Annasamy Anna, Eashwaramma and Theism-Atheism and Gods

I asked Annasamy Anna, "Anna, in the city there are many educated people who don't believe in God.They say if there was a God why does he permit suffering."

Annasamy Anna smiled.

"There are laws. There are processes. First understand that.

The poor man remembers God, tries to live a life based on daanam and Dharmam. His Dharmam brings good fortune in him.

Once rich, he ofen forgets God and Dharmam. And gets attached to making more and more money. And that brings him down again.

What can God do.

Man has the choice to follow Dharmam. Or to reject it."

...to all those who have an infantalized understanding of our religion. There is no God above passing decrees. In our religion.

There is the law of Karma. The God is the law. Karma phala data.

In deeper understanding, the God is that consciousness in oneself.

Aham Brahmasmi.

Every Indian rooted in the soil knows this.

"Eashwaramma, there are some educated people in cities, who say there is no Devudu. They say if there was a Devudu (God) there should not be the suffering we see everywhere.", I asked.

Eashwaramma laughed. "What can God do ? Our Karma. If we do good acts, we reap goodness. If we do paapam, we deal with that."

I asked, "Then what is God's role Eashwaramma ?"

She answered, "Chei isthaadu." ... he lends a hand. A chance to do good. The mind and heart to do good. The courage to do good. To weave a better life. For others and for ourselves.

When I need to understand our religion, our philosophy, I seek it at the feet of the peoples of our land. At the feet of the men and women of my village. I find the essence of Vedanta understood and lived and validated here. As nowhere else.

Annasamy Anna, "This banda, granite stone, we are sitting on. If it's stood up, and kumkumam applied, people will pray to it.

That's how it should be. Is there one place where God does not exist ?"

My village people say water is holy, and say that all water is Gangamma. This includes the water in faraway Ganga, water in the pond, and even the water content in the arrack bottle as in the stories that Annasamy Anna tells me.

They worship stones, and Chinapaapakka asked me, 'Is God not there is a stone' when she was telling me a story where a young man kicked an idol.

Divinity in all that exists seems to be the Indian thought from the vedanta to the SC illiterate villages.

The swamiji in the Geeta lessons was referring to the Vishwaroopam. God did not 'create' the world, God is the world, he explained. He manifested as the panch mahabhootas.

Religion permates this land, from the remotest villages to the Bhagavad Geeta classes.

One God, many names.

"Who is the greatest in a home ?" asks Annasamy Anna, and after my guesses, he tells me.

"Laxmi Devi, Jyothiamma. The lamp. Without light, is there a home ? Gangamma, Laxmiamma, they are all the same. One God, many names.

Like people. We also ave many names ..."

Roopa, "Saiblu (Muslims) come to Tirumala. Venkateswara Swami is their son-in-law after all." That I know. The shrine of his Muslim bride is in the temple premises.

They also come to the Anjaneya lu swami temple in Tirupati where the Hanuman locket is blessed and tied. When I went there with my daughter, there were women in burkhas ahead of me.

But Roopa told me that they also come to the Subramanya Swami temple. As she said, " We also go to their Majid to get mantram s said."

I was idly philosophising to Annasamy Anna, saying that finally we are all irrelevent. And that even Naren's passing away, whom each person in the village loved as father or son or comrade, did not make a difference, and village life has been going on.

Annasamy Anna would not allow that idle philosophy to pass. He asked me back, 'You tell me. If Naren was there now, what all would have been different.', and demanded an answer. And i realized that things would have been done - towards water issues, towards employment, and towards individual succour for individual pains.

He reminded me again that each of us plays a role, which does help in its own small way. , And without cynicism or pride we need to play that role, while there is breath in the body.

The existance of God is questioned, because 'God permits evil'.

The Indian notion of god is infinitely different from the Abrahamic god. There is no god in heaven dispenseing good and ill as per his wishes.

The understanding of God starts as the Ishta devata when the mind needs a focus. With spiritual growth it widens into Vishwaroopa Ishwara, where God is seen everywhere. And reaches, at the peak of Gnana Yoga, the essense of Aham Brahmasmi, seeing the God within. That final understanding is what needs to be kept in mind as questions are phrased.

God is the Law and the Law Giver. And bound by the law of karma and of kala.

Unless one understands a subject, by immersing in it, the questions themselves are wrong, and also the responses.

The law of karma means that dharma and adharma have their repurcussions. Man has freewill, as much as he is also subject to the past karma.

To blame god for one's karma is escapist.