Last night, was out for dinner with friends and I’d come back late, but did what I normally do, which is charge my phone before jumping into bed and off to sleep.

This morning, I looked puzzled at a blank screen.

The phone had not charged.

Now, I’ve spent quite some money on getting the latest iPhone, have the best charger, and have disciplined myself, that in whatever sleepy state I am, I get to charge the phone. And yet the phone showed a dark screen.

I bent down, and I guess you know by now what had happened, the charger had got disconnected from the charging point, and though I’d done all the appropriate actions to charge the phone, I had not realised the charger was disconnected from the source of power.

Maybe it was meant to be, because the first thought that struck me after that was that there was a message here on that blank screen, and through my pen to all of us:

How often, we do all the right things. We go to our place of worship, bend our knees, ring the bell, prostrate ourselves, and then come back uncomfortable in the realisation we have got nothing from the whole experience, and the whole point is that the best charger in the world, which could be the highest church steeple, the largest mosque, or grandest temple could actually be disconnected!

The charger does not reveal the power of God, the connection does.

And how do people around us know whether we are connected or not?

By what we reveal of the power that we get from the connection.

If your connection does not show the qualities of the divine, which are, what is known as the fruits of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then my dear friend you are lying disconnected.

If you are charged with an attitude of intolerance towards other communities, anger against people of another caste or faith, and bear ill feelings towards people who hurt you in history books, then you need to check whether your charger is connected.

No spiritual charge, whatever your faith, can bring such low qualities into you.

Electricity does not flow depending on how big a charger you have. God’s power does not come into you depending on the size of your church or temple or mosque, but simply on a good connection.

It’s time individuals and nations realise this; that what we are showing to the world is nothing short of a charger, huge, big and gigantic, but disconnected, and useless!

My phone, it’s screen now vibrant and bright, looks back at me, happily connected…!

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