‘My belief in God is absolute’

COLUMN: SPIRITUAL MATTERS

Says actor Jagadish about his religious beliefs

By Shevlin Sebastian

For his M.Com admission, actor Jagadish got interview calls from two colleges, both on the same day. The first was at 9.30 a.m. for the Mar Ivanios College and the second was at 2 p.m. for M.G. College. “Had it been the other way around my life would have been completely different,” he says.

Instead, Jagadish secured admission to Mar Ivanious College, which gives a lot of importance to the arts, unlike M.G. College, which has been plagued by student union problems for a long time.

“This was God playing a decisive role in my life,” he says. Later, thanks to his artistic excellence in college, Jagadish got a break in films and has had a brilliant career till now.

Whenever Jagadish is in Thiruvananthapuram he heads for the Ganapathy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram. “There is no particular reason why I go to this temple,” he says. “It just happened that when I embarked on a journey or returned from one I would go to this temple. Now it has become a habit.”

But Jagadish also does darshan at Gurvayur temple, as well as the Moogambika Temple, at Kollur, Karnataka.

He also prays at the holy places of other faiths. “If there is a film shooting near a church, I will go inside and pray,” he says. “I get peace of mind when I do this.”

Jagadish has prayed at the Velankkani church in Tamil Nadu, as well as the Malayatoor church, near Kalady. He has also been to the Nagoor mosque in Tamil Nadu.

So what does he pray for? “If I read about a tragedy in the newspaper I pray for the victims,” he says. “But on most days I pray for prosperity and ask that bad things do not happen to me.”

But he says that he does not think too hard about the questions of life: What is true or a myth in any religion? Is God’s kingdom upstairs or somewhere else? Is religion just a belief system that enables us to remain on the straight path? “I have not searched deep and hard for these answers,” he says.

Jagadish says that he does not have the desire to go on a spiritual journey like Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda or Kalady Shankaracharya.

“I am not looking for proof about the existence of God,” he says. “I only know, from the different experiences in my life, that God exists.”

But does he get angry with God when bad things happen?

“Not at all,” he says. “I attribute it to some negativity within me. In fact, I ask God for help to correct my mistakes.”

But, sometimes, Jagadish is puzzled by God’s nature. “When I see good people suffer, despite their meritorious actions, I think, ‘Why does God allow this to happen?’” he says. “I asked a few people and they told me it was the result of the sins of the previous life. I am not entirely satisfied by this answer, but, otherwise, my belief in God is absolute.”

(The New Indian Express, Kerala)