I Was a Servant of a God Made with Hands

AS TOLD TO “AWAKE!” CORRESPONDENT IN INDIA

NEAR my uncle’s home was a small temple to the god Birappa. It was neglected, no one caring for the god. And so I thought: “If I take up service in the temple and care for the god perhaps I can find that happiness and peace for which I have searched so long.”

So began a new part of my life. Daily after my personal bath I would draw water from the well and bathe the god. At least once a week I would walk nearly five miles to the river to find fresh running water to bathe myself, and then I would carry water in a bucket for the god Birappa. It was a long way, but I had the satisfaction of knowing that I was serving my god.

Each day the villagers would come with their Prasad (gift) for Birappa; sometimes it was a coconut and sometimes flowers. I would apply Bandkar (dipping my fingers in ashes, applying them to the villagers’ foreheads in three horizontal lines) and then return Prasad to them. Thus out of the gifts given to Birappa, gifts were returned to the worshipers, whether from their own or someone else’s.

My god Birappa did not have a special form as represented by a figure of a man or woman or even of some animal, as with most Hindu gods and goddesses. Birappa was represented in a mound like a large rounded stone. Sometimes as I went about my service to Birappa I secretly wondered: “There are so many gods who are worshiped. Could it perhaps be that there might be only one true God? Did anyone really know?” I still had not found the happiness and peace that I wished, and so I wondered: “Is there anyone in this world that is finding happiness and peace?”

My Background

From childhood on, life had been hard for me. My father had two wives. I was born from the second, and after only six months my father died. My mother died when I was only one year old. My stepmother seemed to find joy in beating me, and for any small thing I would get a beating or have my head pushed into a bucket of water. After some time I went to live with my old grandmother. She could not afford to give me an education, so my days were spent wandering in the fields and over the hills with the sheep.

There, as the days passed, I would sing the songs of our many gods, about their mightiness, acts of prowess and love. I sang of Hanuman, swift as the wind and who could uproot trees and hills; of the goddess Chandra (the moon) or the goddess Ushas (the dawn). There are many thousands of gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon. As I grew up I would sometimes wonder, “Is there one God that is greater? Can we ever in this life find happiness?”

At fifteen I was married and then lived with my mother-in-law, who was given our land to work. Life went on much the same from day to day. Each day before going out to care for the sheep I would do puja (an act of worship) before the picture of our god Birappa. Then with the sheep I would wander through the lanes of the village and out to the open spaces.

It was after several years that I discovered the temple near my uncle’s home and took up service there. I did not receive any money for this service, but hoped it would bring oneness with god at my death. Still I would wonder: “Why am I not happy and satisfied now that I am worshiping and serving my god?”

The Way to Happiness Opens Up

Each evening as I went through the village to my home I would stop and talk with some of the villagers who sat outside the village dispensary. One evening as I stopped to chat with some of the men I asked them what new thing they might tell me. They said: “We have nothing new to tell, but there is a new sahib in town who is telling some new things.” So when I found the man who was declaring new things, I asked him to tell me the story he had told the people. He asked what story I might like to hear, and so I asked him if he could tell me who the true God is.

And indeed he told me a story I had never heard before. This was the story about the God of the Bible: an invisible God who created all things and whose works and creations are all around us, a God whom we can learn to love and appreciate and whose wonderful qualities we can in some measure understand. I began to study the Bible. This man invited me to his home, and his family also welcomed me daily to hear more from the Bible.

Then I realized I must learn to read so that I could learn even more. I was thrilled to learn of Jehovah God, whose kingdom will soon take possession of the earth and give to all obedient inhabitants of the earth real peace and happiness along with everlasting life.

Now I realized that I could no longer go on serving a god made with man’s hands. So I left my service at the temple. At this my wife and mother-in-law made life difficult for me. Finally my wife left me to live with another man. When my mother-in-law saw that she could not stop me from studying the Bible, she told the villagers so that they would beat me.

One day when returning an insecticide sprayer, I met a Brahmin (high caste Hindu) who asked me to go and spray his house also. When I got to his house, five people came out and took hold of me and beat me. Soon after this, I felt that it would be better to leave my home and small property, that I might be able to practice my new faith more freely. Despite the opposition, I did not lose my happiness, for now I knew that I was serving the true God.

I wanted to tell others about this wonderful hope that I had found. For now I could explain to others that God is not a man, nor did he come down to the earth to take on the form of man at different times when the world became evil. Jehovah God will put an end to misery and bring in a new system that will bring real happiness and peace for all obedient mankind and they will live on this earth forever.

Life is different for me now. I sell nuts to provide for my needs. It leaves me free so that I can always gather together with follow worshipers of Jehovah. Though I had to leave my home and little property, I have not lost out. I have learned to read, so that now I can read the Bible and The Watchtower. I have new songs to sing about the one true God and his mighty acts of the past and wonderful promises for the future. At last I have found happiness and peace of mind.