The Lord, our God, is One

When I begin my prayer with a gesture recalling Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, trying to encompass the Unencompassable, the next line reassures me this is the eternal truth. “As it was in the Beginning, now, all time and ever”. With that reassurance I plunge into the prayer itself, calling on the Father who is in Heaven. The name that is holy, what if it is one nameless name or a million names (Vishnu Sahsranamam, that my neighbour is reciting almost at the same time).

Time is defined by the fact of His Kingdom coming for ever, therefore the question when will that be, the question we continue to ask and several disciples of Jesus asked and got no answer (Mark, 13:32-33) is irrelevant. I have the task set before me. “Your will be done on earth as in heaven”. I must do my part in bringing the Earth as close to Heaven as possible.

But while I plan for the day’s action to take His love to others as He decreed “to heal, to preach and to save” — He even said that the destitute on the street is He Himself, so my task is out. My search ends there, the search to build heaven on earth. I have the suffering humanity through whom Jesus manifests Himself to take care of. My neighbour says that his Narayana too manifests as Daridra Narayana, the God who is poor. As St. Paul says He who is rich made Himself poor “in order to make you rich by means of his poverty” (2 Cor 8:9)

However, I need to be strengthened against Temptation and delivered from Evil. And I sum up by saying that Thine Kingdom, Thine Power and Thine Grace for all time to come. I mention the last word in slow motion: The Grace.

My neighbour by then comes to the end of his prayer, recalling a description of Vishnu: òf40óShuklambaradaram Vishnum, Sasivarnam, Chaturbhujam Prasanna vadanam dhyaye….” And his image of Vishnu has both: one hand with weapons and another hand in the abhaya mudra — I presume that it too denotes Power and Grace. I read out Jesus’ exhortation to his confused disciples caught in a terrible storm: “Do not be afraid” (John 6:20 and Mathew 14:27). My neighbour by then has come to the last word of his prayer òf40ó“Vande Vishnum Bhava bhaya haram” (the one who slays fear on his earth). Praise the Lord, religion is great, his or mine.