In awe with the Hindus’ faith

*This post is not suitable for the holy-moly ‘My God is the only true God’ people. You have been warned.*

My residential area has some Hindu festival going on. The last time I went to this basketball court was to listen to the ceramah from Lim Guan Eng and other DAP/PKR assemblymen and MPs before the General Election. It brought back a flood of memories of how awesome that a humble, inconspicuous ceramah eventually won over the mightier power.

I took my camera and walk to the basketball court. A flashy bright yellow NIKON strap and a kickass DSLR. People thought I am from The Star. Hahaha, I told them, no lah….internet. I didn’t take many photos but I took in a lot of sights. I stood there, in the middle of the empty space, the lone Chinese woman in white. Many things ran through my mind.

HINDRAF. It pains me to think the struggles they went through. I thought of the five ISA detainees. I couldn’t help but say a little prayer for them. I am pretty sure Lord Jesus and even Lord Ganesh hear my prayers. I see the faces of the Hindu devotees and in my heart, I know they are there for many purposes and I believe HINDRAF and Makkal Sakthi are on their minds, as much as mine.

TOLERANCE AND ACCEPTANCE. There is a group of transvestites in beautiful sarrees (not in the photo, ok? because I respect people’s privacy) and it is good to see that they proudly mingle with the crowd who accept their differences. We don’t see this often in some religions. Some were even chastised. I think it is beautiful that no one is singled out.

FAITH. This guy’s friends asked me to take his photo. Some of other devotees were still having their body pierced so this guy was sitting down waiting. For the first time, I see with my own eyes how the spear is put through the cheeks. It is so amazing to see what faith can do to a person. There is no blood, no signs of pain and the spear just go through right in front of my eyes.

Being a Christian and yet, someone who came from a background that believed in deities, I could only stood there in reverend awe at the Hindus’ faith. Several women too had their foreheads pierced. They went into trance, had the piercing and temporarily lost consciousness and then, become alert again. The sight of piercing is of course not for the faint hearted. When I was watching, I put my hands together as a respect and feel so humbled.

BROTHERLY LOVE. The two boys with their body pierced had stood there for sometime. As I said, it is just an empty basketball court and there isn’t any facilities given to the devotees. So, this other guy allowed the boy with body piercing to sit on him. You know what? Faith brings people very close together. And when people come together, sealed by their faith, the bond is very strong. It will be wise for our Government to just for once, pause and hear the HINDRAF out. Don’t ever deny people who have such strong contentions. It is a sin to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to peoples’ cries.

RESPECT. I think we will all live happily ever after if we can respect others’ faith. To begin, try to understand theirs. It is disgusting that our former PM, current PM and all the ex-ministers and others are flaming racial and religious issues. When they do that, I know they have not been touched by God, rule with God’s given wisdom and practice God’s teachings.

I was there, standing in the middle of the basketball court, for quite sometime. Maybe, I am a little bit ‘over religious’ today because I had spent a while with the Blessed Sacrement earlier in the day. It is Corpus Christi. It is a once in a year opportunity to be in an aircond church with no one (ok, maybe 10 people) but the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ. Then, I had some hilarious religious chat about what can happen to people when they are over religious. I got home, prepare my daily hospital meal and rushed over to the kavadi place.

Eventhough the Hindu’s faith and my faith have so many differences, I could feel the presence of God Almighty enveloping the people there. The ‘I want to do good’ feeling is there all around. God (irrespective of how you intepret that Awesome Being) is the mover and shaker of all. And I could feel the good vibes. Amen.