100 coconuts, 50 sacks of sugar, a gold chain that weighs 99 gms! Rings a bell? Yes, you’ve got it right! Offerings. People nowadays throng temples and other places of worship to outweigh the previous year’s offerings they’ve made. Seeking the Almighty’s blessings has become some sort of contract where one person tries to outshine (sometimes outweigh) the other.
But what they don’t realize in the process is that offering God material possessions is of no use. Rather God himself will be pleased if these ‘gifts’ were put to good use.
Why not fund a child with the cash? Why not use it to start a cleanliness drive? The comparison might sound a little absurd to many. Many might think I’m talking philosophy here. (Just because her family is well off and her parents have given her everything in a silver platter!!) Well true! But why not repay God in a more reasonable way? Think about it. What if God himself is searching for a messenger? Probably we are ‘the’ ones. He might actually want us to do the little that he can’t since he isn’t omnipresent.
We wait for hours in queues to offer something to God. Politicians make their glorious entrance into holy places thus making the innocent common man extend their wait to catch a glimpse of the deity. News about their generous offerings makes it to the front page of the daily newspaper. But is the purpose served? Who are they pleasing in the process? Temporary happiness and satisfaction may be achieved. Take a minute out and think for a while.
Imagine you keep track of an orphan’s education right from day one of his/her schooling, monitor her funding needs. The money you are going to spend on offerings, the money you used when you were prodigal can actually educate a child and develop him/her into a beautiful citizen. And the satisfaction and contentment you derive will be a feeling, even a moment spent in paradise can’t replace!
All that is needed is an initiative by an individual or a group. And the media should take care of the "real (needed)" portrayal!!..Nice theme!!
ReplyDeleteOne of the mysteries of life that we might never understand!!! But Things are changing!! With improving literacy will hopefully have its effect
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