Not long before, there lived(and still lives) a young shy girl. She was born in a community where Lord M in his C avatar was worshiped fervently. She once overheard her father comment about her being an atheist. This was when she was too young to have any opinions but she believed what her father said. Therefore, she grew up an atheist.
During her primary school days, she was one among the favorites of her teachers so they dragged her into the prayer sessions. She had no choice and would simply be the black sheep in the flock. And finally the day came when she was out of the primary school. She felt relieved and entered the secondary school with a pride that she is all grown up and can now opt out of such prayer sessions.
Alas, the secondary education curriculum had compulsory lessons on Lord M and He contributed a small portion to the overall marks and again she had no choice. She attended the classes without trying to comprehend anything from the lessons because she was an atheist. On the day when students were tested on the subject, she hoped no one else heard her answers.
But then one of her primary school teachers joined the secondary school and she roped in her ex-students to prayer sessions. With a hesitant mind, she joined the prayer sessions again. On one such session, the teacher found that the prayer wasn't effective enough. May be the teacher knew that someone was not praying whole-heartedly. Not wanting to hurt anyone, she gracefully told her students that non-believers are free to leave. Grabbing the opportunity, she walked out of the hall herself not wanting to hurt the sentiments of others. From then on, she never budged to anyone's cajoling to join them in their madness, madness like that of Gopikas dancing around Lord Krishna.
As fate would have it, she married a follower of R avatar of Lord M and most of their leisure time was spent listening to Lord R's teachings and hymns. As a couple, they started enjoying the Aham Brahmasmi show on their favorite channel and started giving opinions, jokingly, about the prayer of other devotees. And then she was pregnant and advice poured from everywhere about how her non-stop prayers during her pregnancy is going to have a positive effect on the Baby. Like every mother, she tried her best to give the best to her unborn baby. She started listening to mantras on Lord C, which only a born-believer could understand, she thought. Nevertheless, she tried her best. But deep within, somewhere in her 20s, she had already started accepting that Lord M is the ultimate reliever of pain and misery and bestows peace upon his devotees. Now she yearns to become an ardent devotee but she has distanced herself so much from Lord M that now He is beyond her reach.
P.S: The 'she' is yours faithfully and Lord M is Music!
Glossary
C avatar - Carnatic
Atheist - Gnanam venum gnanam venum doi...
Prayer sessions - Choir
Madness - Antakshari
R avatar - Raja Sir (Ilayaraja)
Aham Brahmasmi - Super Singer on Star Vijay
And yeah, me and my hubby pass comments such as 'sruthi serala', 'gamakkam seri illa', 'sangathi vizhala' when watching someone sing on TV with NIL knowledge of the above mentioned technicalities :-)
