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Rashmi Shenoy writes for OKC in her spare time from
Auckland, New Zealand. Rashmi was born in Malleshwaram, Bangalore and lived
there for the first quarter of her life. Currently, she works as a Services
Consultant with Hewlett Packard New Zealand and lives in Auckland, NZ with her
husband Shiv. She freelances with OKC in her spare time
she also also freelances.
We’ve
always had a practice at home of lighting the oil lamp before the Lord twice
everyday. Although my father would light it, he would demand our presence when
he lit the lamp and we would all pray together. My dad is known to be a jovial
person, a creative one at that as he used to come up with modified sayings. He
would say, “Those who pray together stay together”. However, that was a joke… I
think. Because, a month or so after dad said that, he got transferred to Belgaum. Then mum, my
brother and me would do the daily ritual. Due to want of time we prayed at our
own convenience in the mornings but in the evenings, we made it a point to pray
together.
Then, a day came when mum was visiting dad in Belgaum. She instructed me about handling the
money wisely and all about the basic requirements of the house, vegetables,
groceries, the bills that were to be paid etc. I made a mental note of all that
she had mentioned. “Remember to light the lamp every day” she said. After she
left, I followed her instructions to the T and one fine morning, I found my
brother writhing in pain. He was completely restless and when I asked him what
was up with him, he said, he is sick. I placed my hand on his forehead to see
if he had fever and what did I find? A very hot forehead…. “Oh my god, your
forehead is so hot that we can make an omelet easily.” He managed to smile but
I could sense he was really sick. Later I took him to the doctor but even after
5 days, his fever had not subsided. Infact it had gone worse.
This time the doctor came home and started saying things like “we’ll try this
last medicine, if the fever does not subside, it might be pneumonia or malaria
and we might have to admit him to the hospital.”
What???? All this and I, who had seen only 14 years of life on planet earth,
had to handle it alone??? That evening, my maid had to go to her house, as
there was another case of flu in her house too. It was just the two of us at
home, one did not know what to do and the other was almost unconscious. I could
have informed my parents and asked them to come but I thought it would be wise
to give
it another day or two.
It was evening. “Remember to light the lamp every day”…. that kept ringing in
my ears.
Then I thought, why should we light the lamp? Why not just sit in the
darkness?
Hence I sat for two whole hours. Not a word from the other end. The house was
getting darker. A sense of depression was setting in. It was almost eight o
clock in the evening when I gave up.
I had already established a relation ship with god. I used to speak to him and
he would reply back to me. I never heard a voice or anything but certain
thoughts came to my mind, which I would not have thought of otherwise.
I asked god if he is trying to test me, or was it my brother? May be it is my
parents? I did not get the answer to that but as I lit both the lamps, I told
god that I love him, infact we all loved him. If any of us have committed a
mistake knowingly or unknowingly, I asked him to forgive us and I asked him if
he could send that fever away that was housed in my brother’s body. That the
fever did not belong in our house.
At that very minute, I realized Light symbolizes knowledge and darkness
ignorance. These are two aspects that cannot come together. If there is light,
darkness must go away. Knowledge eliminates ignorance. Isn’t knowledge the
inner wealth that we all have, which enables us to accomplish all our
achievements? As I bowed down, I realized I was bowing down to knowledge, the
greatest form of wealth, something that no one can be robbed of. It is
knowledge that backs us, that guides us through the toughest of the times, that
leads us to the right path. Therefore everybody keeps a lamp lit during all
auspicious occasions as a witness to their thoughts and actions.
The oil lamp has a spiritual significance too. The oil symbolizes our negative
thoughts and the wick symbolizes our ego. When the lamp is lit the negating
vibes are burnt out by knowledge, thus promoting positive vibes. The flame of a
lamp always is pointed upward (despite laborious talks about gravity!) which
means the light of knowledge will always take us to higher goals in life. A
single flame can light thousands of lamps but it still does not loose its
original value. Now, isn’t it the same with knowledge too? It teaches us the
art of giving.
I broke out of my reverie as I heard my brother call out my name. We had dinner
soon and I reminded god again to forgive us for our sins. This might sound very
melodramatic but it is the truth. The next morning, I found my brother bright
eyed and cheerful. His fever seemed to have abandoned him. He then went into
excruciating details about how he was awakened in the middle of the night when
he was profusely sweating. He did not want to wake me up, as I was fast
asleep.
As I heard this, I lit the lamp again and thanked god.
Now was all this the charm of the light of the lamp or was it one of the ways
of God in showing how unpredictable he was??
Or have we forgotten the doctor and his medicines altogether now?
Any way, I am
proud to say that my brother today is a doctor – yes in the noble field of
saving lives
And we
still have the lamp light outside our house each day, it’s just the modified
electric version we all have come to use. What is disappointing is not everyone
in our area is doing it. Well – I just guess its time to spread the knowledge
Click here to go to the main page of Columns.
Click
here to read more articles from Rashmi Shenoy.
Please send your opinions, articles, feedbacks to shshenoy at yahoo.com
