The miserable life of the old and aged people
- Part 3 -

Waikhom Damodar Singh *

Another bit of interesting incident that happened was-when the writer was the first Superintendent of Police, Ukhrul district, then known as East District, in the year 1972 when late Alimuddin of Lilong was the honourable Chief Minister of Manipur, he had his first official call on the new incumbent IGP, Shri Madan Gopal in his office at Imphal. Calling and meeting an IGP, then the Head of the Department was something of a nerve wracking affair. The writer in service tuni dress entered the IGP's roo and gave a smart salute to the new IGP who was an IPS officer on deputation from Punjab cadre of 1952 seniority and a very towering personality welcomed me and said, please take yopur seat.

I sat down on the chair quite boldly and kept looking firmly on him wondering what type of professional question will come out from him. To my utter surprise he asked me, well Mr Damodar Singh, can you tell me where God is ? Without any nervousness and hesitation, I answered, Sir, He is here, pointing my finger towards my heart. Most surprisingly he at once got up from his chair and shook my hand and said, Mr Damodar, I am glad that you are the only police officer so far who has given me the right answer.

Yes ! God is neither in the Temple nor in the Church nor in the Mosque but He is in our hearts, if you believe He exists, if you do not believe Him, He does not exist at all. Truly, it is like what Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar of Bengal once said, "to you the colour of this beautiful rose may be red, but to me it is yellow"-there ends the matter-when the thing that which does not impress upon one's mind it cannot be forced to be accepted at all. Likewise, the baffling matter of the existence of God depends on how one believes it or not, nothing can change the impression so felt on his mind.

Also yes, God is most useless in so far getting material gains by praying Him is concerned as was experienced by Dr I Mohendro Singh during his childhood days when he was a firm believer of God as was induced by strictly religious Vaishnava father and prayed for a "bicycle" for a change from children's tricycle to be brought by his father on returning from his opffice, an earnest expectation which never came to a reality inspite of his fervent prayers continuously offered to God and ever since he began disbelieving in His existence-his candid experience is written in his well written book, Quest Beyond Religion, chapter 2 page 21 under the heafing "My disenchantment with God," heavily sulking at the failure of God to satisfy his earnest desire of having a bicycle saying , "My love affair with God came to an end".

I came to realise my prayer for the cycle an empty dream. In those days of 1930s to own a bicycle was big thing of possession-onoly the Durbar Members (Ministers) and high officials of the State Government and a few rich persons owned cycles imported directly from Birmingham, England, costing Rs 75 each cycle which has a present money value in thousands of rupees through the agents, Kisturichand and Sons.

The writer's late father, W Chaoba Singh, as a Durbar Member used a green coloured English Raleigh cycle imported directly from England for going to the Duirbar held every Mondays, Wednesdays and Firdays in the morning and his office quite fascinated by the onlookers as some rare thing. The use of bicycle was introduced in Manipur for the first time in 1893/94s by the 1st Superintendent of Police, Manipur and Commandant, State Military Police (SMP), Mr ML Crwford, locally called "Korphu Sahib", who when not very expertly rode it on the Yaiskul road where hundreds of people lined up n the road side and watched with great wonder on seeing the plying of the two wheeler for the first time.

Because of the nervousness due to the gathering of a big crowd of spectators, Korphu Sahib fell and landed with the bicycle into the ditch on the side of Janmasthan near the present Hicham Yaicham pat, thus ended the pioneer show of the European officer into an anti-climatic scene.

Truly praying to God for a long life, for becoming a Prime Minister or a Chief Minister, or a very rich person will not happen at all even if one ardent devotee of God continues to pray Him for ages. Rather countless believers and non-believers of God have died on expiration of their "living time periods" on this worldly dream like stage, not to talk of the mere human beings but even God Himself incarnated as Krishna, Christ, Muhammad, Buddah, Sai Baba and so on have disappeared one after another from the stage of this "transient world" with the end of their prescribed time periods of the "worldly roles."

The fact that remains as the "eternal truth" is all the worldly effects of "pleasantness, wonderings, fearings and miseries" felt by a human being is due to the conceivement of them by his sensitive brain, and with the stoppage of its working on his deah all the effects so felt on him also end instantly, though in some very rare cases a residuary effect may continue for a very short period due to the brain cells not immediately dead even though the functioning of the major organ, the Heart, which works the working all the organs of the body has stopped.

The divine message for the benefit of mankind by Lord Gouranga Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, incarnated by Lord Krishna in Shrimati Radhika (antare kala, bahire gora-internally the dark colour Krishna or Brjabrundaban and externally the golden colour Shrimati Radhika) as One Being propounded the Hari Sankirtana cult and spread Vaishnavism-the cult of acquiring Prem-Bhakti (devotion) to the Supreme Lord of the Universe, Shri Krishna (Maha Vishnu) by chanting Harinam (His endless glories) through it constantly, stands as the "eternal truth", it says-Aeyi sangsar dukherop sthan, Shri Krishna kirtane dubile jiber dukhna thakena; Hey Jibagon ! Dukher ek-matra aushad-Bhagavam, nam kirtan, Shri Krishna Bhagavad-gun kirtane, sangsare rog sokadi ki rupe dukha mash hobe"- "This materially manifested world is a place full of miseries and sorrows, which cannot be avoided once born in ti. The only means to relieve from their tight clutches is to take the "divinely given medicine" of constantly chanting of Harinam, Oh ! mankind."

Lastly, Lord Krishna said to His most, beloved disciple and indispensable companion of the Dwapura Yuga (era) Arjuna that there are only two things in this unique cosmic world-one of the imperishables (the sats), the God and His components, the souls of the living beings and the other the perishables (the asats), everything manifested in the material forms, all will vanish or perish from their temporary manifestations with the passage of Time in its Trinities, the Future, the Present and the Past tenses ever wheeling under three eternal phases-Creation, Sustenance and Destruction which given deified names as Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer) and Maheshwara (Destroyer) respectively.

According to the Vedic version of the cosmic world, after it had been remaining for ages in complete darkness exploded suddenly and produced the primeval Ligh and Soung (AUM) and streams of Energy flowed out from which subsequently created all the cosmic matters that are manifested. From the version and also from the scientific evidences found it is very clear that the cosmic world began existing under an "energy system" to which also everything will end to it, except two things-God and His components, the soulds which exist in the form of imperishables, the Energy as it clearly revealed in the Vedic sloka (text)-"Poornamada, Poornmidang, Pooranat, Poornamudachyate, Poornashya, Poornamada, Poornameva, Bashisyate"-"This is Full. That is Full, When the Full is taken out what remain is still the Full"-the Truth expressed in the version remains as True as ever as the fact, "two is two or twos are always Four."

Concluded...