WHERE IS GOD?

Those watching TV on 27^th August evening would have been jolted by two tragic events. The first was of hundreds of pilgrims washed away in flash floods/ landslides in the Jammu region. The second instant was of two young girls shot dead while praying in a Catholic school in Minneapolis, USA. Both incidents were when the victims were seeking God. 

Where then was this just, benign and merciful God that could not protect its own devotees? Sceptics, agnostics and atheists would be having a field day at this God’s discomfiture or inability.

This takes me back to the events of 26^th December 2004 when a 9.3 magnitude earthquake had its epicentre west of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It resulted in a huge tsunami that severely damaged the Swami Vivekananda Memorial and the Velankanni Marian shrine in coastal Tamilnadu. It was the day after Christmas. Two sisters belonging to the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary congregation were distributing Holy Communion in neighbouring Sri Lanka. They were washed away in the tsunami. Was God not there or unable to protect It’s own?

A week later, on 2^nd January 2005, Swami S. Anklesaria Aiyar wrote in the Times of India, quoting Albert Einstein. In his 1905 Theory of Relativity Einstein had opined that God was “an orderly and harmonious nature that did not interfere in human affairs”. Aiyar contradicted him, claiming that in the last 2.5 million years there were 17 killer Ice Ages at intervals of 10,000 years. In 1815 a volcano erupted in Sumbawa, Indonesia. The power unleashed was equivalent to 60,000 Hiroshima bombs, and killed lakhs of people. Aiyar then cynically observed that “Ecologists have erected a myth that nature respects a harmonious equilibrium threatened by human excesses”. 

So who is right, Einstein or Aiyar? More importantly, who is to blame for these cataclysmic events – God, Nature, man, or a combination of all three? Should we search for answers or be stoically resigned to fate? 

Let us begin by examining the latest two tragedies. Hundreds of pilgrims died in the flash floods/ landslides. The day after, on 28^th August, the Hindustan Times quoted a police officer, who did not wish to be named, saying, “When the Met department was issuing regular weather forecasts alerting the administration about heavy rains, cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides, the administration exhibited criminal neglect in not suspending the Machali Mata and Vaishno Devi Yatras”. 

In like manner, Deepak Kumar, a local resident, “attributed Tuesday’s landslide near Adhkuwari to rampant cutting of trees and laying new tracks to the cave shrine … The shrine board has ruined these hills just to increase the footfall of pilgrims so as to mint money”. So whom do we blame – God, Nature, or avaricious and irresponsible human beings?

I recall a senior officer of the Indian Forest Service who had been posted in that region several years ago warning the government of the catastrophic consequences of indiscriminate blasting and road widening in the fragile sub-Himalayan hills. They are made of shale rock, as against igneous rock in the Deccan plateau or stratified rock, as in marble quarries. 

Over to the shooting in Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. Ironically, the entrance to the church had this inscription “House of God and Gate of Heaven”. Were these innocent children praying in the house of God expected to enter heaven via an assassin’s bullet short cut? 

What about the assassin? The 23 year old was an alumnus of that same school. Earlier he was known as Robert Westman who, after a gender change, became Robin. This raises a serious question. Was this transgender person mentally stable? Was (s)he possibly ridiculed in school on gender issues and now sought revenge? 

Secondly, how could a mentally unstable young person legally procure three weapons – a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol? Here in India there is a lengthy process, including stringent police verification, before the District Magistrate issues an Arms licence. If there is a threat perception necessitating self-defence; that too needs to be established.

Not so in the USA. The 2^nd Amendment to their Constitution, passed in December 1791, states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”. Is the USA still living in the days of the Wild West with six-shooter slinging cowboys? Does it not now have its own security apparatus/ police force to protect its citizens? But a powerful lobby, led by their National Rifle Association, blocks all attempts to curb or limit the use of arms. Trump’s Republican Party is a strong supporter of the 2^nd Amendment. This despite 44 shootings reported in schools in 2025 alone! So who is to blame – God, Nature or selfish and short sighted men, and possibly some unstable individuals?

Let us now hark back to the tsunami of 2004. Does the name of Tilly Smith of Surrey, England, ring a bell? She was a ten-year-old vacationing with her family at Maiko Beach on Phuket Island in Thailand. Her geography teacher Andrew Kearnay had taught them that a sudden withdrawal of sea water was an indication of an impending tsunami. Tilly wasn’t silly; she remembered her geography lesson and raised an alarm, thereby saving hundreds of lives; for which she was renamed “Angel on the Beach”. 

At the time it was reported that the Morgan sea gypsies on Surin Island in Thailand also read the signs of the tsunami and saved themselves. Even in Sri Lanka wild elephants instinctively sensing something, withdrew to higher ground. Can we not learn nature’s lessons? Ants move to higher ground when they sense rain. Dogs, which literally sleep with their ears to the ground, can sense an earthquake. However, with the rumblings of modern heavy vehicular traffic that faculty may have got obliterated.

The point still is that Nature does emit some warning signals. However, modern man is so far removed from Nature that he cannot read those signals. Many years ago, another man, Jesus, had advised his disciples to read the signs of the times (cf Mat 16:1-3). 

However, playing the blame game is no consolation to those who lost their near and dear ones in such tragedies. What comfort or solace can we offer them? The Mayor of Minneapolis said that it was not enough to say “Our thoughts and prayers are with you”, when those innocents were actually praying when they were brutally killed. 

Where can the bereaved derive comfort in their suffering and pain? The 6^th century BC Greek tragedy playwright Aeschylus said that “We learn from sufferings”. The 19^th century French poet Anatole France said that “Man is good because he suffers. He has derived everything, even his genius, from his pain”. 

Perhaps the New Testament has the best answers to the problem of suffering. I quote a few relevant passages. “The Son of man must suffer many things” (Lk 9:22). “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead” (Acts17:3). “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18). “Take your share of sufferings as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 2:3). “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb 5:8). “When he suffered he did not threaten but he trusted in him who judges justly” (1 Pet 2:23). “Do not fear what you are about to suffer” (Rev 3:10).

Can these words console those who suffer? We cannot pontificate to them. Nevertheless, their faith and the support of fellow believers may help to ameliorate their pain and loss.

We also need to look at suffering in an objective manner. There can be no day without a night, no light without darkness, no peak without a valley, no rose without a thorn and no joy without sorrow. Easy to say, but it still needs to be affirmed. 

Another trauma that the bereaved experience is the “Why Me” syndrome. “My kids were innocent”. Again we have to objectively state that suffering has no direct link with either innocence or guilt. I am writing this on the commemoration of the beheading of John the Baptist. He was innocent, as was Abel and the babes in Bethlehem. Finally, Jesus himself was innocent. 

These thoughts may not bring immediate relief to those who have been through the trauma of death. But with the passage of time they could bring some healing and closure. May the suffering of Jesus help ameliorate our pain. Till then let’s avoid the blame game, for God is indeed here, there and everywhere.

PS: On 29th August The Hindu newspaper reported that the Minneapolis assassin had written in her diary “Where is your God”. This was after I had finished typing this article.

(Also read Tilly Wasn’t Silly)