By Dr.Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

After listening to many TV discussions and analyses on the latest Cabinet reshuffle of the ‘Yahapalanaya’, following the well-defined message given to the Unity Government by the voters during the February local council elections, Udaya had gone to bed with weary sleepy eyes. He could hardly finish his bedtime prayers, he says, that he felt as if he was being lifted-up, from his bed, by an unforeseen force.

He had started floating up in the air, aided by two winged angels, hanging on to them like a bat.

At that moment, he says, it was not possible to fathom whether it was an optical illusion, a dreadful nightmare, or a mental aberration, after watching the TV till his eyeballs became hexagonal! Finally, in his so-called ‘dream’, he had landed on a serene, springy atmosphere, where he could see the movements of some individuals in white robes at snail’s pace. He had stood aghast like a frozen statue, with fear. A figure, with a silky beard and long white hair, had approached him gently and whispered to him tenderly.

“You must be the mortal from the planet below“?

Quite bewildered, Udaya had trembled and mumbled saying, ‘Yes, from Sri Lanka.’

The Saint had chuckled actively and quipped:” Son, you don’t have be nervous anymore; you are in Heaven right now; you were specially brought up here with the permission of the Almighty to witness something spectacular.”

“What would that be that Sire“? Udaya could remember whispering to the Saint.

The Saint had introduced himself as the Archangel in Heaven, and ushered him to a concealed space in God Almighty’s indescribable superlative suite, so that Udaya could get a clear view of what was going to happen, and hear every word uttered by God. He had started to shiver more and more with fright and tried to scream, but no words had come out of his mouth.

“Just relax son, you should feel lucky that you were invited by the Almighty God personally to Heaven in flesh and blood, as you have implicit faith in the Lord; you keep on praying to Him every night asking Him only to shower his Grace on wisdom. Almighty likes those who do not ask for personal attributes, therefore its Almighty’s wish that you witness what takes place here, and spread the word to your folks on your planet.”

“Why me Sire, of all the people in the world? Udaya had been just thinking about the question, and the Archangel had fathomed every thought that flashed through Udaya’s mind instantly.

“You see my son, God Almighty is not very happy about the politicians on your planet. They have turned politics into a business and live luxurious lives, rather than assisting and helping God’s people. Not a single politician in your planet cares about the poor, and all what they are worried about is their salary increases, numerous allowances, car permits, and the lot.”

“God Almighty was once fond of an individual on your planet as he has been praying to God Almighty consistently to grant him the opportunity to help God’s people on Earth. Despite even God’s grace, people rejected him so many times repeatedly because of this man’s arrogance. Once again, he made a single promise to God Almighty and begged of Him to grant him the opportunity to serve the people. God Almighty, as you know, is the epitome of love, so He granted the politician to accomplish his wishes three years ago, but instead of surrendering to Almighty, the Lucifer took over him completely to the annoyance of Almighty. Today, as you are aware, this politician on your planet has become talk of the town and a joke everywhere in the world as well.”

As the Archangel was briefing Udaya, he had seen some Angels escorting the local politician, through the Portal of Heaven.

Administrative Centre

Udaya described God’s Superlative Suite as beyond description to any human mind or eye. Layers of glistening escalators, he said, extended to the open vacuum, and beyond from this luxury suite. The colossal ‘sky-size ‘screens, similar to that of TV screens on Earth’, had kept on zooming in and out every millisecond, focusing on all the countries in the world.

With a single hand gesture by the Archangel, Sri Lanka had focussed on all the screens, in the form of a ‘virtual tour,’ with flashes of Batalanda graves, LTTE terrorist activities, massacre of STF Intelligence Officers; scores of Policemen forced to kneel down and shot at point blank range by the LTTE terrorists; multiples of other butcheries and assassinations and tortures created by ‘recalcitrant’ youth; explosions and destruction to property, Prabhakaran’s dead body lying at the Nandikadal lake-bank; all the hanky panky manoeuvres concerning Sri Lankan elections in Almighty’s database, including the scenes from the three-year-old presidential election in Sri Lanka.

