The inexplicable despair or exasperation of a hapless, helpless and hopeless victim of a sinister victim of circumstance is the one who instills hope and life at the expense of his own life here on earth and also in afterlife. Hearing about the painful catastrophes that fell upon his children and all his possessions and household, Job, the hero in the Book of Job, fell upon the ground, worshipped the Provider and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”, Job.1: 21. No wonder for the theologians to conclude that the Book of Job is a mythical narrative that has not really happened because that which is portrayed in the book cannot be endured by a man who is born of a woman of natural union. One may say that Job is the prototype of Jesus who only could redeem the race of mankind. Whether it is a literary work of art that belongs to the wisdom literature of the classical age, which delineate that life is not meant to be easy in our fallen state. It is not the business of any art to extol life but to create and exemplifies the illusions of life that touches the heart of humanity. The narrative art of focusing on the vicissitudes of life is the creative function of literature in serving man in his utter state of despair and the crossroads of this ephemeral life.

It was the unwritten rule till yesterday that a Degree or a post -graduate Degree holder in Literature to serve as the Head or Principal of a Degree college or school, because a teacher is considered as the maker of man. The study of literature that brings to fruition of the meaning of this transient life is the main translucent business of education. Anything that deals with the transient nature of life has a heartfelt and universal appeal to our inner senses.

Carnal pleasures of life:
The money and power games that adds material halo builds one’s Babylonian tower, the tower of infernal tower, Mt.16, on this earth has become the sole aim of an agnostic world of our times. The craving passion of the rich becoming richer at the expense of the poor is the order of the world of Mammon. However, there is no difference between a so-called religious man and an atheist because both try to grab the wealth of others by using the carnal and laminating crocodile philosophy of philanthropy. Humanism is a way of life that pretends helping others. The greed of the billionaire to become a multi-billionaire by exploiting the vulnerable and the weak has become a creed of our religion that demands money by force. The real estate spirituality of today is blind to note the contradiction that Jesus had no place to rest from the turmoil of this life, the reason for Him to predict that ‘there will not left here one stone upon the other, that will not be thrown down’, Mt.24: 2, when the disciples showed Him the architectural work of excellences of the Jerusalem Temple that took 46 years’ of hard work and immense amount of poor man’s money which in the form of depositing gold between the bricks of the wall.

The fossil money of today has sent into exile the spirituality that our fathers once cultivated in a natural life that was full of penury worries and pecuniary embarrassments. Theirs was the money of sweating and wetting; ours is the excess-stressed and over-heated life that is fomented by a buccaneyan lifestyle of bohemianism. The embryo and budding generation of today that is whetted by a TV and cartoon or animation syndrome of the present life cannot glimpse the beauty of a natural life that was full of struggles and crosses, yet bringing peace and harmony due to the dependence to a code of life dictated by Nature and God. Anything that is bereft of God dwindles down to zero that is the product of mutilation and mutation. The narrow path that leads to the Almighty is only through the prickles of the road of sufferings and endurance. Unless this ornate philosophy of carrying the yoke of sufferings guides our life, our superficial life of carnal pleasure terminates in doom and darkness.

Naked I came:
The birth cry that is the sign of life in this planet continues till we meet the grave that seals the nature of the oblivious life thereafter. If the child at birth is devoid of a cry is a sign of a still birth child. Thus it is imperative that crying sound and tears are the heralding signs of a child that blossoms into the life on this earth. This funeral lifestyle that is full of fuming, fretting and heaving is the essential part of the game of the earthly life. While foolish laughter and chattering eats away the body, sobbing and tears have a cleansing effect of the body system, just like starving or fasting has a sedative remedial result for constipation. When we see the cosmetic decoration and painting that assumingly enhances our beauty and appearance, we forget that our flimsy naked body at birth was seen and massaged by some tender hands. The body at death is meant for worms, but the body of the high-tech man is apparently insulated from worms because the ‘sensible’ creatures don’t want to consume the embalmed human body which is decorated with cosmetic, chemical stuff that bring untimely death to the worm. “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward”, Job.5: 7. Our laminating surface is unable to hide the inner afflictions that rust our outer and inner being. Job understood this secret in his agonies of his physical sores.

We forget to accept that our body is naked to worms and pests, whereas our inner being and every outer cell are transparent to our Creator. Why then hide everything that is under the cosmetic chemicals that are abhorrent to our predators and consumers of our precious outer frame. Our foremost duty is to bow down to the truth that we are only a passing shadow at the dust of time. As we are naked to the creatures of the earth at the time of our departure, why do we cherish a miserly attitude to the worms that mutates our body to where it came from, 139: 7-14? As the jackal that became the king of the animals for 3.75 hours, according to the ancient I Indian fable, by accidentally gold plated by falling into the golden lake, the costly cosmetics can’t hide the human frailties and transitoriness of man. We are naked to God, nature and our own species of animal nature. Anything artificial is momentary and banal. We came from the dust for going back to the culture of dust. Realizing this naked truth and living a life of naked honesty can certainly mend the false prestige and identity that we use it as our fuel to mislead our own brethren.

