She does black-magic!
I was born in a Bengali family and that bully group, stuck with stereotypes, cooked up a gossip against me that I am doing black magic. In fact, they tried to involve our P.G. owner too to think likewise!
Things had gone south between me and the big bully group of the P.G. when I finally confronted them. Well, one day, my friend rang me up crying profusely from the bathroom of her coaching-centre. Poor her was so hurt, so broken by the bullies that I and my lovely room-mate had to step forward and we subtly warned the main characters involved. Ever since then, whenever I passed by that group, they would suddenly shut their mouths.
I follow Sanatana-Dharma (Hinduism) and I had set a little temple in my room. I would sing, dance and do Sadhana for my Ishta! I was regularly joined by my other two friends and we three loved to do abhishekam, use Sadhana app, dance on bhajans, apply the tilak etc. We were a proper teen-ki-tikdi.
One day, I gifted my friend a picture of Lord Ganesha. It was a busy day so, we decided to set up her temple in her room post-sunset. I am sure that Divine Lord Ganesha must have understood our situation as He is ever compassionate but the students around us weren’t.
We wiped the picture of Lord Ganesha with the holy water from the Ganga with bhajans sounding softly from our smartphones, offered Him new clothes, prasadam, Diya, incense, teeka, flowers etc. Her room was tiny, on the terrace, so we did a little arti to the Lord and put the diya outside, in front of our room and got involved with the app. We both were at peace and then parted our ways to get ready for dinner. Surprisingly, the dinner table was largely empty as almost all were in the main-bully girl’s room. Anyway, we had our dinner in peace.
Dinner was over and I saw that main bully scuttering into the owner’s room, trying to convince and complain that we were upto some black magic. My friend grabbed my arm and we too went in. Actually, this bully-girl had seen a lit diya on the terrace in front of my friend’s room in the dark and she assumed that we have done black magic. It was such a horrific thought for her that she instantly got some fever, a massive head-ache and blamed us, especially me. She also claimed that she has a history of spirits torturing her as someone did some sort of black-magic on her. And, some argument ensued.
I didn’t discredit her visible suffering even though her reason didn’t make any sense to me. I clearly made a point that there is no fixed time to remember the Divine and that I will not stop because of a few baseless claims. She said, “From that room I could hear bells in the dark!” I told her that artis are sung with bells jingling along and it’s not new even for her community and that it was being played on the phone.
That day, I didn’t seek approval from even my owner. Almost the entire P.G. was doubting me but I was clear- I am a Sanatani, a daughter of Mother Divine and I will follow my faith unapologetically. Nobody and no one’s crooked thoughts will come between me and my Divine Ishta. I will remember Mother Divine whenever I want to and use a harmless Sadhana App whenever I feel like.
Actually, I am not a very overt and confronting person; but what had happened to me that day? Now when I look back at that incident, I realize that step-by-step, Mother Divine is raising a confident daughter here! ;)
You may pour a spark,
Your tongue- a gossip vulture
Giggling away in a mind- dark!
Unaware! Ignorant! Oh You-
Wait and watch- how I do
Set myself ablaze in flames
Magnanimous, in Love of The Mother
Definitely beyond your lowly games!
All glories to Mother Divine alone!
Joy Maa!
