. WHEN GOD WALKED THE EARTH CHAPTER 9
God celebrates Janmashtami-His own birthday

When God reached the station, He found Harry pacing the platform impatiently .When Harry saw God his face broke out into a smile ”here you are, the train is about to arrive, you have come in time ,said Harry
“I told you to leave ”,replied God. ”I would have followed you by the next train”
“my friend I can never leave you” ,said Harry in an emotional voice.” I have got so close to you in the last few months that even the thought of leaving you gives me goose pimples”
“no one can live with you all your life, sooner or later you have to part ways .kama,krodha,madh and moha all bring miseries on one’s head,it is the maya which entraps you into moha.Moha is an enchantress who entices the intelligence and traps the senses,it is a decoy which makes you lose your discrimatory powers of right and wrong.Moha creates havoc and destroys peace and keeps you away from happiness,wether you are a sanyasi, householder or a yogi he only is truly happy who has freed himself from the clutches of moha”,said God.At that moment the train arrived and they were surrounded by coolies who asked them to hand them their luggage.”we have just a handbag,”,replied God kindly”the less luggage you carry,the more comfortably you travel and this makes traveling a pleasuee.In this journey of life our desires become our baggage which we tow around with ourselves all the time,the fewer our desires the greater our comfort.The true aim of life is giving up your desires”Most of what God said went above the heads of the coolies,but His words fell like a manna on their ears,they touched His feet because their heart was full of reverence for Him.To them He exuded a sense of power and they were completely in awe of Him

When the train reached Bombay Central station,they were met by John who was Harry’s flat mate.He was a dashing romantic person with dark curly hair.The flat they lived in was very plainly furnished with barest of necessities,the water and the electric supply was erratic,but with the resources they had,they could only afford this.In this city you could get anything and everything but to get a place to stay it was next to impossible.,therefore this place was a blessing in disguise for them.
The month of july moved into august and because of lackluster rainfall everyone complained of blazing heat. God who had mastered the art of cooking ,kept the kitchen since he had no job and both Harry and John worked in an office ,if anyone of them returned early from office ,they would assist God in the kitchen,on one burner God would bake chapaties and on the other burner the dal simmered,when the dal was cooked he would give it the finishing touch by heating clarified butter with asafetida and broken red chillies and cumin seeds,when the mixture would fume and crackle like a sorceress he would empty the contents into the dal,the mixing of dal with butter would give rise to heavenely aroma,with work finished God would again take a bath before partaking of the food,after bath He would first offer the food to Goddess Anapoorna,the Goddess of food and then serve the food to Himself and His friends, the fare was very simple,yet it was so delicious that both His friends would ask for more and more servings till God would laugh and say,”at the rate you are eating your stomach will burst one day”’

That day a strong sun poured its heat in the kitchen,by the time God finished cooking ,he became very hot in the body, as usual He went into the bathroom to take a nice cool bath to energise Himself,he had soaped Himself nicely,when suddenely the water tap went dry.God was completely flustrated,He was all alone in the flat,He had soap all over his body and face,He couldn’t even open His eyes.As He stood there wondering what to do,Goddess Laxsmi summoned the river Goddess Ganga and asked her to go to God’s aid.Goddess Ganga burst into laughing,she went on laughing until she was rebuked by Goddess Laxshmi to stop laughing and do her bidding”I am sorry mother,I cannot help myself,the creator of this universe looks so woebegone that I can not control my laughter,but don’t worry I will immediately go to His aid”,said Ganga and immediately she sent her water gushing through the tap.Seeing the gushing waters,God felt greatly relieved and He started enjoying the cool and refreshing bath,when suddenely He heard the door bell ringing.When He got out of the bathroom,He stepped right into two feet of water,some how He waded through the water and opened the door.On opening the door He came face to face with His angry neighbours who told Him angrily that the water gushing out of His house had flooded their houses.He some how with great difficulty placated them and thern He rushed back to the bathroom and closed the tap and then He came face to face Goddess Laxshmi,”you have put me in all this mess haven’t you”,God asked in an accusing voice
“what could I do?you cut such a sorry figure covered from top to toe in soap,that I had to request river Ganga to help you”,replied Goddess Laxshmi
“and see what has happened,everything is spoilt there is water all around I have to spend the whole day in cleaning up the mess” ,said God
“I will clean up everything in the twinkling of an eye” ,said the Goddess in a soothing voice.
“thank you for showing me your concern devi ,but I would rather clean up myself ,and now please leave me alone, I have plenty to do”, God was irritated and so the Goddess wisely left Him alone .God had plenty of cleaning to do ,after wards God felt like going out to get a breath of fresh air. He went for a stroll ,on the way, He noticed decorative lights in a small garage type structure .He stood outside what the illumination could be, out of curiosity He went inside and found that it was a small function and immediately He retraced His steps .Suddenely a young woman came face to face with Him, she folded her hands and addressed God, ”sir I live here ,I saw you come in and then turn back”.
“I didn’t mean any thing wrong I was attracted by the lights and the sound of music and I wanted to know what it was, I am really very sorry for intruding ”.God said in embracement.
With hands still folded the woman replied” please donot embrass me by saying such words there is nothing private about it, today is Janmashtami the birthday of Lord Krishna and we are celebrating it with our friends,do come in and join us”.

