Eternal Soul Laundry

It is an undisputed fact affirmed by anthropologists that mankind has evolved from apes over a period of six million years. Religion was born in due course only after the evolution of the man, in fear of the unknown. Religion initially created harmony and social order for the formation of the society but later turned into a contest — that the beliefs of one section of people are superior to others'. Today, most of the crimes are committed by mankind against each other in the name of religion. Resultantly, we have returned to the stage where we are fighting like archaic humans did a million years ago. This religious fanaticism has reached a level once again disturbing the tranquility in the society at large leading to fundamentalism, intolerance, radicalism, terrorism, etc. Even within family circles too, the concept of God is totally misunderstood. Instead of introspection of one’s actions, against which corrections can be done by self-realisation, people resort to religious rituals with a mindless belief that the Almighty will ignore the past and grant a prosperous future.

This human weakness for religion had been identified by political parties as their best bet to lure the voters of a particular faith, in order to seize power. It is either religion, region or colour of the human being that hits the headlines in every day’s political news hour. In our country, it can be further extended to caste and region. The political leaders are aware that people fall for religion and it is easy to entrap them. Even though I was born a Hindu, I grew up in Catholic institutions until the age of fourteen and it didn’t matter to which God we were praying at that point of time. But when I faced financial troubles in 2007, I too visited several temples and holy places, and consulted famous astrologers hoping that some mystic power will save me. As I started dealing with several issues — those that I feared earlier — I realised that they were all the results of my own blunders, then it dawned on me that faith is something that could be supportive to garner our courage to overcome desperate times, but parallelly, one needs to find solutions on his own with introspection and not by a default formula for a happy future.

In my younger days, my uncle used to profess atheism and he made sarcastic remarks about the priests while they performed the customary ceremonies or puja. None dared to object or caution him while he made such remarks for he was the head of the family. He openly declared that there was no God in existence. But conspicuously, there was a radium cross that hung in his room that one couldn't miss and a rosary beside his bed. There is nothing wrong about practising a faith of your choice and belief, but I had a feeling since childhood that no one had the right to make adverse remarks about another’s faith. As he was the head of the family and whom we all loved and respected, we ignored his criticism on Hindu Gods. But, ironically, he believed in supernatural powers such as exorcism and that it can cure terminal diseases and drive away evil spirits from the mentally ill. My uncle introduced a person named ‘Jesus Subba Rao’ to our family, who was a school headmaster by profession and hailed from a remote village in Guntur district. It is said that ‘Jesus Subba Rao’ acquired some supernatural powers and he drives away evil spirits from anyone who is possessed. I was shocked that my uncle, who was an atheist, believes in the Devil. Conclusively, he was not an atheist after all, it was a sort of profile he built as a front that he cared less for what his family believes in. Then there was another instance, where he introduced me to a person with psychic ability of ‘automatic-writing’ that is claimed to be a psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. I was shocked to learn about this talent. The person with the psychic powers asked my uncle whom he wished to call, and my uncle said, ‘Jawaharlal Nehru’, and thereafter the ‘psychic-writer’ closed his eyes and within seconds, his hand supposedly being possessed by Nehru stated writing: “What is that you want to seek from me?” My uncle said, “What is your opinion on your daughter, the present Prime Minister of India?” and the psychic wrote, “I am disappointed with my daughter...” I don’t want to narrate the rest as it was sheer rubbish. Even though I was young and not as wise as my uncle, I could see the melodrama that was exceeding its limits. I was dumbfounded that my uncle, who boasts of being an atheist, ridiculously believed that the psychic could establish contact with the dead. There are no ‘hotlines’ from hell or heaven between the living and the dead, it was absolute madness.

There was another instance that I cannot miss to mention during my exports stint in Chennai. When differences cropped up between me and my senior business associate in the mid-90s, he ridiculed my export activities, comparing his returns vide investments in capital markets, where the profits zoomed to a ridiculous value and he was on a golden run. On the other side, the area of exports became painfully competitive for we were literally left with only a miniscule margin of 3.5% derived as export incentives. My senior associate earned a reputation as a ‘financial engineer’ and my exports division was considered by him as unrewarding and a liability. One day, I fortunately had an opportunity to visit Tirupathi, with a special darshan permission. After I returned, I met my senior associate at our office and he enquired about my pilgrimage. He said, “Prem, I too am spiritual but you should know that fate is a sum result of one’s own efforts," and then he explained to me the ‘doctrine of cause and effect’ at length. He indirectly indicated that my efforts were paltry in comparison to his. I agreed to his theory.

