Trust and Faith

At last God did come to me, in my dreams of course. The flashing blue – white light, the sparkling aura, the blindingly dazzling ambience and just Him and me. It was a dream come true, in a dream all right, an intimate meeting with the Almighty. The dumbstruck me could not utter a word and He blessed me and said you will have all you want but there shall be no trust and faith. Before I could gather my mind, body and heart together, the flashing blue – white light, the sparkling aura, the blindingly dazzling ambience vanished and was just me and this world, all by ourselves. The alarm rang as loud as always, it was time to wake up, the dream was gone, and in a flash the present and the future all turned to history. Who cared for time? Who cared about trust and faith in this world? This is life ruled by Darwin’s theory ‘survival of the fittest’ and the fittest were totally independent, self-sustained, self-motivated and self-made. There was no scope for trust and faith. These words died a natural death with the dinosaurs, long back, centuries ago.
So here I was; trying to be independent, self-sustained, self-motivated and self-made and self-everything else, after all the invincible all pervading omni present had told me I would have everything, what else was needed? I left my bed. I couldn’t trust the bed; it could break any time and leave my sprawling on the floor with a bruised body and a bruised ego. The day was sunny, warm and bright, flowers bloomed in every nook of the garden but I could not bring about myself to enjoy the nature, after all nature was unpredictable, who knows how lasting this beauty would be. The milkman could not be trusted with his job, no food could be trusted to be safe, the air could be trusted to be clean! I somehow managed to get out of the four walls I slept in and called my ‘room’. I wanted to go out and take on the world head on, after all I would have everything, I knew, everything!! And so I summoned the best of the cars that I now had newly possessed, the most exotic, the most comfortable, the fastest and the trendiest of all. Ultimately I took a cab; none of the cars could be trusted with my life after all. The cab driver took off, I told him where I had to go. He sped; my heart skipped a couple of beats. I couldn’t trust him to take me right, to take me safely, to charge me the correct sum. It was all too much. Finally, I reached my destination, the biggest and costliest shopping mall in the city and if you haven’t guessed it yet, I reached on foot. Walking down was much more difficult today, who could trust the construction companies to have built a safe and suitable pavement? And what about the roads? Could I trust each and every person in this world driving like a mad man on these untrustworthy roads to drive safely and not kill and maul me when the innocent me was just innocently walking?
Anyways, the mall had been reached with the fifteen floors towering far above my high head. I entered inside. I would buy everything I liked in a snap today I thought. “Sir, you will have to leave that carry bag at the counter over there” a crooked finger pointed with a husky voice of the doorkeeper. No! How could I trust the hard-core businessmen of the mall with the safety of my prized bag? Had I not always been very particular about the bag? I thought I would convince the doorkeeper to let me take it along, but I could not trust my ability to do so. And who could trust the doorkeeper, what if he got violent? I didn’t try to. Leaving the bag at the counter, I convinced myself that it was gone forever.
The gray jacket at the show window was stunning, and that price, unbelievable! I walked in. Somehow I could not trust the salesman when he said that it would last me for many years to come and that it would be the best buy I would make at least for some time to come. I took it nevertheless. Who cared about longevity and money anymore? Money! I had a huge sum in the bank now. How could I be so reckless? How could I leave so much money with a firm that fed on other’s money? I could not have trusted a ‘bank’ to keep my money safely and to take care of my returns and savings. I dashed from the mall. The money had to be secure. The bank was closed for lunch. It would open after two hours. Two hours! I thought. Who could trust a skinny sentry with an outdated manually operated rifle to keep my money safe till then? I as such did not trust the law enforcing bodies to come up with any results in case of any mishap. Probably I thought too loudly. The skinny sentry seemed hurt. “ Sir, you can trust my capabilities, I served in the defense forces for over thirty years”. Defense forces, I gasped, the safety and integrity of my nation and my family and friends and my self was totally at the disposal of hand picked inefficient soldiers at the borders. Who could trust their mettle in today’s supersonic bit-byte-megabyte age? I couldn’t. I felt so helpless, so vulnerable. I left. Who could stand at the same place for two hours and wait for the bank to open. How could I trust the board that told the timings of the bank, what if they never opened again? Besides it would be foolish to trust all the passersby to be innocent and decent people who would mind only their own business. What if someone robbed or kidnapped me? I did not trust anyone to come to my rescue even if such a thing did take place.
It was all becoming too much, I thought. I needed a break. “How about a cup of coffee?” I thought. I walked into the nearest coffee shop in sight. I ordered a black coffee with extra sugar. The waiter bowed and departed. What if he got me no extra sugar? What if the coffee wasn’t good? What if the cashier charged me somebody else’s bill? How could I trust the coffee to be of a good quality? Who could trust the cultivators, or the manufacturers, or the dealers, or the shopkeepers, or the cooks of the eatery? I left even more flabbergasted than before. No coffee. I thought that maybe a small walk along the beach would pacify me. But who could trust the waves and the tides? What about all the people who would also be there? Who could be trusted?
It was all too much. I decided to seek help from God himself, before I went insane. So I ran to the nearest place of worship. I lay half dead with exhaustion and half mad on the floor before the image of God to pray. I wanted to pray but I did not have any faith, any faith at all to even say the first few words of prayer. I could have worshipped the devil that day but even that demanded faith, far greater than what I had. I thought this was the end of life, the end of existence, the end of just ‘being’. Tears! Could I trust the authenticity of my own tears? That day I couldn’t.
The alarm rang as loud as always, it was time to wake up, the dream was gone and in a flash the present and the future all turned to history. I woke up with the greatest happiness known to man. Awake and thankfully happy that it was all a terrible dream. And with the morning - trust and faith drive this world. And I say this neither because of the beauty of the words in this phrase, nor because of the lucidity or the rhythm with which it flows, but because the totality of truth in this phrase has got diluted in the vastness of falsehood and half -truths that we spend our lives in. To realize the correctness of this statement is one of the most beautiful gifts one can give himself. It shall grant each one of us a very ironical but beautiful outlook to life in general. Every moment we spend, every breath we take is underlined by unconditional silent trust and faith in people, situations, nature, life and lifelessness that we come across in our lives. And if you don’t trust me, have faith in yourself and try losing trust and faith. I have full faith and trust myself enough to say that sooner or later you will also believe that ‘TRUST AND FAITH DRIVE THIS WORLD.’