God's own country, Kerala – the state has often been described thus. Now that the self proclaimed human Gods lurk around every nook and corner in the state and every other local news channel shows a ‘God’ being unmasked, the description couldn't have been any better. God's own country, or rather, human Gods own country!

I write this piece risking my life – in the fear of being turned into a frog by any of those powerful human gods who might be reading this thru their sixth sense!

In 'The Alchemist,' Paulo Coelho writes about the boy who travels all over the globe in pursuit of hidden treasure only to discover in the end that it lay in his own abode!
What a beautiful and simple tenet, that peace and happiness is to be sought inside one's own mind! And the world would have been a better place if we could assimilate this. Decidedly there is a force or an entity called ‘God’ and prayer does make a difference. When you pray, you remain focused, not allowing any distractions to enter your mind. Jealousy, greed, anger, no such yellow feelings occupy your mind while you pray. Its like a submission into oneself. Prayer is a kind of medium to converse with your inner being where the real God resides. Hence you feel calm and relaxed. A secure feeling, like that of a child in the mother's womb. And this feeling emanates from your mind. Hence, your mind is the key to happiness. How deep you look into it is the deciding factor to happiness. For many of us, we submit into our inner being only in those few moments while we pray.


Many of us fall prey to these self proclaimed Gods because we somehow need more virtues with lesser efforts. We tend to seek a substitute to hard work and diligence. We face obstacles in life and approach a 'human God' to wave a magic wand and straighten it out instead of finding out ways to overcome it. You wish to score high marks at school and seek human Gods and the ‘sacred threads’ they give. You suffer a loss in business and seek the same ‘sacred thread.’ The more number of threads you have more marks you get, and the more number of threads you have more money you make! On doing so, you actually confine your abilities to just that thread. A defeated person needs solace and motivation, not threads.


Most people, when they seek spiritual gurus, they do so to overcome the obstacles they face in their lives. Many of these ‘gurus’ may have wrong intents and take mean advantage of the weak while few others are genuine. Unable to control their emotions, I have seen people weep before Mata Amritanandamayi when she hugs them. I have utmost respect to her and I believe in the love she spreads. When you feel defeated in life and someone offers you a consolation, even if it comes from a stranger, let alone Mata Amritanandamayi, it helps you to muster a bit of your lost energy. When a student fails in an exam and the teacher starts to criticize him severely, it just adds to his sorrow. Instead, if the teacher walks up to him and consoles him saying that the failure doesn’t reflect his ability and a better performance is surely possible the next time, it helps him regain his confidence and motivates him to work again with a positive attitude. He would instantly feel a bonding towards that teacher and would make it a point to study hard (atleast that subject). Love can inspire, motivate and bring a change in anyone. Here the love that radiates from the teacher causes that transformation in the student. I believe Mata Amritanandamayi is one such teacher who spreads love to all those who need consolation. Sri Sri Ravishankar is another. Neither of them claim to be Gods, but they are, in the sense they spread love. Infact every human is capable of spreading love!



It is human mind which worked behind the mass destruction at Hiroshima in Japan, and its the same human mind which later formed the driving force to see the country rise to become the leaders in technology. Its the human mind which spreads love in the name of God, and it’s the same human mind which sets out violence in the name of God.


There is a force, decidedly. An infinite unique force, call it Jesus, Krishna or Allah, rests inside the temple, the temple being our mind. Good and evil, peace and war, love and hatred, God and devil, everything emanates from the human mind.

Anybody who radiates love is God. Its up to us whether to be Gods or devils.


-Balu