A year later, the capital markets crashed, the debacle resulted catastrophic in the lives of the players throughout India. My associate could not withstand the onslaught and he almost had a heart attack. In the meanwhile, I was discussing with one Mr Philippe Maynard about the export of leather and he was the only son of Michael Maynard, a tycoon and the owner of a footwear brand in the USA. After a few emails, Philippe invited me to his production facility at Guangzhou in China with samples of whatever we excelled at in our leather production. My associate and I visited China with samples that were packed almost like a bazooka, which obviously put us in serious trouble. The first was when we were stopped at Hong Kong Airport on our arrival and thereafter at the Guangzhou railway station where we were almost imprisoned. We could not understand a word spoken by the Chinese security and could not convince them that the parcel was mere leather samples. They even brought in the bomb squad and tested it. Finally, our host Mr Maynard bailed us out with his clout in the local administration. I was very furious with my associate as it was his idea to carry the samples, rejecting my suggestion to courier them by DHL. During our entire journey and our stay at the hotel, I found that he was carrying a booklet of prayers for several Gods. I recollected his statement and advocacy to me in the past that even God cannot thwart any results whether good or bad, for it is the past that determines the future. Irony that he was now seeking the grace of God to bail him out. He was a good man and a very inspiring entrepreneur but unfortunately, he took his earlier success as the result of his genius, but they were obviously because of unwise decisions. I was sincerely sad for him, for I emulated many good management practices from him that were indisputably instrumental in my success in my later years. I practise them even now religiously.

One day, I visited Delhi to argue a case along with my industrialist client Shri Raminder Singh. Soon after the hearing was over, we had our lunch at Connaught Place and my client wanted to visit the famous Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, which was nearby. I had never visited a Gurudwara before, so I asked him if I would be allowed to enter, to which he said that I was welcome as there is no such discrimination. As we entered, there was this counter where the footwear was collected and cleaned and then stored in small chambers. I observed that the people at the footwear stand did not look as if they were employed, but on the other hand, they looked wealthy by attire. As I was staring at them, unable to comprehend the situation, my client came by and said that cleaning visitors' footwear is considered as a service to God and is referred to as ‘Kar Seva’. I was amazed. Thereafter, I found a place within the Gurudwara where the volunteers were preparing rotis for the visitors. I was stunned with the real manifestation of ‘Service to Man is Service to God’, which is also preached in other faiths but not practiced out of vanity. Later I heard in the news that Britain's Prince Charles helped in preparing chapattis as part of 'Kar Seva' during his visit to Sri Bangla Sahib Gurudwara at the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev in New Delhi, on November 13, 2019. Earlier in 2018, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family visited the famous Sikh shrine, Golden Temple, and performed Kar Seva.

I wondered why when all faiths are embedded with tenets well defined for the devotees to practice, fundamentalism and terrorism still sprout from them. I am clueless as to how the Khalistan movement could be sponsored citing such a wonderful religion. Madness, absolutely unbelievable.

Here’s a short story that I conceived a decade ago:

One day, God stepped into a remote village in a country called Bharat, where for many hundred years, one faith has been destroying the place of worship belonging to another, while the other takes vengeance by destroying the place of worship of the one who started the act. This is despite the fact that people of that land were very intelligent and pious. God strolled down the streets of a village, trying to find at least one person who could give him satisfaction to His purpose of creation. At one place, he saw people standing in long queues to attend a religious discourse and He too joined the queue to see who was giving the discourse, then He recognised the Guru giving the discourse and smiled. After the discourse was complete, God approached the quarters of the Guru and addressed him “How are you Rahim?” The man was shocked, “Who are you and how dare you call me by such a name?” Enraged, the Guru declared, “My name is Guru Shankar Prashad.” Then God smiled, “So you've forgotten who you were previously?” Stating so, God touched the forehead of Guru Shankar Prashad. As if hit by lightning, the Guru saw a bright light and then he was lost in a blast, remembering his conversation with God after his last death.

