The flu and the online congregation

The concept of God and a higher power becomes more apparent in one’s helplessness and hopelessness. One of the reasons of human beings undertaking their quest for God is when we feel we are not in control anymore and therefore have to make a petition for help to one who is more powerful than us. In India this is not so difficult to understand. Even though money in India can get us many things including getting away from murder in certain instances, we are exposed to dangerous situations which could lead to cutting short our existence on earth. Getting mowed down by a car, being swept away in a flood, sucked into a debt trap, being rained out or rained in and succumbing to the flu. This leads to a leap in faith as this is all we have got in this insecure life that we have to live. This leap in faith is reflected in the church, temple, mosque, gurudwara and other places of worship, where crowds flock together to express their faith in God.

But the swine flu has even broken down the crowd of faith. As people are advised to be careful, the obvious is also to keep away from large groups and crowds. Is it then safe to congregate when the times are bad? We are faced with a threat of dilution by a flu which refuses to die down. Who ever said that countries need weapons of mass destruction? The proximity of people in places of worship and the exposure of priests and worship leaders to a variety of people will also be under the scanner. The flu obviously does not discriminate between leader and follower. These kind of flu’s are going to add to the faith element of people but at the same time there will be doubts on whether they can go to a place of worship to dispel their fears.

But do we isolate ourselves from each other? Can we find other ways to be there for one another and reassure ourselves that we will fight this flu and overcome it, come what may. So if we can’t come together physically, we should look at ways of coming together in the virtual world. The confidence we gain from the virtual world will lead us to come back to the real world when we ready for it. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Chennai/Priests-log-on-to-stay-in-touch-with-congregation/articleshow/4821104.cms) These are times when it does not matter who we are and what we look like. It just matters that we continue our faith affirmations which lead our minds to come to terms with what is happening around us. Till then it’s www.seeuonline.com