FINDING A SIGN OF DIVINITY
The elderly man suddenly looks up at the sky, joins his palms together, closes his eyes and starts to murmur soundlessly. Moments later he reopens his eyes and reveals, “I was praying... to God.”
But this is platform 3 in Gurugram railway station. No temple to be seen nearby.
The gentleman slowly shakes his head, smiles, and waves his arm, saying, “What’s that? Isn’t that God?”
He is gesturing towards the sun gleaming like a white disc in the blue sky. Satyanarayan Sharma lives nearby. “I have reached an age where I don’t have to do anything.” He is implying that he has long retired from active employment—“i used to do likhapadhi (accounting) kind of work in a shop.” Wearing a white dhoti, Mr Sharma has the sartorial trappings of a temple priest.
“I was crossing the station on my way home when I spotted the sun.”
And he ended up greatly moved by the sight—this being the grist of his long discourse he delivers in a beautifully spoken Hindi. Looking up at the sun, he intones, “What is God but the one who gives us comfort in distress, and shows light and warmth.”
Mr Sharma says he never loses the opportunity to pray whenever he comes across such a comforting presence. It soothes him, he says.
Describing himself as a person who makes it a point not to seek either praise or attention from others, he walks on towards the other end of the platform.
Moving slowly, he stops every now and then to look about himself. As if he were trying to find yet again a sign of the divinity.