In the Service of God

Pawan Verma

God is highly disturbed. He surveys the universe and finds everything to be in order. But as he looks around, he finds his own heaven in trouble. Once again, his arch-rival Satan has raised his ugly head and is trying to create problems.

This is not for the first time that Lucifer has raised his head against God. Ever since he was banished from heaven. Satan has been making sporadic attempts to carve out a niche for himself in heaven with the help of his army of devils.

Although repulsed by God every time, His forgiveness has only encouraged Satan to carry out his evil designs time and again. However, this time, Satan is up to some new misadventures. Afraid to challenge God in a direct conflict, he is playing hide and seek and is trying to gain a foot-hold in heaven by infiltrating his evil angels therein.

The crisis has left God in deep emotional distress. Not that there is any dearth of brave soldiers in heaven to take on the challenge of Satan. The heaven is full of brave warriors from all around the world – martyrs from the Vietnam War, Gulf War, Kosovo Conflict, Afghanistan War, Kashmir War etc. They all had been brave soldiers who had fought for their motherland, sacrificed their lives and got a well-deserved place in heaven.

Trained and experienced in all aspects of modern warfare, these warriors can take on the challenge of Satan any moment and drive the infiltrators out of heaven. But God has a conscience problem. These warriors, who had fought wars, excelled in bravery and valor and vanquished their respective enemies, had not always been on the side of truth and justice. They had often been on the sides of the aggressors, killing God’s innocent followers and committing oppression and atrocities on them.

Hence, even though God has been able to marshal only a few warrior angels to fight the mighty army of Satan, He would simply not deploy these tainted warriors in his war against Satan.

As God is brooding over the problem, he gets a glimpse of the Indian soldiers who have marched to heaven after laying down their lives in the Kargil war in Kashmir. These soldiers have left behind tearful eyes and chocked emotions on the earth. And yet here they are marching with their heads high and with a vision and purpose in their eyes.

As the Indian soldiers present themselves before God one by one, they are garlanded and given a salute by the angels. God has been waiting for them. His face brightens up and he cheers them up as they march past in attention.

Major Sarvanan, Sqdn Ldr. Ajay Ahuja, Capt. Aditya Mishra, Rifleman Subhash Ashurbha Samap, Sepoy Madhukar Nikam, Capt. Amol Kalia, Lt. Col. Vishwanathan, Capt. Vikram Batra...the list is endless. These are the brave soldiers full of guts and grit, determination and dedication, valor and bravery, whom God has specifically chosen to lead the war against Satan. For, in addition to defending the honor of their motherland, these solders have always stood for truth and justice, peace and harmony.

Grieve not, therefore, for the brave Indians who have laid down their lives in Kargil, Drass or Batalik. They have bid us the final farewell as they have been commissioned by God to fight a bigger battle. Victory will be decidedly theirs because they are on the side of truth which is God.