by S. Poulos
contacting them and asking their advice, they feel obliged to take care of the problems of the loved ones, and they ignore their duties. If we really love them, we should let them go on with their lives in the beyond. And the last thing I'd like to mention here is that no matter how much you try to prove it, those who don't believe in life after death will dismiss your claims of being in touch with passed-over loved ones as 'garbage'."
It looked as though something was going on in the panel as skirmishes again forced the chairman to ask for five minutes' break. They met again in the back room.
"What is the matter?" the chairman asked. "What is this all about?"
"I will tell you," the vice-chairman replied, looking distraught. "We the rest of the committee, think that we give this guy far too much time to expand his garble. He is using us to advance his purpose. Besides, there is no time left for the press to do their part. We cannot go on like that anymore; the respectability of the WCFET is on the line. We all have been bombarded with messages of distraught people questioning the purpose of this hearing. They think we are pushing it; that we are part of a game. I know you are not carrying a mobile phone, but take a look at ours. We have been inundated with calls full of complaints, even threats."
For a moment the chairman was caught off guard. He could not understand what this fuss all about was. He tried to pinpoint where he went wrong; what was he missing? For the first time in his presidency, he felt so alone, so isolated. He managed to compose himself and asked, "Anybody want to say anything else?"
This time the chairman seemed to talk to strangers. It felt like now it was him and them. Gone was the comradeship, the affinity that had prevailed all these years, as though an invisible hand cut it from its roots in a flash. Most of his colleagues looked worried; some of them hung their heads. One pointed out that the way things were going; they may have to allot special time for the media tomorrow.
They called the director of the hall, asking him if it is feasible to use the hall tomorrow.
He noted that it was possible. The chairmen thought for a moment, and then he said with a soft voice, that the rest hardly heard, "Well in that case, we will have one other meeting tomorrow, this time only for the media. In the meantime, we will have to accelerate our proceedings tonight. Do we all agree about it?"
The vice-chairman said, "Well...in order to defuse the situation, I think it would be advisable that during the media briefing tomorrow morning, we should convene, to issue a preliminary recommendation that may calm the waters down."
The chairman read behind the lines and, asked him with a firm voice, "Do you mean to issue a recommendation even before the hearing is over? That is absurd. It never happened before, and certainly won't happen under my presidency. I think we have to issue a recommendation when this hearing is completed."
They hurried back to the hall without exchanging words or glances.
The chairman stopped for a minute, as though as he was trying still to assess the situation, then he stood up and went to the Teacher to ask him if he could answer questions to the press tomorrow morning, instead of tonight.
The Teacher told the chairman jokingly, that he had to consult his secretary-travel-companion-organizer-wallet, which in turn, had to consult this marvelous device called a mobile phone. "I think you people here call it gel phone; is that so?"
The chairman was not in the mood for jokes, but he could not help cracking a smile.
"So you don't have a 'gel' phone either?" the chairman asked surprisingly. 'I thought I am the only man in the world."
"Well..." answered the Teacher, "I am pleased to now that I am not the only one either. "You know, with today's standards technologically, we both are literally, illiterate, yet you are presiding over one of the biggest respected organizations in the world, and I am teaching the world. You, the illiterate one, want to reprimand me for what I am thinking, and I the illiterate one, want to change the way of your thinking."
There was a spontaneous burst of laughter from both men, not realizing that they had just added oil in the fire that had already taking enormous proportions. Both of the television cameras broadcasting live around the world, although they were doing their commercials during this intermission, managed to snap some shots that become immortalized. It appeared as these photos of two elderly men laughing merrily, in an intimate kind of moment, with no cares or worries, unaware that this warm, friendly moment, would make headlines around the world.
The Teacher got the okay from his organizer, and informed the chairman about it. The chairman went back to the panel, turned to the audience and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we want to apologize for the inconvenience, but due to insufficient time, we ask all of you to be brief in your questions, and to be as direct as possible in order to accommodate everyone that has not asked a question so far.
"I also would like to ask our guest to be as direct and precise as possible to his answers, and not to expand. If we do that, I think we will manage to go through unscathed. Now... my deepest apologies to the media people, for not being able to interview our guest tonight as we promised, but we will make it up for you tomorrow, providing this hall in the morning, especially for this purpose. Everyone in the audience can come, but the questions will be strictly for the press."
They settled for that, and the chairman nodded to start the hearing again.
"What is gravity?" an astrophysicist asked, coming directly to the point.
"Before the big bang, as the scientists prefer to call it, or, let there be light, as the churches call it, there was no such thing as gravity. There was absolutely nothing; just void. When the inconceivable for man happened, and God allowed his radiations to burst out of his sphere, these travelled in the void bringing life, and the world as we see it, i.e. the material, and the world we don't see i.e. non material. These emerged in an initial order; the spiritual, the animistic, the ethereal, and the material. As these radiations were pushed out in to the void, at the same time, in parallel, they are pulled back; in order to keep the worlds arranged in an orderly way. Otherwise chaos would prevail. Now this pushing and parallel pulling of the radiations, according to each cooling-off stage, takes an elliptic form, which more or less, coincides with the term scientists use, gravity."
"What is God then? As far as I..." asked the same astrophysicist, but before he finished his sentence, he was cut by the chairman reminding the audience that they must stick to one question only.
"I'll second that," an astronomer quickly intervened. "What is God?"
"This question will remain an enigma for man for ever. It cannot be conceived by his spirit, let alone by his brain. The only thing that man should be satisfied with is to know that God is."
"So you are unable to answer this question."
"God is life; what we call life is not life. Life is autonomous, and what we call life, is dependence, depending on God. If God decides to retract his radiations back to the previous state, before let there be life-big bang, everything will wither and die, here, and in the beyond, for the only one that is autonomous is God, there for life."
Suddenly there was some commotion in the front door. A security guard, with an official of the mayor's office, ran to the panel's desk, and asked the chairman if he could stop the meeting, for they expected trouble, as some well-known troublemakers had infiltrated into the crowd. It would be advisable for the crowd to disperse, before trouble started.
The chairman glanced at the panel and made a decision. This hearing had come to the end. He addressed the audience with a rather disappointed voice saying, "Ladies and gentleman, due to unforeseen reasons, unfortunately we have to stop this meeting right now. We sincerely apologize for this. Tomorrow morning, we will continue with the press conference. Everyone is welcome, but I must remind you, that there will be no questions from the audience, only from the media."
Obviously disappointed the delegates started to the exit doors, surprised to see outside this sea of people as far as their eyes could reach.
Immediately the chairman, concerned of possible provocative action towards the peaceful crowd, asked the Teacher if he could ask his sympathizers to disperse peacefully, not to be provoked and intimidated, or challenged by any troublemaker. The Teacher assessed the situation, and went outside to address the crowd. When he stepped outside, he was amazed at how big the crowd was. Certainly he had addressed big crowds before but this was something else, something beyond his imagination.
The organizers handed him a microphone, and the Teacher started. "Seekers of the truth, there is a law in nature called: The law of attraction of homogenous species. This law attracts species of similar kind, to gather together, for they feel a kind of affinity between them. So this moment I am speaking now, in this city, the bars are full of fellow drinkers, the gambling houses are full of gamblers, the drug addicts are seeking to find their mates, and the list goes on, and on. But while this happens, you also gathered here, for you are not satisfied with the mundane, you are not content with how things are going on this Earth. You gathered here because you are seeking something that the bars cannot provide for you. Neither can football, reality shows, or drugs. You are here because you are trying to quench your thirst for the truth. You are seekers of the truth, and
