In tune with him

Success is a combination of God’s blessings and hard work, says Sonali Kulkarni
I have grown up in Pune where the Ganesh Festival is celebrated in a big way. It is during the Ganesh festival that various cultural activities take place like dance, music, and drama and there I got a chance to showcase my talent. I try my best to stay at home for this festival, but now due to work it gets difficult to go back home to Pune.Ganesh represents ‘Buddhi’ (intelligence) and ‘kala’ (art) and I have always worshipped him.
There are various aspects of our culture and religion that appeal to me, I find small rituals meaningful. One is the lighting of the diya. It has a special significance for me, I have always seen mom lighting it at sunset. Now in Mumbai, when I live alone, I also light it in the evening too and that light gives me warmth and I feel at home. I feel I am not alone, I feel protected and secure. The light of the diya is divine for me. During Diwali too I light numerous diyas at home. The smell of agarbatti also appeals to me, I feel it makes the atmosphere pure and clean and I simply love making rangolis, whenever possible. Even now on my door step, I make designs.
I am also fond of torans and hang a few colourful ones outside my main door. Colours mean a lot to me, rangoli and torans add a meaning to my home. I consider myself lucky to have such wonderful parents and see God through them, they are dear to me and all my religious values have been inculcated in me by them. I know there is a superpower. But I feel God exists in heart of the person, God is in humanity, in small kind gestures that one does.
My parents have always taught me to respect God and to believe in one self. As a kid, I remember that I promised my parents that I shall get 85 per cent. Everyday after that, I went to the temple to pray, but I didn’t secure 85 per cent. This was probably because I didn’t study very hard. Merely prayers won’t help you to become successful in life, you have to work at it.
It was instilled in me that I am responsible for myself. As a kid, I wrote many poems addressed to God where I questioned him a lot. Now its only verbal communication that I have with Ganesha. I believe in karma and strongly believe that it is with actions, we achieve what we want in life. It is our behaviour and actions that matter. So for me work is worship.
I try and excel in my work. To be frank, I feel relaxed when I wear makeup; it takes usually 30 to 45 minutes to finish puttin on my make-up. During this time, I close my eyes and sit and often try and mediate. During these moments, I experience great peace within myself. I pray at home only, but have visited churches in Kerala, Italy and Goa and I have loved being there. I am fond of the peace that is present in churches and feel that there is something magical in that atmosphere. One feels like praying if there is calmness and serenity all around.
I personally feel its wrong to blame any one religion for the killings that have taken place in the name of religion. It hurts when innocents are killed, I only hope that human beings become sensitive and rational and more responsible for their actions.