FAITH!

As always, I called my mother around 6.30 in the evening. By 6.30 she would have lit the lamps and finished her prayers and would call me to chit chat.

But today, she did not want to speak to me. She was distracted, and I could hear TV in full volume in the background. She shouted, “It’s Makara vilakku, we are watching, call me later”. And without even waiting for my response, she hung up the phone.

After my initial irritation settled down I wondered what this deal is all about. Why such frenzy? It’s just TV.

I decided to check YouTube and looked up Makara Vilakku 2018. And there it was! The reason behind the frenzy. Lakhs and lakhs of people attentively waiting for a glance of the sacred fire that can been seen once every year, during this day. Without realizing it I too got hooked on to the screen. Sitting in Bangalore, playing AR Rahman in the background, I could feel the strength of hope emanating from the people patiently waiting at the Sabarimala Temple.

In the search for Makara Vilakku, I chanced up on some links which questioned the authenticity of this phenomena too, along with all the adulations.

At first, I was tempted to enter an investigative mode. But then I thought, who am I to question the faith of thousands of people? Have I seen God to prove if he/she exits or not?

My mind wandered back to my mother, who runs her life on faith. I remembered all those distraught situations in life that we faced bravely just because she had faith that everything will be fine. Where an agnostic father and a confused daughter failed, my mother’s faith saw us through the situations.

I do not know if Makara Vilakku is fake or not, I do not know if there’s God and what he/she/it looks like, I do not have any idea what is going to happen the next moment, all I know is that faith did move some mountains for us. It gave us something to hold on to, something to look up to, a strength to keep going.

There are wonders way out of our control, there are things in the world which we cannot comprehend, but we are at peace with those phenomena. For example, how do we know that when we look up, it is the North? Some one said up is north, and we are ok with it.

So, why not I leave my mother alone and thank her for being the rock that we lean upon always. Faith works for her. Being confused about faith affects my decision-making capabilities.

My deduction – do what works! And respect the choices of others.