3. Seeing God in Everyone: A Practical Application

www.hinduvoice.co.uk

LONDON, ENGLAND, February 19, 2006: HPI note: The second issue of the on-line magazine Hindu Voice carried this inspiring story titled, "Hinduism on the London Underground" by Ritesh Jigani:

Standing on a packed train on the way home from university, I was feeling terrible. It had been a hard week, I was annoyed with several colleagues, the train had been delayed and everybody nearby seemed to be coughing and sneezing on me! In the rush to get onto the train people were barging each other and getting into heated arguments. I was feeling erratic, as if I would hit someone at the slightest provocation. As all this frustration and anger was swirling around in my head, I started thinking about what advice Hinduism could give me in a situation like this. I started contemplating advice that I had heard during lectures, or read from books. Recalling some helpful anecdotes from a talk I'd attended in the past, I felt better. It quickly occurred to me tha t it wasn't justifiable for me to be so angry and frustrated. People die of starvation or lose their loved ones to terrorism, on an almost daily basis. By comparison, I had little to complain about. Then I thought about the concept of indwelling God, the idea that every person has a portion of the divine residing within him or her. Up until then I'd been growing increasingly annoyed at the people standing around me. But now I tried to think of God's presence in all of these people. Slowly my anger began to subside. Already I had come a long way towards restored sanity, the result of a few minutes of positive thinkin