Part – II

Ire of gods and sorrow of souls

Section 2: Gods admonish

Caring Vishnu

A Muslim Vishnu

I sat brooding in my Hotel room of Bhubaneshwar about my trouble free visit and generous feelings during my visit to Jagannath temple of Puri in the evening. The waiter leaving the room after clearing stood before me with a gesture to tell something. I looked at him inquisitively.

“Sir, I am inspired to ask you for a donation towards the annual function at the shrine of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer. I have not asked for this cause from any other tourist,” said the waiter.

I was a bit surprised at his demand. I was still half naked, with no clothes on the upper body after completing the ritual in two pieces of clothes at Puri. How does the man expect that a strict looking Brahmin will donate something for a Muslim function, that too on the other end of the country? There was love and force of love in his words. He had some money for the cause before leaving my room. Chishti was an Iranian Sufi saint of 12th century AD who settled in Ajmer. All the religious communities of India respect him for his love to humanity without barrier of religion, and for his special care of the poor.

Once I was in Chisti’s shrine at Ajmer in 1990 with my wife after visiting Gujarat. My wife informed me of a strange phenomenon when she stood before the grave of the revered Muslim saint of Ajmer. 

“Pray for the deity you pray every day; I’m the same” was the command from the saint.

She offered her everyday prayer of Krishna to him on his command, with eyes closed.

Twenty years after February ’87 a letter arrived from the Shrine of Ajmer. Someone had written my address on the envelope in a hand unfamiliar to me.  It reached me on July 11containing a request for donation for the annual function of 2007, scheduled to   commence on July 16. I also received another envelop with a ring and other blessed materials   from the shrine on September 7 ’07.

All my problems related to the   harassment by the alien spirits and gods were over within seven months of the arrival of the blissful envelope.   Vishnu had won the war; and, my attrition with the alien spirits and gods was over. My war against aliens had started with a donation to the shrine Chishti in February 1987 and ended with another in July 2007.

There is a Muslim Vishnu too, I concluded. He cares for me as much as my family god – Fierce Fiery Vishnu – who allotted me in this life a devout Hindu family of my grandpa.