Whisper in the ears of Gods !

Religions are , by definition , are metaphors, after all: God is a dream , a hope , a woman , an ironist , a father , a city , a house of many rooms , a watchmaker who left his prized chronometer in the desert , someone who loves you -even , perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team , army , business, or marriage thrives , prospers , and triumphs over all opposition.
Religions are places to stand and look and act , vantage points from which to view the world.
-Neil Gaiman (American Gods)

I have a confession to make.I'm afraid of religious fanatics and religious zealots.

Its more fashionable to be an atheist these days !

But I'm a freelance believer.I'd like to believe that I believe in Lord Ganesha as much as Jesus or Allah or Anansi or anyone else.Well India supposedly has thirty-three crore Gods ! so one is practically spoiled for choice !

For me , it was always God, thats it ! , no other name would be necessary for the indefinable belief that I had in God.
My conversations with God have always been candid , informal and friendly.He gives me wise counsel ,guides me and provides me with a philosophy life.
For me , he is a higher being . How high ? Ain't that a silly question... it doesn't matter how high.

In my conversations (always a private monologue !) I told him that he , i.e God was really formless , shapeless and limitless.So his different forms or avatars really didn't matter.
As usual he didn't object.

It was First of january , the first day of the new year according to the Gregorian Calendar which is widely adopted all over the world.
I went to Siddhivinayak temple , a world famous temple in mumbai...
They say some places are endowed with immense power and these places of power attract people .In olden days they built temples , churches , mosques in these places. These days the old gods have been replaced by newer ones : new places of power are inhabited by malls ,casinos, amusement parks and freak shows.People throng here in thousands not knowing that it was the power that pulled them to these malls , casinos amusement parks to spend their money mindlessly.

Siddhivinayak temple : many miracles have been attributed to this holy temple ,as well personal successes of film-stars and gangsters alike , and other events like timely monsoons .

The last time I paid a visit to this temple was four years ago, with my family.We went for blessings for it was the first time I'd embark on a tumultuous journey that would be my career in sea.

Everyone knows of the disparities in mythology.Lord Ganesh ,the god with the elephant head, the main Deity of Siddhivinayak Temple has a mouse as his vehicle.But we were amused to see a cat in the temple right next to a large silver mouse idol .Now the mouse in this temple had powers too.One had to whisper his wishes into one of the ears of the silver mouse while cupping the other so that the wish would not simply flow out of the other ear.And voila ! Your wish would be granted (unless you were a bad person in the eyes of the god)
But being an animal loving person , I spent more time playing with the cat .It was a white , well fed female cat, very cute and well behaved and very very cuddly.We all left the temple smiling from ear to ear!

Four years later things had changed.Lines to enter the temple stretched for kilometres (Yeah , I'm going metric !).Metal detectors were installed and the police would personally inspect your body for suspicious or illegal objects.
It was the New Years day and people who wanted a fresh start came to this temple for some divine grace.There would be many resolutions made and promptly forgotten in the coming days.

My aunt and I went early , leaving the house at the crack of dawn , when mumbai is actually cold(Its all relative , because Mumbai is never chillier than 15 deg C, while I have frozen my balls in minus 22 deg c in montreal and thunder bay).After standing in the line for nearly two hours and being scrutinised by police at two checkpoints we finally were inside the sanctum-sanctorum.Inside the temple , everything was the same except a new set of CCTV's showing Lord Ganesha at all times.We prayed , as usual for a smooth life without insurmountable obstacles (Lord Ganesha specialises in obstacles) and for material wealth that any other mortal would have prayed for.
The cat was nowhere to be found ,but I had something more important to do.The last time I had forgotten to whisper my wishes in the mouse's ears (but they were granted nevertheless ), so I went to the silver mouse, cupped its left ear and whispered "You know what I want , don't you ?" into its right ear and left in search of the white cat to relive the fond memories once again.