God doesn’t interfere at all in our lives, says new book
A management consultant’s recent book talks about the importance of not holding God responsible for one’s happiness
Henna Rakheja
Who doesn’t remember this dialogue from Aamir Khan-starrer 3 Idiots that has a miserable engineering student making entreaties to god to help him get through an exam? Well, running to the all-powerful to bail us out of our troubles is what we all do. From praying, promising offerings and even breaking up — humans practice almost everything with God. But after we run out of all tactics to appease the almighty, that’s when resentment seeps in.
“Whatever happens, we either blame God for it, or pray to Him. But the truth is that God doesn’t interfere at all in our lives. Whatever happens is because of our own actions,” says management consultant-turned-author Rajiv Grover.
The 44-year-old’s debut book God Won’t Help: Affirmations of the Reluctant God, elucidates the same idea. “Three years back, I lost my mother to cancer. In fact, when my mother was battling the disease, my father suffered a paralytic attack, and I had to quit my job because it was impossible to go to work while making rounds of the hospital,” says the Delhi-based consultant.
Grover, however, decided to pen his life experiences after he successfully helped one of his friends overcome the loss of his 14-year-old daughter. “If I could help one individual, I could help others facing similar situations, too. My generation, at least, had a support system in the form of siblings, but today’s generation doesn’t even have that,” he adds.
Grover’s book handholds the reader make the shift from the idea that ‘God won’t help’ to ‘God will help’, by following ‘demi-theism’ — a term that guides the author to not hold God responsible for their happiness. “When we face problems in life, we become so dependent on addictions such as alcohol that we forget to give a chance to the fighting spirit inside us. And the suicidal bouts are very contagious… That’s why I thought of writing a book, even though I never thought I will write one. I’m no author, but I want to help people come out of their depression by sharing my knowledge with them,” he says.
The book’s narrative, which has a disillusioned engineer, Shiv meeting a former US army officer, Candyman, and a Pashtun, Nasir, reminds the reader of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna in the Gita. How much does he borrow from the holy text?
“I have been an avid reader, and have read the Gita, Upanishads, Osho, teaching of Buddha, and many other texts. But, it’s life that has taught me so much more. If I had to just gather from the Gita, then I would have written a book at 30,” says Grover.
Whatever happens, we either blame God for it, or pray to Him... But the truth is that whatever happens is because of our own actions. RAJIV GROVER MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT AND AUTHOR
“Naag devta, mera Physics bacha lena… roz ek litre doodh bhijwaaoonga…”