How a Puja Thali Showed Me The Meaning of God

It was not the best of the times. Having qualified for the elite Indian Air Force but eventually getting rejected on grounds of eyesight had smashed my soaring dreams to smithereens. Even though I didn't show my disappointment, but in myself I  truly was dejected and disheartened. The twist of fate meant a compromise with my dreams, which was absolutely unacceptable to me. A change of plans was  on the cards. I needed to be by myself. However, hardly had I proceeded to lock myself in solitary confinement, when my friend literally dragged me over to attend a Puja at her house.

I had grown up with the belief that man is the sculptor of his destiny and so all these Pujas meant little to me. I went over to keep her heart though!  Sensing my aloofness there, she asked me with the gaze of concern in her eyes, “ Hey, you believe in God ?”  Honestly, I was not prepared to answer that  question at that very moment ? Why?   The innocent purity in her eyes glowing with the  piercing softness in  her voice forced me to look deep into myself and find an answer that matched up to the level of her simplicity and innocence, thus  justifying the sanctity of the question. Before I could say anything, she moved up close to me and softly whispered in my ear, “ Start believing ! “.

As I turned around to look at the deity, a stealing beam of sunlight reflected from a shiny surface kept near the window almost blinded me, forcing me to block it with my  arm. I moved up close to inspect it and what I saw left me awestruck.

It was an extremely beautiful Puja Thali radiant in all its simplicity. As I lifted it, I wondered what refinement the substance had been through to attain such perfection, exude such warmth and elegance and delicately balance  grace and charm in absolute equipoise.

Moreover, the thali pack was surrounded by a diya, a bell, a roli /kumkumkatori, a Dhoop and agarbatti holder, a panchamrut set with a spoon and essential Puja samagri.

What, however, startled me was when I inspected further this beautiful Thali - a work of love.

The Thali had been  individually handcrafted and  embossed with an OM motif around the sides and in the center. 

Recalling from my previous learnings, the following resurfaced. Om is also written ओ३म्. Aum. OM is the basis of all uttered sound. A-U-M constituted of  the creator( Brahma) - the preserver (Vishnu) - the destroyer(Shiva).  In a nutshell, G for The Generative Energy- O for Operative Energy - D for Destructive Energy.  GOD! As I looked on at the OM symbol and saw the evolving picture of the letters GOD rising out of OM in my mind, I didn't realize when I had tilted the Thali. No sooner was the image of the letters GOD is racing across  my mind when the reflection of my face emerged on the Thali with OM embossed in the center.

I couldn’t hold myself back and burst out laughing. I recalled myself sporting one of my favorite T- shirts which read, “I  was an Atheist till I  realized that I AM God !”.

Indeed seeing the OM and my face on the same plane against the backdrop of a pure container of such simplicity, perfection and refinement, just as my friend’s question  made me realize that God lives in each one of us. Now I had an answer to give her, not that it was anything  new to me but its expression in this context mattered.

 As I turned the brass Puja Thali, I found the hands that crafted this magnanimous art work of divine gratitude and love. Borosil was the name. Thanks to their quality, for if it were not for the simplicity and exquisiteness of their work, I could not have made such a correlation !

Noticing me play with the brass Thali, my eyebrows knit, and literally reading the train of thoughts chugging across my mind, she teasingly said “You get to buy these Puja Thalis online also. So, Mr. Fighter Pilot, Do you believe in God? “

 “Yes, I believe in myself ! ” I quipped. 

What descended was silence. It was not a silence of being dumbstruck but rather a silence of acknowledgment. One of certainty. It was in that silence that both of us knew my  faith had been restored. Come to think of it, it all happened because of a Brass Pooja Thali set from Borosil! Grateful indeed!