Self-realization brings humility can teach man that he is only the puff of wind. If we don’t change our mindset by contrition and prayerful life, “the haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall be humbled, Is.2: 11. “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go; tinkling with their feet; the Lord will smite with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts, Is.3: 16. Nothing, therefore, is hidden; everything is left naked to all. I have seen even the son-in-law giving a naked last bath to his father-in-law before the body is taken to the church for burial. Even there is none under the sun give company to him after his grave other than the worm that consumes his body for a second womb.

Fame and glory:
God gives fame and glory, so also his doom if one goes against the will of the Creator. One can’t ignore the fact that life is a mixture of rainy and sunny periods; either the sunny period follows the rainy period or vice versa. There may be different cycles of readjusting these periods in multi-level formulae to different people. Some people are born to suffer with the raw crudities of life, whereas some others apparently enjoy in an amalgam of vivid circumstances. Job was blessed with all the sweet fruits of life once, but was immediately stricken by calamities one after the other. They brought loss of children, wealth and good friends and shook the whole household, leaving the hero alone for his seeming derelictions and predilections. The scolding and contempt of his wife for his steadfast faith in the Creator made an unbridgeable gulf between the pair and their associates. The admirers also turn against when one faces the tempests of life that make one realize that the Almighty alone is the only source of our strength and refuge. This is the ultimate education that God wants man to learn and impart. There are moments that exhibit that we complain against our own body mechanisms and systems, giving an impression that there are two vivid entities in us. In fact there are two personalities in us, the soul and the body.

We realize this naked fact only when we face the real music in life: the struggle of the soul against the body and also conversely. For example, we at times complain that my stomach is my enemy or my head is the real problem, recognizing the reality that the soul alone will have to fight against the body to defeat the lust of the flesh. We pray in our routine solicitations to liberate the soul from the enemy pang of the flesh. The war between the body and the soul is a naked reality that upholds the truth that the ephemeral body that wage war against an everlasting soul.

The breathing reality that governed Job in his afflictions throws light that God is the only fortress of man in his afflictions. Everything that is temporal will vanish, whereas the real truth is that that which is only the unseen one is the eternal reality. The inner eye that surpasses the outer one is to be brushed up and cleansed by the storms of life, also during the rainy and sunny periods of life. We sing in the introductory part of our worships like this: “Venda kasdatha veen chinthayum adiyareennnorika”(Keep us from hateful thoughts, from all passions vile..”. The English translation doesn’t convey the original meaning. The thought of having no suffering is a hateful thought, veen chintha, and is a sin. Sufferings are the spices of life that gives vitality, strength and hope for a life of beauty. In st.paul’s version suffering is a gift of God, Phi.1: 29.

Betrayals, accusations, slandering, false propaganda and similar such weapons are the ones that give opportunities for introspection and transformation of an individual for higher breathing and gasping for spiritual yearnings. The enemy’s taunts that invigourate our vendetta cannot truly defeat a man in toto, whereas the slow tortures of our dear ones and friends are the real guns that compel us to hide under the wings of the Life-giver who only is real and eternal. One who lead a club life that indoctrinate people to play politics and falsehood don’t have any such opportunities for self-rumination, converting them as social heroes who twinkling stars in the horizon of our social set up. Waging a war against our own dear ones is like setting fire for the whole city for exterminating the mice. As most of us don’t desire to destroy our habitats, we swallow shame and hide under the refuge of the Lord who is having the architectural plans of our inner self. One can escape from the intrigues of the foe, but not from the near and dear ones’ treachery. Job’s wife and friends were real thorns in the flesh of the protagonist; his physical sores could be treated with balms and itching, but the mental agony of the scolding that shot from his close ones multiplied his inner woes. Job’s affinity with the Creator was an eternal one, whereas his so-called mentors wanted to cut off that umbilical cord relationship from the Creator. It needs inner stamina to resist the temporal temptations that cut off the real bond that we are bound with the Holy One.

Sins and sufferings:
The traditional teachings that buttress the scriptural teachings that sin is the cause of our sufferings have been the magna carta of our faith. Despite it can be supported by the bible, there are proofs that it can be otherwise too. As Job’s vexations are because of him making in the cosmic laboratory as a guinea pig like that of Adam, one cannot blame for his inexplicable predilections. The preconditions are that all those who are the elects of the Holy Spirit will have to undergo through the baptismal fire of Satan. Sufferings and sins have an inexplicable blend of God’s power of foreknowledge and destiny that no human being can find a reasonable solution. Just as one who eat too much salt will have to drink excess water for a diluting effect, one who thirst to work for the Lord is ought to be tempted under the furnace of the infernal one for a long time. Jesus to this effect was led by the evil one to the desert to be temped. Fasting and prayer is the only remedy to rupture the satanic snare.

