His Prayers

The chants of the Surya-Namaskar, deep in reverence but fervent in appeal, was His wake-up call. How soothingly it resonated with the Ajaan at dawn! A perfect daybreak, if you would ask Him. Still, He didn’t want to be left out and played His part through the chorus of birds.

The mundane daily schedule then takes over- even He cannot escape the drudgery. There are so many things that need His attention. The Yeti’s gene-mapping is yet to be completed- he tried studying a few mutations but before any conclusions were drawn, some mountaineers created such a ruckus that He had to slow down. The magnetic field near Bermuda triangle needs proper calibration, it goes off every now and then. He has to fine-tune the Earth’s temperature again; it has been increasing dangerously in recent times.

When He was exhausted, He could always turn His ears to any corner and listen to the melody from the other world. Last Christmas, He heard a Sufi saint singing carols in Istanbul. He listened to Honkyoku at a musical class in Nairobi. That particular synagogue in Berlin playing the Pizmonim was one of His favourites. And after shining all day, He quenched his thirst from the Baul songs of the Portuguese missionary in Darjeeling.

Though, of late, He was feeling that the orchestra was losing its symphony. The notes were off in India, there were piercing sounds from the middle-east and the western lyrics were hurting the soul. However, He was hopeful that experience will impart wisdom to the novice musicians. Also, He was pre-occupied with a glitch in the lunar trajectory. It took Him a few days but in the end, He averted a major tidal flood.

Happy with Himself, He opened His ears again to celebrate with music. But He was met with disappointment. What on Earth were they doing? The United Nations, before getting disbanded, was in the process of certifying the newly drawn boundaries of belief. He was always skeptical of the word ‘Nations’ after ‘United’.  And now, hymns are banned in middle-east, Qawwali is not heard in Lucknow anymore and the Lotus-Sutra cannot be uttered in the west. The concert was over.

He had so many dreams- He had actually started working on the one with providing water to the nearby ‘red planet’. All those trials now need to be put on hold.

He took out an old book from the shelf- the dusty cover read something like ‘Handbook of Rob…’ He started revising the basics-

0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

1.  A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the Zeroth or First Laws.

3.  A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the Zeroth, First or Second Laws.

This time too, He is hopeful that the robot will help re-create the music. He does not care about naming them anymore; humanity was better than Him in this game. Krishna, Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha- what interesting names they came up with!

As He sends the robot away on the mission, His heart grew heavy. He had always thought that free will was the best ingredient in His creations. Alas! Humanity, with its free will, still forced Him to fall back on His lesser self. Himself.

(Humbly acknowledging Isaac Asimov, from whose works I have borrowed a significant theme and my deepest regards to Suvro Sir for introducing me to his books and so many other wonderful things.)