The one and only

Photo by me.

I wasn't sure whether to write a post about God.

It's such a touchy topic.

My sister always told me that there are 3 things that you never talk about at the dinner table.

Religion. Politics. And sex.

I suppose God falls into the religion category but so what.

When did I ever take my sister's good advice anyway?

Everyone in my family thinks of God in a different way.

I know that I believe in God.

The idea of something much bigger than us.

Out of convenience I picture a Ganesh.

I've always liked him for some reason.

And he is the remover of obstacles which is also great.

But, I don't know if I believe in all the stories about our 330 million Hindu Gods.

While some have the face of an animal as can be seen with Ganesh, others are seen with skin colours like blue*.

Or is that just the artists interpretation of the God?

The artists from the Rennaisance period drew Jesus a certain way and that's how we see him today.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that thats exactly how he looked.

Whether I believe it or not, I still love reading all the stories about the Gods. And their incarnations.

And so I'm currently reading children's books written by Gauri Kelkar about Hindu Goddesses. Being children's books, they are very easy to read and have beautiful illustrations. And they also have fun things like stickers at the back.
Also it's quite interesting to see how the Gods and Goddesses who are usually seen together reunite as a couple in every incarnation.
True love!

I suppose I should just enjoy the books for the stories and look at it with an open mind.

After all they are Gods. So why expect them to have human-like qualities like us?

According to my mother, I have always been a tad bit rebellious especially while accepting traditions and beliefs relating to God.

But I know there have been those few moments in my life when I have felt his presence.

- In times of need.

- When I've been fortunate enough to have more happiness than I could expect.

- Or even when I'm working and being creative.

Someone told me that everything already exists in this world.

Nothing is actually invented or created.

But when you open your mind to it, you see it.

For a moment there I thought then what am I doing as a creative person?

But then I realised that that's sort of how I feel when I work and come up with new ideas.

Somehow they never feel like mine.

But more like God dropped a bag of ideas in my head.

And it usually happens during that time when I'm not asleep and not really awake either.

It feels like there's a blackhole in my mind through which ideas just fall through with ease.

Does that make sense?

Or am I alone on this one?

So what I'm trying to say is...

Open your mind.

Open your heart.

And you will see that the world is a beautiful place.


*Blue is the skin colour of Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna and Lord Ram. But for different reasons.
Ram and Krishna are shown to have blue skin as blue depicts their dusky skin tone. Some say this colour also stands for great spiritual attainment as according to Indian spiritual tradition blue is the colour of superconciousness.
Lord Shiva on the other hand was also shown to have blue skin. In the Mahabharata, during the Samudra Manthan, along with the Amrit and the 14 Ratnas, a poison emerged that was so powerful that it could have destroyed all of creation. Lord Shiva on the advice of Lord Vishnu inhaled the poison and on doing so his neck turned blue. This is why Lord Shiva is also known as Nilakantha (the blue throated one).