Writer’s Note: The following are some of my views about life, our society and religion. No, they do not reflect my entire views… So, please have an open mind while reading.
There once lived a lumberjack in a forest. He had no family except for a blind son. The boy had never left the forest and had next to no contact with other human beings. His father took it to himself to educate the lad irrespective of his little knowledge in the worldly arts other than cutting trees. One day whilst the lumberjack was out chopping down trees, his son, tired of just hearing about the world and God decided to go roaming it on his own. Days passed and the son never came back till one fateful night when the father came back he saw his son sitting near the fire with a stranger. He rushed towards the apple of his eye and hugged him tightly.
“Hail me father, for I am back!”
His father, now composed looked at the stranger with a questionable look.
“Son, why don’t you tell your father about your journey?” The stranger spoke eloquently.
“Father… I left this graveyard and left seeking what I always heard you talk about. I walked and walked till I reached a place where I could hear people talk. They were so happy to see me that wherever I went their joyous laughter followed. Soon, I found a place where girls worshipped God ecstatically by screaming, “Oh God, am coming” at the top of their voices and males gave generous contributions to those pious ladies for their prayers. I entered and was ushered to a private room. Soon one of those glorious nuns entered and asked me if I had any coins. I said no… For some reason she got mad and had me kicked out. As they threw me out, I met this man who took it upon himself to lead me back home.”
The lumberjack looked at the stranger with tearful eyes and just managed to say “Thank you.”
“The boy wishes to travel the world, allow him to go with me. I am a teacher, I will teach him and when he is ready set him off to see the world.”
The father resisted at first but at last gave in. Time passed and the once brown forest, turned green again. On one of these nights, the lumberjack returned home to find his son sitting near the fire.
“Hail me father, for I have seen the world.”
“Seen? Does that mean you have your eyesight back?” The father asked joyfully.
“No, for one need not the eyes to see. Sit father, for I have to apologize.”
“Apologize for what?”
“For I was wrong, this was never a graveyard but a safe haven. The real graveyard lies out there and it’s filled to the brim with lifeless bodies.”
“What happened son?”
“Father, I travelled city to city with the sage, searching for God and myself. Everywhere it was the same. They all had their own Gods… They gave Him a new name in each city and cursed other Gods.”
“But surely, one of them had to be right?”
“I couldn’t tell, for they even amongst themselves never could decide whose God was right. They all behaved as learned scholars, teaching people their own scriptures, their own rulings. They even fought between themselves over the same God about things like whom God liked more or what His will was or how others deciphered the scriptures of God they held to be true, wrongly. Some sang to pray whilst others prayed in silence but at the end of it all they always complained how their prayers were never heard. They all gathered zealously in the name of God on causes which were bred with hate. They forgot that religion was another name of empathy and love. They kept eternal peace and religion separate, not knowing that one satisfied the other. They sought the creator of love with hate, the creator of life with death… I pitied their blindness for theirs’ was worse than mine.
They followed laws which were silent as long as they heard the clatter of gold but spoke sternly in its absence. They preached love in the wicked masquerade of lust and wore their hatred with pride. They spoke with tongues sharper than any swords man has ever made yet knew how to give each other kisses with it. They had hearts as dark as the night yet spoke as if they felt the pain and suffering of one another.
They were slaves of their own freedom yet were too blind to see. They all knew what was wrong yet were dumb when it came the time to speak against it. They saw no evil in themselves but could name all the vices in others. They all blamed words like fate, destiny and luck not knowing that it was they who defined them.
They kept armies at their shores not to protect themselves from wildlings but to oppress each other. They valued land and gold more than human lives and respected each other by their abundance. They sat in thrones, drunk and corrupted with power and complained how the poor should be less needy whilst the unfortunate struggled to survive.
They laughed in each other’s joy yet none of them truly shared anything but envy. They cried in each other’s sorrow but shared a mutual joy thinking someone had it worse than them. They all were actors of the highest creed.”
“But the world is a big place… Surely, you couldn’t have had seen it all in such a short time.”
“No father, I didn’t have to… I had already experienced it quite much the first time I met the sage… The world is a whorehouse where people are looted in the name of God whilst a show is put on to impress the one with the heaviest pockets. People wear fake laughter and pretend to be happy. There is no love and those who do love are forbidden to show it. And when you run out of gold they throw you out in the cold and shut their doors. The soul of humanity has died and I thank Lord that he made me blind for people hear but they don’t listen… They see but they don’t feel… They aren’t blind like me… They are dead… and even though He didn’t bless me with vision he gave me LIFE.”
“Did you find God?”
“Yes, He lives in me… He lives in my love… He lives everywhere I go… He loves unconditionally and equally… He is one, He is divine, He begets not nor is He begotten and I shall only remain His servant and not of anything made of flesh claiming to be alive…”
The father silently shed a tear as he got up and slowly walked towards the door.
“Where are you going, father?”
“I’m no better than the rest of them… I guess it took your innocence to show me that I lost something very important… I’m going out to find God and perhaps my humanity.” He replied as he shut the door behind him, disappearing into the warm summer’s night.