He was entering a celestial place that seemed to be ‘Jannah’ and he saw a divine light with radiance speaking to him, “Welcome, Rahim,” it said. Rahim was overwhelmed, “O the merciful and compassionate, am I in Firdaus; the Paradise?” "No, Rahim," the divine soul confirmed, “You are one level lower to the ultimate Heaven”. “O, Merciful, I have been a pious person all my life and worshipped you sincerely” “Yes, I do agree, Rahim, but why were you not adherent to be forgiving in the life of other religions? You should have tolerated people of different faiths.” “O Master, please do not punish me for that, given an opportunity, I shall surely follow the path shown by you in the Holy Quran. Please have mercy and give me one more opportunity.” God smiled and said “Sure,” a chamber opened and the Holy Spirit asked him to enter it and sit comfortably in the chair. Rahim sat in the chair and the door closed.

Into the gates of ‘Swarg’ then came Deen Dayal at the same time, and as soon he saw the bright light, he fell to the floor in sashtang namaskaar and praised the Paramatma, “Hey Bhagwan,” he went into ecstasy, “Hey Eshwar, I am so fortunate to have come to Swarg.” God clarified, “Deen Dayal, you are yet to go to Swarg, but not at this stage.” Dayal was shocked. “Yes,” continued God, “You still have to learn one more thing — to be compassionate to all faiths.” Dayal said, “But Paramatma, for that minor fault please do not send me to Narak,” he continued, “I have read all the puranas and the Gita several hundred times. Maybe I have missed something, let me go through these once more and decipher your encrypted tenets and make myself fit to enter Heaven,” he pleaded. “Sure,” said the Almighty and showed him another chamber to enter.

Likewise, many who left their mortal bodies were coming into the celestial reception and they were dealt with in the same manner and sent for correction if found ineligible to enter heaven. Rahim and Deen Dayal were chanting in their chambers as per their own faiths when suddenly, the floor at the bottom of the chair opened and they slipped into space with lightning speed where they could remember nothing. Slowly, it was warm and at that point, they knew that they were in the womb of their new mother and, when the time came, with one thrust by their mothers, they slipped out into the world. Until then, they were happy to be born again. Both Rahim and Deen Dayal were thankful to God for giving him one more chance to rectify their mistakes.

“Hai Allah,” Deen Dayal heard sounds of the midwife at the hospital where he was reborn. He opened his eyes to have a sneak view and saw his mother, and then came into the room his father, “Allah has been merciful to us by gifting us a boy.” Deen Dayal began to cry aloud in panic.

In the meanwhile, at another place, Rahim opened his eyes in the same manner and he felt his mother and father caressing him. “Bhagwan ka krupa hai, hum ko itna sundar bacha prasad kiya. Iska naam hum Shankar Prashad rakhenge.” The baby was shocked and started crying so loud that the entire ward in the hospital came to know that the delivery was extremely successful. Guru Shankar Parshad was still dozing in the memory and God went into fits of laughter. God does this soul-laundering constantly to cleanse the filth in the religious fanatics among us and send only clean souls to Heaven. In fact, our very own Earth is where Hell and Heaven are already present.

There are many pious people around us from all faiths. One day, I wanted to buy a new car and, as usual, I preferred to take the advice of Mr Khan who is a popular automobile dealer. I called him on the phone and enquired what time I could drop by to his office, but he was very courteous to suggest that he preferred to visit me, it being a reunion after a long time. In the evening, when he visited, we discussed several current topics over tea at which point of time he indicated his concern about the environmental abuse vide irresponsible spillage of industrial waste and destruction of hundreds of drinking water lakes in and around Hyderabad built in the past by the Nizam. In despondency, he said that our descendants have to reap the poisonous fruits that would germinate from the seeds sown by the past and present generations. Later, we also discussed the negative growth in the industrial sector due to several onerous taxes and that of the difficulties he was facing and he spontaneously quoted the Bhagavad Gita, “Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kada Chana,” pronouncing it in apt phonetics and interpreting its meaning, “You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities and never be attached to not doing your duty.” Even though I was aware of it, I felt extremely awesome to hear the quote from Mr Khan. He was a true Muslim.