While the ordinary man’s suffering is due to sins, the yoke of sufferings is a must for the holy Spirit’s Elects because otherwise the gift of God may be used by the recipient for cheap purposes, which eventually become a boon for God’s enemy. One who takes up the cross for Jesus will have to be moulded under the abysmal fire. This is the real test to work out the genuine servant of God. The fake miracles that heap up money is surely therefore is a gift of the prince of this earth, whereas the crude sufferings of the warriors of faith testify that the miracles that happens even without their knowledge are the fruits and gifts of the Holy One. A fig tree only can produce fig fruits, not thistles. To do one’s duty sincerely is the only motto in life; if sufferings are the outcome of our actions, find out by self-examination whether the agony is due to our self-conceits. The real test is that if we enjoy a sort of inner peace in the midst of our frustrations, it is certain that our sufferings have the approval from above. When Satan gives the prosperity world to anyone, snakes and scorpions will have to haunt his life.

Sufferings are the yardsticks by which the Heavenly city builder recruits His army for the other world because sufferings only could spin and weave the white garment of incorruption within our own body system by spinning halo and aura that is a part of our fuming and fretting which find their escape route by the wailing of the Calvary model of sufferings. It all depends on the quality of our sufferings that weave the crown of jewels. Meekness and forgiveness and intrinsic love that find solutions for intrigues, slander, back biting, character assassination, poverty, sickness, starvation and tortures of many kinds are the weapons that weave the white rob that sheds luminosity all around. This white garment that is compatible to the high voltage celestial brightness only can withstand our existence in the Heavenly City of God. The book ‘Soul after Death’ deleniates the dilemma of a soul that went to the Heavenly mansions at his own bequest but made plea for his return because his eyes were blinded by the mega voltage brightness of the light of Heaven. It is impossible for wealth and pleasure to manufacture a ready-made garment for the celestial plane. No suffering no garment of splendor. It is a self-made garment that is locally carved out by our own strivings, aspirations and ideology.

Judgement:
Sufferings of any kind are the testing weapons whether the sufferer is a hero or a despicable clout or a common man. We are good in judging others, not in mending others by offering our sacrificial help. Don’t judge a man is the Divine commandment because a pot cannot judge a pot of different make in size, shape and colour. As life and its activities are so complex, fluctuating and revolving, a dust cannot judge the chemistry and gravity of the universe. Leave the judgement to God who examines the ins and outs of everybody’s thoughts and deeds. We can’t make a flawless verdict, as we are imperfect because our thoughts and actions fluctuate every moment.

It is God who gives us breathing; hence our tie is with the Lord of all, not with the associates who can’t provide us anything for the celestial planes, except certain services for the terrestrial plane. Whom do we have to trust therefore, one who gives us Eternity or the one who gives us company, the fair weather co-operation and friendship? Every one come alone to this plane, and everyone exits alone from this plane of temporal existence of unscrupulousness and butchery, just as the birds that perches on the branches of a tree for a while and fly away after a while. At the time of Job’s sufferings no one could share his woes, physically or mentally, despite the physical suffering is transparent to an extent, but the unfathomable inner tortures are invisible and unimaginable to us. Don’t, therefore, be an accomplice to an evil act because all what we see is vanishing; that which is unseen is permanent. Be of one’s own guide by being a refugee of God who alone could wipe our sores and tears. How many Jobs can be here on earth, strictly speaking none other than Jesus who went through the pangs of physical scourges and mental abuses that cut His heart off. “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”, Jn.16: 33. Can Job overcome the world without much whimpering and exasperation? No. Job is presumably an imaginary prototype of the Saviour and a mythical narration that can lead the metaphysical aspirants to a plane of inner ecstasy and trance, which only serve as a spiritual tonic during this earthly funeral procession that culminates into the grave.

Yet, rejoicing and singing in the Lord with the fable hero is a gift of the Spirit of God. So everyone ought to be a living dynamo in hallowing the name of God during the sojourn life of transience and uncertainties by our exemplary life of superlatives. The total acceptance of the ownership of everything to God is a sign of total humility that played as the key for the Mother of God in bringing down Jesus to our household for its salvation. Job who played the role of a saviour brought salvation to the whole dissenting and embattled household and the vicinity to a path of Eternal bliss. What is our role in life? Grumbling and despising God like the Israelites or falling at the foot of the Calvary that carved our destiny. Tearful gratefulness is the only present that the King of kings expects from us for showering His blessings all along our life. Only God has given something to us, He has the right to take them away from us. We are the stewards, and He is our owner. He is “the only Sovereign, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see”, 1.Tim.6: 15-16.