Devotion: As Simple as it Reads
“Should we call it bad or is it sad!!!”
The head priest blurted out as he spotted a trespasser. Sudhar, the head cook, who had kneeled down to give direction to the tendrils of a bottle goad plant, stood up. Seeing a middle-aged man doing brisk walk, he responded:
“Neither.”
“What!” The head priest scratched his head, only later realizing his fingers were soiled from gardening.
Sudhar explained, “He’s a morning walker. By the way, how about you asking all visitors to go around the church premises ten times before entering? I swear half of their problems would vanish.”
“Great idea. Evil fades away with physical and mental fitness. Let’s do it!” the head priest exclaimed.
The church soon became a jogging stretch for the localites. People of all sizes and shapes in colorful attires visited the church premise in wee hours of morning and evening for their daily dose of exercise.
This was one of the many changes Sudhar had brought in the city church. He had joined there as an assistant cook. Over time, he impressed the pastors with not only his culinary skills, but also ingenious ideas.
It was a practice that the inmates of the church spend the morning hours in praying.
“Working with nature is my way of devotion.” Sudhar used to say when asked about his preference for gardening over praying. Impressed by Sudhar’s friendly demeanor, others followed suit to brighten their moods.
“Gardening makes me feel younger. My clothes fit better. Nowadays I am able to pull myself up a bar,” the head priest had once confided in Sudhar.
It was Sudhar’s idea to cultivate vegetables in the vast flower garden of the church. Thereby they could grow most of their kitchen needs.
The church had communicated this message to the society: ‘Fruits and vegetables as decorative items don’t go waste. Somebody eats.’ People responded replacing flowers by fruits and vegetables in gardens, bouquets, and garlands.
With healthy diet and exercise people of the locality remained worry-free. The footfalls at prayers reduced dramatically. Priests were concerned.
“Why not make our church work as a skill-development center,” Sudhar initiated a conversation during a dinner.
“Let’s skill the beggars first who crowd our gates every day,” the deputy priest opined.
The head priest gave thumbs up and declared, “Yeah, give someone a fish and you feed for a day; teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.”
The skill center made begging a history in the locality. The church had turned into a practical institution responding to social needs.
One day, the local boys’ cricket team had visited the church to pray for victory in their finals scheduled that week. Sudhar overheard the head priest persuading them, “You need practice, not prayer.”
Content with the happy turn that the church took, Sudhar knew his time to leave had come. He was thinking of the mosque or the temple, which one he should enter next to make them truly useful for the society.
Author’s note:
Sudha Vishwanathan Ma’am is one of the brilliant story tellers at Penmancy. The first line in this story is borrowed from the last line of her story: The Important Wedding.
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