The private bus was speeding to keep time, frightening and overtaking puny two-wheelers that dared to come in its way. Suddenly it swerved to the left, slowed down just a wee bit, the “kili” (cleaner) leaned out of the front door and threw a coin that missed its mark and fell on the footpath outside the temple. It was the daily offering to God for safe and successful trips for the day. But there is not a second more to be wasted on His affairs. It is a sort of take-it-or-leave-it affair. We gave alms; we are sorry if it did not fall into your coffers but we are not to blame and hopefully You won’t mind and keep Your guardian angels at our beck and call, even as we throw all driving rules to the wind.
Is it right to say that we gave alms? More like throwing it at Him. I wonder whether even beggars will take anything from us if we throw it like that. They have their self-respect. Not so with God. As we zip away on our bikes and cars, every temple, every cross, every mosque that we cross, we cross ourselves. Our hands go to our hearts in a sort of silent prayer. But not with much thought or time put into it. Even if we stop, the engine is kept running to vroom off as soon as the prayer is over.
We are happy we prayed; whether He is happy we don’t have time to bother. After all, there are only 24 hours on our clock. He, on the other hand, has all the time in the world.
It is said God loves a cheerful giver, not one who gives out of obligation. What about those who do so cheerfully and make a song and dance of it. The right hand was not supposed to know what the left was giving. Forget that, the whole world knows who has given what and how much. Even as some poor fellow is made a spectacle of at a navathi or a shatabdi celebrations of this or that organisation or group. Those at the receiving end are expected to come with hands folded and heads bowed, even as right and left hands of the gathering come together in thunderous applause. The giver is out to celebrate his cheerfulness. And before you blink, the event is on the web garnering likes and comments. And everybody goes home happy. Whatever happened to giving or doing quietly?
Even our representatives and their followers do not believe in doing things quietly. So, as this or that building or smart class is put up or an ambulance bought using local area development funds, bold letters express gratitude to the leader for sanctioning the money for the same. Flex boards thank the councillor for releasing x amount of money for road repairs. Little does anybody realise that all of this is actually taxpayer money. To invert what Jesus said, they are rendering us what actually belongs to us, but they take all the credit. Only if we were as filled with gratitude when the One above blesses us even if just throw Him a coin.