Friends, I would
like to open up few of my personal visits that I encountered couple of years
ago. The day was full of tired, when I began a journey towards muringoor a
place in trichur district. Finally at the end of whacked travel, I stepped down
in muringoor the silent place, walked few steps ahead then a heavy downpour
bothered me a lot. I took it as a challenge and ran through the roads to reach
my destination where I wanted to go. Well, safe and registered my name for one
week of prayer and retreat experience. But feeling bit of nervous and hoping to
get six of my friends from Bangalore. It was around a time of seven in the
evening, where I saw my friend George, mirth of happiness within me, feeling I
am safe. My other friends too reached the place and went to register their
names for the regional retreat centers inside the campus. Finally my friends
George, Bosco and myself approached for a room at the center, where we were
provided dorm entries with other participants, who were also staying for a
spiritual retreat. The huge dorm entries were not well maintained but we were
able to snoop and gather many interesting stories of the people whom we met.
The night was gyre one side, thinking of what could be the history and belief
of the people here. Since the night felt to too hostile the next morning we
planned to get shifted saying them that "we are religious and would like
to have some privacy". It was soon that we received a positive response
from house in charge and got placed in a separate dormentry. George flustered
me to be aware every time that we have to gain and relax ourselves to be more
spiritual but I often tend to be little silly and less serious upon his sayings
and had a notion to open my new iPod, which my father had sent me. Well, it is
an interesting rule that, we must not use any electric things including mobile
and must never chat and roam outside with friends, instead to reflect back and
put forward the thoughts on the transformation of Christ in our hearts. I had a
diplomatic attitude of getting attached towards worldly things, where I had
forgotten the necessity of religious life for few days. The first day of
retreat started on time at 6 'o' clocks in the morning with a pious spiritual
fragrance, but unfortunately I slept till 8 and directly went for breakfast.
The room in charge scolded me. Somehow I evaded from him. Later I found my guys
eating in dining hall... O my god, I was surprised to see nearly 10,000 thousand
people standing in a queue to collect their food. The dining hall was as big as
malls, which makes me wonder without an end, whenever I get reminded. It was a
session around 9.30am, I entered into a prayer hall, with an introduction song
of thanking god slowly the preacher took away the attention and took us into
unconscious level of faith... but me being away from all these started
observing the reality and spiritual convention among people and the other head
being an observer I was appalled to see people’s belief over Christ the lord,
which reminded me to understand the glory of Christ even more of speech and
their action. The preacher in the midst pointed us out "confess your faith
in Christ" the statement, which awoke me to realize the greatness and believe
of young and old humans, who were from different parts of the world,
"Saying I believe lord Jesus Christ, Trust you to live in your virtues of
simplicity, Kindness and Loving one another in the name of you". These
were the lines continuously recited by the crowd. George was near to me but I
was completely perplexed by my inner sense which bothered me a lot. I questioned George the credibility of crowd
and their faith towards Lord Jesus. The very next moment he shouted at me
saying "quiet", which I couldn’t. The night I solaced myself to wake
up next morning early. I found different class of young and old men, women
visiting this particular retreat center prayerfully. I met a stranger from
Madurai fortunately, there after he became a friend in a center named "Manal
Senthil". He accompanied me for the rest few days; he was remembered often
for his funny character and his dramatic explanations for whoever he sees over.
It is true that those loud laughs can’t be forgotten in life. Thinking is the
only gift of life which can be redefined and molded in any form of dynamics.
This is a quote which popped out from my mind while I sat to write this
article.
The man named
Subramanian from villupurm district was looking so grim and gloomy in the
center... I just went near him asked, what happen? initially he kept mum for a
minute and finally started talking about his family life, which is being a life
thread, couple of days ago his wife eloped with a man near his village as a
fact he started taking a heavy amount of alcohol, therefore his relatives put
him here to get cured. It was a touching story that I encountered by witnessing
a person. Preachers would bring up miracles and people who experienced Christ
in their lives would give testimony about their life with Christ the lord. The
entire surroundings and circumstances motivated to concentrate myself to the
reason, why I had come. The first few days were full of enjoyment and
excitement but rest of the days meant me a lot on spirituality and wondering
the miracles, personally of my life. I had many number of questions to my
consciousness repeating where have I lost? Why I am so lacking in my
spirituality? Apart from being solitary, I had reasonable question towards god
too.... There was a center for AIDS for the infected children in the huge
campus where nearly 400 children were placed in, but why doesn’t god heal and
cure them? If he can heal and save a life of a person, who is in the age of 40
and 50? I said 40 and 50 because people who give testimony of their miracle are
at this age. It is really pathetic and heart striking. This thought often
disturbed me a lot, so I asked George, what could be the reason but he was
lethargic and didn’t give me the right answer. It was fourth day, with doubtful
head , I went for a confession, the priest in
the desk asked me to open the chapter mark 14-24 in the bible by seeing
my gloomy face, Which stated, "Whoever believes me will have eternal life,
the life which has no end". And "confess your faith in Christ",
to be frank I was stunned for a while...Those words touched me a lot and I
blinked blindly for a while. The fifth day, I went early to the prayer hall,
feeling more spiritual to myself turned to be a big surprise for all my
friends. Preacher entered the hall and began his prayer together thanking god
and finally evolved us in to adoration. During adoration a young man was crying
aloud and feeling guilty over things that happened in his life, shouting at god
to help him. Well, with a bit of fear I went close to him and asked about his
health and life? He started responding slowly and shared about his disturbed
mind, that he often doubted his wife which urged her to commit suicide and put
whole family in trouble. To my surprise, he was a software engineer from
Bangalore called James and one of one of
his friend suggested to come here for a change therefore he is at the center.
Experience provides not only to travel safe to our destination in fact
enlighten us to go through obstacles and mirth that we had passed out. It was
one of the sparks for me to understand the importance of Christ in every
Christian’s life.
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