Nisa's Testimonial

2005 Stewardship:

Nurturing Spiritual Development – by Nisa Sharma

My name is Nisa Sharma, and my family and I joined the church about two years ago. The first time we came here, we knew it was a place for us.

But I didn’t come here today to tell you my story…

I want to tell you a story from my dad’s childhood…

My father grew up in Nepal. As the oldest son of the oldest son in his family, Niranjan was in line to take his grandfather’s place as the High Priest of Nepal…

The family lived in a compound made up of the families of the sons of this grandfather who lead the Hindu religion in Nepal at the time. And all these sons had many children. And these children were led by the eldest: my dad.

Now… my Dad suffers from the same ADD that he passed on to me, that is, Authority Defiant Disorder, and one of his legendary escapades is the story of the challenge of dragging an old stubborn ram out of the barn and clear across the compound, then climbing onto the “undercarriage” of the ram and holding on for dear life as it raced back to the barn.

But this is a story for another time…

What I’d like to do now is take you to my father’s Kingdom of Nepal,

half way around the world,

to its very top,

and down into the valley which lies below the majesty of the Himalayas.

Kathmandu in the 1940s, bustled in the daytime, while the evenings were full of prayer song, and the sweet smell of flowers mixing with tea and curry as dinner was readied for the 60 or so family members in the house. The older children had chores, while the younger ones played.

The ten-year old Niranjan had the job of caring for the gods and goddesses. These were statuettes of various Hindu spirits, all kept warm and cozy in their own room. The gods were to be woken each morning with prayer songs from the Vedic verses, given food and flowers for the day, and then bathed and each night with more prayers and careful attention. And it was one of the most important chores in the house.

In fact, this particular chore had never been given to one of the children before, the family choosing to feed the neighborhood monk to attend to the task. But grandfather insisted that Niranjan be responsible for it.

And he did it with pride. Every day he opened the curtains and chanted his verses. He handled the gods gently, as if they were kittens, and went about his work. Day after day, he never wavered… until springtime bloomed…

The gods’ room faced south, so they had a view of Kathmandu and sunlight all day. It was a perfect place to view the barnyard because you could see that silly old ram lying in his stall. One particularly beautiful spring evening, Niranjan could hear some of the boys playing down below. He took the god he was washing to the open window to check it out. The boys were having a difficult time dragging the old ram out of the barn. Niranjan could see that they were clearly doing it all wrong. They would get a good start, but lose their grip and the ram would quickly retreat. This continued over and over, until Niranjan could stand it no longer.

Finally, he yelled to them to yank the rope a certain way, and upon doing the motion, the god he had forgotten he was holding sailed into the air. It took his breath away as he watched the figure soar and smash into the hard earth two floors down. He stared at the shattered god, not even looking up to see the boys scatter, and began to sob.

He stood there a good while before he heard his father’s voice behind him, and felt his hand on his shoulder.

His head still hanging, his father turned him to see the other gods.

“The monk will finish tonight.” bua.

“Father, I’m sorry. And you know, we have SO MANY gods in here, I think… I mean I know it’s sad that one broke, but there are others, so it should still be okay...” dad

“Son, this is reasonable logic, but it DOES matter.” bua

“But why does it matter though, father?” dad

“Because son, there are so many people in this house who worship in so many different ways. If we lose one of our statues, then we lose one path of worship. Having as many paths to nirvana as possible is important in this house, so losing one DOES matter.”

And as I bring you back to Cedar Park, to our little house on El Salido, I have to say this lesson my father learned is one reason I come to this place to worship.

In THIS house, we don’t have a room full of statues, but we do have discussion groups, Adult and Youth RE, enrichment courses; we have community outreach, intimacy groups, performing arts groups, spiritual groups, and so much more…

And it DOES matter if we lose them; it matters to ME and to you.

You would notice if they went away.

Finding ways to nurture our spiritual growth is of utmost importance in this church.

And when you are asked in the next few weeks to make your financial pledge for the next year, think about the many paths to nirvana we have in THIS home, and about how important it is to bathe OUR gods and keep them warm and cozy in THIS house.

Thank you.