In a jiffy a dazzling light had adjusted itself to soothing human eye tolerance, and perched on a glittery throne, thus filling the entire atmosphere with a soothing and a loving presence. Multitude of laser beams had deflected from the light to all religious statues and pictures, known to man on Earth, and into the outer space.

Voice of the Almighty

“Summon the nitwit to my presence“! A loving but commanding tenor amplified out of the light. Udaya said he started to bite his nails with fear from a secluded corner. The politician was made to sit right in front of the throne; his face had become pale and countenance changed instantly with fear.

“How long are you going to take my people for fool? I simply don’t understand you.” As God’s voice reverberated like thunder, the mortal was dumbfounded and started to shiver.

“Don’t you realize that I can create or destroy anything by simply commanding: “BE”? Mortals call me GOD, because, I am the Generator, Operator, and Destroyer”!

The politician had simply shaken his head in agreement.

“You cried your heart out to me, in your continuous prayers, to afford you an opportunity to help your nation for many years. Three years ago, you resolutely promised me to get rid of the scroungers of the public purse, cheaters, and plunderers who led luxurious lives out of misleading my folk. I sympathized with you, thinking you were genuine; I too became confused because you had earned a reputation of being ‘clean’, so I blessed you in entirety.”

“The moment I bestowed power upon you, ashamedly you surrendered to Lucifer, and brought a cunning fox from abroad introducing him as a genius and a good friend of yours, and placed him in charge of your land’s finances and economy, amidst conflicts of interests, to embark on a solo mission to plunder your national wealth. You continuously kept on backing and supporting him when the whole country accused you of that, calling it the biggest financial scam in your land? What did he do at the end? Abandoned you, didn’t he? And vanished from your land too! Today no one can find him to serve summons to get him down to question! In the midst of all these, you self-appointed yourself as the man in charge of law and order in your land. No wonder people say it is akin to ‘horage ammagen pena ahanawa wage wadak’! Can you see what you have brought upon yourself out of these silly manoeuvres? This is why I decided to summon you, face to face with me, to give a severe warning.”

“You made another folly by appointing a local buffoon to be in charge of your country’s Treasury, to get himself exposed publicly when he could not even remember what his wife did relating to another fraud! I also regret for blessing another backboneless simpleton, who keeps on changing decisions every now and then! I should have known better, before showering my blessings upon you lot. After all, it reflects badly on me as the Creator of all complexities in the cosmos!

“Youths of your own flock have started to rebel against you and preparing to chuck you out. I gave you the brains not to choose your friends and blemish everything, but your failure was due to the fact that you always thought you would be smarter than others, which made the people sick and despise you as an arrogant leader.

“I shall command the Archangel to show you what Hell looks like. Have a good look at that megalomaniac, who thought he was mightier than I am. Hell fires are mind-boggling and intense, and it scorches the entire soul continuously! Let those who think that there is no God or a world after death any more, continue until the final day dawns on them. No one is able to visualize what Hell is like until they come and see for themselves. So my sincere advice to you is to get out of politics even at this late hour, if it is your wish to enter my kingdom.”

“I expect you to behave properly when you get back, and not to be an ignoramus like Lucifer. Only pure hearts can enter My Kingdom! I feel sorry for you, that is the reason I had to call you here, the first politicians in flesh and blood, ever allowed to enter Heaven, to see me before his death”.

Udaya said he could see the politician’s face getting reddened in the presence of Almighty’s luminosity; in the next moment, God’s sparkling luminous light had lifted up, and vanished into thin air, at rocket speed, making a huge thud and a spectacular spectrum of conspicuous colours.

Simultaneously, my friend, Udaya had jumped out of the bed, to the screaming sound of his alarm clock in the morning, only to realize it was just a bizarre nightmare.

tilakfernando@gmail.com