By Anuradha S. Bannore

Prerna lived in a town called Vishwaspur. She was a nine year old girl, a lively spirit who believed in enjoying life to it’s utmost. Though still a child she’d always say, ‘Come let’s have lots of fun. We get life only once so why spend it in anxiety, fighting with each other & being sad.’ She surprised rather shocked people with the way she advised & spoke like an adult.

Prerna loved playing with her friends like any other child but her faith in God & spiritualism was unbelievable.

Prerna’s grandparents lived with them & she would spend hours together with her grandma talking & questioning about God & His miracles. She would ask, ‘ Ammaji, is God a magician? Can He make me fly because you keep telling me nothing is beyond Him to do? If He is everywhere then why can’t I see him? Why does He hide from me? Ammaji can you see Him & also talk to Him?’

Her questionnaire always confused her grandma, who she called Ammaji because her mother did so.

Prerna was eager to meet God & talk to Him face to face. So one day bubbling with excitement she approached her granny with an extremely difficult request. Granny neither knew how to respond to her unbelievable request nor what to do about it. Prerna said to her grandma, ‘ I feel tomorrow being an auspicious day you should fix a meeting for me with God. I want to ask Him if He loves each & everyone the same then why has He made them so very different!’

Granny was thunder struck with her idea. She said, ‘ Prerna dear, I can’t do that. God is very busy—‘

Prerna immediately retorted, ‘ Why not? He’s our Creator as well as our Savior & if He loves us as you say He does then He has to find time for me’

Dear granny was now in a terrible fix. She consulted her husband who shaking his head said, ‘ Didn’t I warn you to be careful in what you say to her because she’s a bundle of curiosity? You can’t fool her like any other child. She’s one who won’t stay quiet with any type of an answer. She will pester you till she feels convinced with what you say.’

This irritated granny to the core & she sarcastically muttered, ‘ Ok, thanks for being such a great help!’

She wondered how she could get a persuasive answer for Prerna. With much racking of her brain she decided to talk to Prerna.

She said,’ Look dear, to be very honest with you neither I nor anyone in this whole wide world can fix a meeting with God, He’s invisible but He lives in our heart so if you wish to talk to Him then do so by all means in your prayers & I’m sure you will get an answer because everything depends on our faith in Him. Moreover it’s not God who has made us different but it’s our own doing. We are becoming very selfish & hungry for power with monetary gains. We are the ones responsible for this rift in our human race so why blame our Creator?’

At first Prerna looked all muddled up but after pondering for sometime she said, ‘ Ammaji, I think you are right. We are the great destroyers of the human race but we love to pin the blame on God & try to convince not only ourself but others too that what we are doing by killing, plundering, ravaging is all according to the will of God. It’s like shooting with the gun on someone else’s shoulder. In doing so we are cheating our own conscience. Yes, that’s true, that’s what my teacher also told us. She too said our Creator can never sway us from the path of righteousness. So that means we in our greed, jealousy, hunger for power are busy in annihilating God’s precious gift of life & natural beauty. Ammaji, aren’t we being very mean & absolutely foolish in doing so? Where will all this lead us to? Won’t God feel sad to be humiliated in this way by His own creation? Don’t we feel angry & sad when our good work is destroyed by others for which we had put in all our mind & body in making it? When children do something wrong like break something they get a scolding & a beating too depending on what wrong has been done then why do grown ups go scot-free? Don’t you honestly think they too need a severe punishment for their bad irresponsible behaviour? Do you think destroying public, national or private property is an unpunishable act? Don’t you think it’s weird having one rule for the children & another for the adults? It’s high time we saw equality in justice towards doing wrong irrespective of whether it’s committed by a child or an adult. What do you say Ammaji?’

Nonplussed granny looked blankly at this young nine year old who spoke her mind with innocent bluntness but very sensibly. She thought we adults have a lot to learn from Prerna. She hugged the child & whispered, ‘ Yes, my dear child,

yes, you are right. I hope & pray to God, the Almighty that people will become more sensible & stop behaving recklessly. Hope they work towards betterment of the world & human progress instead of sitting on kegs of explosives.’

‘Hopefully everyone will soon start living peacefully in Vishwaspur ( meaning the world in this context) along with Prerna’

Vishwas….Trust, believe

Prerna…….Inspiration

About the Author: About the Author: Anuradha S. Bannore is a prolific writer and an alumni of Jabalpur University with M.A in English. She retired as a teacher and currently lives in Vadodara India.