God wants you to know...

One of my favourite applications on the social networking site 'Facebook' is the one which goes by the name - "God wants you to know".

I check God's message to me everyday. I am fully aware that such applications randomly generate messages for each user. They are not emotion sensitive and are not aware of what is happening in their user's lives. They do not and cannot generate custom-made messages. Yet, despite knowing all this, I am a devout follower of this God on facebook :-)

Invariably, they generate messages which are at most times thought provoking. They also, at other times, provide the perfect solutions to life's problems which the user is going through at that very time.

They provide answers to so many questions that our life poses at us.

One such God's message, which happens to be one of my favourites and also one I firmly believe in, is produced hereunder:

"On this day, God wants you to know that all is well. All is going according to plan. Trust that there is a bigger picture. Trust that life is unfolding as it should."

The above message is in strong conformity with a belief my mom has instilled in me from as long as I can remember. My mom always has one thing to say, in times where I suffer any disappointment. She says, "Everything happens for the best. In retrospect it was all written." (Jo hota hai acchhe ke liye hota hai. Sab pehle se likha hua tha.)

Call it the Indian faith in "kismat" and "karma" or call it the Indian superstitiousness or call it anything, this statement makes one feel better and sustains the ambition, instead of killing it!

Another God's message which really helps you in taking certain hard decisions in life is as follows:

"On this day, God wants you to know that inevitable is best accepted with serenity. There are times when you absolutely see no solution. When you've thought and thought and prayed and prayed; when you've sat still in meditation listening for an answer and still no answer comes. There are times when it's okay to just surrender."

Another time, while I was troubled by the distances problems I had to go through everyday in commuting to Gurgaon for an internship, which happens to be about 40 kilometers from my home and 2.5 - 3 hours away using multi-modal public transport, God was kind to let me know "that when you focus on problems, you will have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you will have more opportunities." This message helped me change my attitude and made me more positive in life. I thank God for that.

As a child, quite understandably, I was not too keen on the moral science lessons that used to be given in school, but now, as a slightly more mature person, in my quest to be a better person, I abide by God's messages in whichever form I receive them. It is not just the virtual ones on facebook but also the everyday lessons you get in some form or other. The only benefit with virtual ones is that you can always log on to facebook and read them, whenever you want to refresh your memory.

Once God told me "that your kindness makes a difference. Even if it is a very tiny act of goodness and you think no one notices, God notices. Always remember that one little act of kindness can tilt the balance of an entire situation. One little act of kindness can ripple out in countless ways that you may never know about." This message comes handy at times when you feel dejected for not being rewarded for your kindness and think that it is better to be not so kind than otherwise. But no, God is always right. Believe in him.

Even though people might not attribute much depth to this site called facebook, it might be considered to be the most "shallow" thing ever, yet, I feel, that if you really observe, you can learn so much from it too. This is God's way of enlightening us in this internet crazy times. This is God's way to help us understand different kinds of people better. It provides a virtual social milieu, wherein, the sociologists amongst us can study behaviour patterns etc.

I know it sounds absurd and lame, but really, even facebook and the likes have their contribution to society apart from the obvious - helping people network.

All you need is the "eye to see", the "ability to sift" and the "brain to infer". Amen.