The glorious God, Creator of every living being, everywhere, deserves all adorations in a myriad of ways But our one and only God still remains a mystery to humankind and ever shall be depending on the individual perception of who, what, when, where and how God is in His created creation for His creatures.
Right from my childhood days and even till date, the concept of God has been agitating my heart, mind and soul.
I once asked my Dad, who is the father, grandfather and great,great grandfather of God and why did he create me?.
His answer to me then, “No one can give a convincing answer to anyone else, so Ibeji continue to search for the answer till you come across the one most convincing to you one day”.
Furtherance to his submission I asked, so, now that you are a Christian you have found God more convincing than when you were in Orisa Baayan and Ifa.
He answered that the Bible could be read at will by anybody who is literate but not like that in his association with previous Traditional religious persuasions.
In whatever pseudo or religious persuasion that one is, God remains who He is to such an individual.
As for me, I gave birth to you in Christian religion and encourages you to try know who you want to be.
Because, Alagemo one of the Yoruba masquerades pride in training his child how to dance but the ball is in the child’s court whether or not he knows how to dance, he concluded.
My mother Madam Adepele Olaniyi was next under interrogation and the question went thus: my Mum, assuming it was not my Dad that you married would you stilll have given birth to me?
Hmmm Taiye your question is deeper than your age but note that your Dad and I gave birth to you as twins, your Kehinde is now late and you are still here on Earth, only God can answer that your question.
Realize that it is Him alone that is “All-knowing”, A rinu, rode Olumoro okan…
And so the search for the mystery of my instance on Mother Earth as a child continued so dogmatically and fundamentally in the Christian faith and the Church to me then was a most holy place until proven otherwise on an Easter Sunday in mid 1960.
On that Easter Sunday, my nephew and I went to the church to hide our choristers’ robes so that we could participate on that Easter Sunday Church service having attended the choir practices for quite sometime in order to commemorate that great day in Christendom.
To our surprise, we glanced from afar that the then Archdeacon of the church was with a local night watchman inserting something into my father’s Bible closet in the church.
My father was the Baba Ijo and with him were the Otun and Balogun Ijo and the special bench and table arranged for them.
To cut the long story short and despite the intervention of a number of the elders of the church, exchange of blows and pandemonium engulfed on that day after the successful church service.
Then came the raging thought that Taiye, is the church truly the house of God by which you ascend to God if perchance you one day even die in there?
Today, I concur with a Muslim mystic sage who admonishes, “In pure and holy heart the true mosque is built and not the ones built of stone”.
Nowhere is holier than where the human mind attaches as being that sacred.
Or why are our houses of worship now turned to the den of thieves, our pilgrimages now sponsored mostly by the corrupt government officials misuse of, public funds and political stalwarts who steal in the name of God?
If the individual soul personality resides on this Mother Earth is inbued with heart, mind and soul essence atop all there is, then in and by whose Instance am I here, you here and we all here?
Who dictates where and from whom where one is coming from, the purpose for which one is here, what we do individually and collectively too and how one ends it at the end of the tunnel.
Life is not alone explanatory from mere sinking in belief neither disbelief in religious observances because, “Religion without the truth is O will the wisp”.
It is like soup without salt.
When again certain personages arrogate the knowledge, authority, power and propagation of their glimpses of personal perception, impressions and expressions to their instances of truth and want to force them on others, then their impressions as expressed drain down the alley of untruthfulness packaged as the one and only truth.
The only truth as regards inkling into getting to know at whose Instance one is on this Mother Earth is only through the “Self” and “Self” alone.
The holiest of war to conquer is that of “Self” wherein the refinement of one’s being goes through the portals of one’s heart, mind and soul .
This is the true Jihad at which instance the Self of being speaks to self, the self to God and therein the dosages to the revelation by God Almighty to self within.
Once upon a time, Peter Tosh subtly drew world’s attention to that instance that brought each and everyone here on Mother Earth.
According to him : I’m not in this world
To live up to your expectations
Neither are you here to live up to mine, yeah
I don’t owe no one
No obligation
No, I don’t mean none
So everything is fine, fine
I said, I am that I am
I am, I am, I am….”.
He similarly went further that everyone should not be underestimated but should express love to one another.
The question then is, are you who you are or the instance of fellow mere mortals on this Mother Earth?
In today’s world of Hamas, the Hezbollah, ISWAP, Boko Haram, bandits, the plumaging kidnappers, herdsmen and the very ungodly genocide by Israelites in Gaza and war in Ukraine, at whose Instances are these man’s inhumanity to fellowman instigated?
Think about it.
Uthman Danfodio once intoned about “Conscience” which he described as an open wound which only “Truth” can heal.
If according to Socrates, “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living”,the truth about self and the instance that finds each and everyone of us here must thus be sought from within each individual and not according to someone else’s right or wrong encumbrances especially in our world today where false prophets daily germinate on filthy oblations.
I am that I am but are you who you are and purposes you want to fulfill on Mother Earth in this your incarnation?
Think about it.
I conclude like another Muslim sage once affirmed that, “Worship not the tombs of Holy Men but do their work and thou will be saved”.
There are instances and there are instances but my prayer is that may God Almighty, the Creator of every living being, everywhere show us the way to that instance of the personal discovery of Greater Light, Life and Love.
*Taiye Olaniyi is a Lagos-based public commentator*
(vitalnewsngr.com)
