

“If god were there then why hasn’t he or she or it has shown us the real form? I mean no one has seen god. Why is that? If god existed He must show us a proof, right?” He argued back.

“Wrong. God exists and it has already shown through by creating this wonderful planet. It has shown creativity by creating this universe. Lets just say that it is a higher being whose existence is marked by the beginning of the universe. And all the stars and galaxies that are existing shows that it is there. I mean something must have triggered life in this universe. Something greater than the universe itself. What I am trying to say is that, Creator of this universe is God.” I replied back. I was hoping that this would maybe subdue the conversation about god. It is a very personal matter of opinion.

He didn’t answer back right away. It seemed to me as that he had started to think about something. I started to wonder what made him
ask this question. I was looking at him. His body language was different today.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
He looked up. He looked a wee bit startled. Maybe I interrupted his thought train. He blinked at me a couple of times. And then he said, “ I had a weird dream last night.”
“What??” I asked and sat up straight. Some thing was bothering him. I wanted to know what.
“I think I saw God in my dream. It’s quite weird, but I am sure of it.” He said. He had this air of uneasiness around him.
I got curious. “ Really?? How did you know that it was God??” I asked.
“You said it is a question of belief. I think ……I believe that it was god.” He replied.
“But you don’t believe in god….?? A belief as strong as yours changed within one night…and all it took was a dream??” I asked him. I knew I was needling him far more than I should have. But I was curious to know what happened. This guy was a strong atheist. All his life, he was like this. And one night changed it all. This was quite incredulous. I was definitely interested.

He kept quite. He was still thinking about something. He finally replied, “ I saw some one die in dream. Some one very close to me. I felt very sick. I was crying. And I had this uncontrollable feeling that every thing was going wrong.”
I kept looking at him. “Then…???”
“I was feeling that I had lost everything in life. And there was no hope. Then suddenly from somewhere, some one touched me. Some one put his hand behind my back. And it felt great. Suddenly I felt good. I needed support and the touch healed me. I started to grow more confident. I suddenly knew that everything was going to be alright.
When I woke up, I realized that it had to some one much superior to human. Some one who took all my pains away, and gave me the power to look at difficulties and come up victorious.”

I kept looking at him. I knew what had happened. I had the answer. But looking at his face, his confidence, and his new faith in god, I decided to keep quiet.
“I am glad that you felt that it was god. It is nice to hear it from you.” I said, smiling.
The matter ended there.

What had happened last night was, my friend in his sleep was obviously having a bad dream. And he was making all sort of weird noises in the middle of the night. I had woken up due to all this noise. Just to calm him down, I went up to him and touched him on his back and slowly gave him a reassuring hold on his back. He became quiet the next instant and began sleeping peacefully again!!

Comments for God

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Mar 26, 2013
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Nice Story..
by: Anonymous

So u think god is belief?

Feb 13, 2013
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God
by: Kuldeepkaur

Very nicely explained. Good

Feb 11, 2013
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God
by: PUshpa Raghuram

The story goes to prove the often made statement, that God appears to people in human form, to solve a problem or share the burden.

The most complicated concept of "God" has been handled in a gentle manner.

Congratulations.

Feb 06, 2013
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great
by: KumudaPurushotham

Great ending. Any other ending would have spoilt it.

Feb 06, 2013
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Beautiful
by: Chetna Sharma

This question "do you believe in God" has always startled me. It's hard to find an answer as the reply is belief. A good exploration.

Feb 05, 2013
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good
by: zebha

really gud story.............

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