Being preoccupied in worldly affairs,God had quite forgotten it was His birthday today,He thanked her for the invitation and tried to make an excuse because He had not eaten anything since morning and He was hungry, but the woman would not take no for an answer.she said” it was providential that you will stop outside our door whilst we were celebrating the Lord’s birthday, now if you donot come in and participate in our celebrations ,our celebrations will be incomplete. God looked at His watch, it was only seven in the evening, it was many more hours to go before He would get some thing to eat. Already He was feeling sick with hunger and to sit for so many hours without food was unthinkable but the woman was so insistent that He had to accompany her
Inside there was a large gathering of people singing songs in lord’s praise to the accompaniment of dholaks and cymbals in front of a staute of a beautiful decorated Bal Gopal who was adorned with heavily embroidered silk and precious jewellary.He was placed in a highly decorated cradle and in front of the cradle were burning hundreds of agarbaties and silver diyas.The whole atmosphere was charged with a rare splendour,at the sight of His charming and sweet appearance every one who was present could not help thinking that the God in heaven must be having His looks and appearance,he looked at everyone with a loving and sweet smile before being seated.He closed His eyes like everyone and joined them in singing.Goddess Laxshmi burst out laughing at the sight.”what makes you laugh Devi?,questioned God
“you must be the only God in the full universe whose praying to Himself”,God ignored her and kept on singing.Suddenely He was assailed by a fit of coughing,the atmosphere had become very hot and stuffy due to the smoke emitted by the agarbatties.The smoke was not only irritating His throat,He was also feeling very hot under the color,He could not ask them to remove the agarbatties because this would hurt their religious sentiments,neither could God sit in that smoky atmosphere,”get up my Lord otherwise you will become sick”,said Goddess Laxshmi
“I donot understand why they have to burn so many aggarbatties,this is criminal waste of moneys,besides this heavy smoke pollutes the atmosphere”said God
“there is a song in your honour sung by all your ardent devotes which goes like this-dhoop,dheep,agarbati se raazi sat deva-so they are doing all this to please you”
“and who the hell has written this song?”,asked God
“one of your devotees must have written it”,answered the Goddess
“then I am sure he must be a very good salesman,no one can think of such a novel selling strategy”,said God”devi I am not enamoured by this vulgar display of wealth which is done to impress their friends and relatives.I am only enamoured by a beautiful and a loving heart,anyone who offers me with true love even a drop of water I accept it humbly.Do you not remember that in my avtar of Rama I ate half eaten berries of Shabri and I loved the taste of those berries because she had offered them to me with great love and devotion”
“I can see from your look that you are very hungry and sick,if it were in your hands you would get up just now and leave,but they won’t allow you to leave and there are many more hours to midnight,tell me my lord why did you take birth at such an earthly hour”.
“I entered the world at midnight because that is the time when there is maximum darkness,but the moment I took birth the darkness started diminishing,similiarly when the heart becomes dark after being afflicted by multiple anxities,worries and miseries and in these darkest hours if they turn to Me ,I appear in their hearts and the darkness recedes and the light of eternal hope enters their mind.For the same reason I was born in a prison cell in the darkest hour of the day and freed my parents from the shackles ,Whosoever is shackled by desires,anxieties and worries will be freed if they remember me and come to me ,I shall appear in their hearts and dispel the darkness” ,said God, Goddess Laxshmi could see that every moment for God was becoming torturous therefore she hastened the dawning of midnight. No sooner the clock struck the hour of midnight, the congregation went mad with frenzy, they started singing bhajans,dancing and bursting crackers ,the host folded his hands and addressed the gathering”it is my good fortune that all of you have come here to celebrate the lord’s birthday,a guest is a manifestation of God,please start eating”.”you have hastened the hour of midnight devi isn’t it?,God asked Goddess Laxshmi.”I had no other option did I?’ she said and disappeared .It was the destiny of God to eat food with His bhakta’s and it was the destiny of bhakta’s to feed God