OH, GOD!

Oh, God!

This may be considered as a continuation of my last posting on spirituality. Despite all the books one may have read or all the discourses one has attended, you end up still trying to understand what all this means. I think it is really very simple to understand whether one believes in God or not. When one says there is no God he has unconsciously given rise to a concept called God through his very negation of the fact. In the last posting I talked about the tamil film ‘Anbe Sivan’ and how in a very simple way one talks about who or what God is. But there is another film an English one which I would consider as one of the all time great movies that I have seen, not because of great cinematic values like production, photography etc, but on account of the dialogues and how in a very simple way the concept of God is sought to be brought out, though there have been sequels, there is nothing like the first time. That film is ‘Oh, God!

It was a film which came out in the year 1977, with George Burns and John Denver. George Burns acts as God (dressed in a jacket and jeans and wearing a cap and with spectacles), he appears as a kindly old man and is visible only to Jerry Landers(John Denver) who is an assistant supermarket manager. The picture takes you through really comic situations at no time becoming serious or melodramatic. While it is not the scope of this posting to tell the story or describe the situations, I shall only put down only those dialogues which stay still fresh in my memory.

JL – I don’t belong to any faith or religion

God – Neither do I.

JL – You control our lives, then why do you permit so much suffering.

God – I gave you the world and everything there. Now its up to you. I don’t permit the suffering, you do. Its your choice, free world and all that. You can nourish, help or kill each other.

JL – You perform miracles?

God – Lots of it is luck. Miracles are too flashy, they upset the natural balance.

JL – Did you take six days to create the world?

God – No. Actually I thought for five days and then created it in one day.

JL – which of the world’s religions is closest to the Divine truth?

God – Divine truth is not a building, book or a story. Heart is the temple where all truth resides.

JL – Is Jesus the son of God?

God – Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and others, all of you, are all my sons.

JL – What is the meaning of  a man’s existence?

God – Your existence is what you think it is, what I think does not matter.

God – Everything you  see, hear, touch and smell around, you should delight in them as these are the best things that I have made.

JL – Don’t you have a physical form?

God – Is my physical existence less probable than yours? The devil you could believe but not me.

God – I do not understand the whole idea that anything connected with me has to be miracle. This only makes the distance between you and me greater. But if it helps you believe I am who I am then I will give you one.

God disappears as he walks out of the courtroom to the astonishment of the judge and the others present, where he had come as a witness to prove that Jerry Landers was not bluffing when he said that he had been talking to God.

The events and situations in the movie are hilarious. In the end when Jl asks God why he had  lost his job despite believing in him, God replies “ that’s the ways it is, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose” and walks away.