FAITH UNDER TRIAL

There’s this lovely parable, a metaphor, which Dr. Wayne Dyer has used to begin his book – ‘Your Sacred Self’. I present the fable, borrowing the whole idea along with a lot of words directly from him, with certain additions and alterations at places to make it more vivid.

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Imagine this scene if you will. Two babies are in utero confined to the walls of their mother’s womb. For the sake of clarity we’ll call these twins Ego and Spirit.

Spirit says to Ego, “I know you’ll find this difficult to accept, but I truly believe in life after birth.”

Ego responds, “Don’t be ridiculous. Look around you. This is all there is. Why must you always be thinking something beyond this reality? Accept your lot in life. Make yourself comfortable and  forget about all of this life-after-birth nonsense.”

Spirit said, “I don’t know, but I feel after birth, there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

Ego replies, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. And the umbilical cord is so short. Hence life after birth is to be logically excluded.”

Spirit insists, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

Ego replies, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Birth is the end of life, and in the after-birth there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

Spirit quits down for a while but her inner voice won’t allow her to remain silent any longer, “Don’t get mad but i have something else to say. I also believe that there’s a Mother and she will take care of us.”

Ego guffaws, “A Mother? How can you be so absurd? You have never seen a mother. You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

Spirit says, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

Says the Ego, “Well I don’t see Her; so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

Spirit reluctantly stops the conversation, but being restless, she again implores, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above. And I think that these constant pressures we feel, the movements which make us uncomfortable at times, this continual repositioning, is getting us ready for a place of glowing light; and when we experience it, we will meet the Mother face-to-face and know an ecstasy beyond anything we have experienced till now.”

“You truly are crazy, Spirit. Now I’m truly convinced.” Ego sighs.

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Now this is truly a wonderful allegory which Dr. Dyer has interpreted beautifully into a writing that deals with the age-old war between the good and the evil; in this instance between our ego and the higher self.

What I’m wanting to do here is to play around with the metaphor, expanding it further–

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Imagine a dozen fetuses in the same womb.

All believe in the mother except one. In this expanded metaphor, to avoid confusion, let’s call the one who doesn’t believe in the Mother as Non-believer and all others as Believers.

At the end of the argument, the Non-believer closes the argument saying- “As far as I’m concerned, I believe in just this life. Even if there’s something after this one, we probably won’t remember about this one on the other side and surely won’t be able to come back this side to talk about it. So let’s just enjoy this one to the fullest; let’s accept each other with our differences in our beliefs — You go on believing in life after birth  and the Mother; and I live with my belief in only this one. Let’s just be together with love, respect and acceptance and make the best of this life as long as we are here.”

The Believer smirks- “You are an infidel… You don’t believe in the Mother. You don’t have a right to be respected or loved. Stay away from me. I’ll not let you insult the Mother.”

The Non-believer wants to say something but keeps quite for she knows anything further said by her will only make the argument ugly.

In the meantime, another believer quips- “What is this gibberish about the Mother? There’s no mother; there’s only ‘Ammi’ around us. You better believe in the Ammi or you are an infidel for me.”

A third one too chips in- “Both of you are wrong. There’s no mother or ammi… There’s only ‘Ma’. She’s the one who’s all around, keeping us alive, taking care of us.”

Another one jumps in- “All of you just shut up. You all are ignorant fools. There’s just ‘Mom’ who’s one true saviour of babykind. You better bow your filthy little heads in the Mom’s honour or I’ll slash your dirty umbilical cords.”

And that’s when the rest too join the fray; some siding with one or the other believer, a couple coming out with their own versions of the progenitress, soon graduating from ugly arguments to violent fights.

And the Non-believer is sitting back, watching the bloody mess, wondering  what happened to their beliefs of a better place with more light, where they will walk with their legs and eat from their mouths. 

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Well, that’s it!

I leave you all to draw your own inferences, without me saying anything further on it. 

Rather I would love to hear from you all.

Peace be upon us!

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If it prodded or tickled your senses, feel free to share it with all your friends and relatives.

Do hit the “Like” button and share your feelings it evoked in you in the form of comments, brickbats including.

 

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Image – courtesy : http://www.faithcounts.com