“God!” Might be the most used exclamation! But strangely enough it is used rather casually or even indifferently. We are not even thinking about god, when we say, “god, how did this happen?” But surely what went wrong is always of more significance than the word, god itself.

I wonder if this phenomenon needs an analysis. May be it doesn’t. But ‘may be’ it can be mulled over… or maybe not. But let me do it. I have a different take on this.

When someone talks about God, I would imagine she/he is talking about ‘the’ most powerful one, someone who is believed to have created this world, entire universe, runs everyone’s life, etc.

Every religion has few smaller entities like Ganesh ji, Hanuman ji… These entities have faces and they can be identified by looking at their paintings or their idols.

But the biggest power, ‘the’ God, stays unseen across all faiths. She/he has no face, no identity or presence. No one can figure out at which point or moment where that God might be. Everyone says She/he is omni-present, She/he can see everything, knows everything, is running this world from top…

But no one gives any thought to so many gods, who are present right in front of our eyes, in our day to day life! They are all the time helping us. Infusing life in us and we are able to function because of those small little gods all around.

Guys, isn’t the air that we breathe is being given to us by some god! Could any insignificant identity provide us with such a vital form of life support? I guess only a god can have that kind of power. And she/he does it without any selfish motive. She/he doesn’t want anything in return. Just take the air, breath in, stay alive and move on. I am sure many have guessed the name. It’s a tree. Thousands of them are lined up on the roadsides, in forests, in barren land… What are they doing there? They are collecting the stale air that we breathe out and converting it back into breathable air for all of us. Why do we need to worship any other god in front of a healthy green tree?

I wouldn’t talk about what kind of respect people give to these tree gods. It is shameful. If this is how people treat a living real god, then they should not call themselves ‘god fearing’. I think gods must be afraid of them.

Actually my opinion about god is even more widely elaborate. It includes so many things, people and animals. We should include everyone and everything as some kind of minor gods. If anything or anyone does even an iota of good to the other selflessly, then that person has experienced god. Someone guided me in long distance running. He is god enough for me. When I see him jogging I see god. When a tree sheds hundreds of tiny leafs, just as I pass below it. I thank it for acknowledging my presence. As a habit, I never pluck flowers from a tree. I always pick up them from ground, because those the ones god has dropped for me.

Sometime gods get created for a short period, like a flash and then they go away. Another time, we can see them just for a moment in an activity, in the movement of a wave, in expert flight of an eagle, in unending breath of a flautist, expert play of sitar or santoor… there so many gods all around. We just need to be alert in discovering beauty and intelligence in whatever we see. Everything in our vision is a cosmic dance and we are a part of it. If anytime we have managed to spread a smile someone’s face, if we made a child happy, if we petted a dog, helped a struggling butterfly, a limping bird… I would say that we were gods in those moments. We all are gods. Real ones! And now you can stop looking for that God, which you know only too well – you will never find.