The Train that Traveled to Meet God

Three short stories

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The Train that Traveled to Meet God
by Erfan Nazarahari
11-Mar-2011
 

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The Train that Traveled to Meet God

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The train that was traveling to meet God had a brief stop at Station Earth.  

The Prophet turned to the people of earth and said, "Our destination is God.  Who out there wants to join us? Which one of you wants to experience both love and suffering with us? Who is willing to believe that this life on earth is just a passing station?"

Centuries passed but only a few people boarded the train.

Between Station Earth and God were a thousand other stations.  At every stop, a few people would leave the train, and it became lighter and lighter as it moved towards God.  

After all, lightness is one of God's laws.

One day, the train heading for God reached Heaven.  The Prophet said, "This is Heaven. Those who want to stay in Heaven can exit the train now.  But be aware this is not our final destination."

The passengers who exited the train became residents of Heaven.  But the train soon left Heaven behind and moved towards its final destination—God.

Then God told his few passengers, "Bravo! This was the mystery of life.  This was my ultimate secret.  The one who longs for me in his heart would not stay in Heaven.”

***

The moment the train reached its final destination, there was no longer a trace of the train, nor any of its passengers and their Prophet.

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On the Moon and Within the Stars

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Someone was searching for God.

He had heard that God is up in the sky somewhere, and all his life had watched that hands go up in prayer towards the sky.  Therefore, every night he would climb up the stairs of the sky, move over the clouds, smell the moon and search within the stars—for God.

He’d say to himself, “God must be around here somewhere,” then he’d look for the Throne hoping that God may be sitting on it.  He searched the entire sky but found no Throne.  There was no footprint on the moon and no signs within the stars.

He gave up on the vast blue sky.

Next he looked at the earth underneath his feet. The earth was boundless and deep so it probably had room for God to hide inside it.  It was cold, dark and nothing but blackness.

Neither down nor up, not on earth nor in the sky, did he find God.

But there were still the mountains, the oceans and the meadows to search.  He searched and searched behind the mountains, deep in the oceans, and every inch of each meadow.  Between each grain of sand, within all pebbles and every single drop of water.  Yet there was no sign of God anywhere.

Then he became hopeless and gave up all searching.

At that very moment, a breeze started to blow.  Maybe the breeze was an angle who said “Don’t be tired for tiredness is like death.  You still have a place to search that is the biggest, most beautiful and the strangest land ever—a lost place not shown on any map.”  The breeze whirled around him and continued, “Here! The place that is left is called You.”

For the first time ever, he saw himself, the lost land that is.  The breeze opened a small door which was the only entrance to the inside.  He then entered his own heart.  God was sitting there on the Throne.  And he knew this was the same Throne he had been searching for all these years.

***

Years later, when he returned to his eyes, God was everywhere:

Up on the sky and inside the earth
Underneath the sands in the meadows
Behind the pebbles, in the mountains and
Within the stars and on the moon.

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The Turtle
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His back was heavy and life’s roads were long.  He always knew that he could only travel a short distance at a time.  He crawled slowly and with difficulty and it seemed as if he would never get “there”.

The Turtle didn’t like his destiny-this hard shell on his back-and he carried it with him every where with a grudge.

A bird flew across the sky, light and free, and the Turtle turned to God and said, “This isn’t fair, it is injustice!  I wish you had not created my back so heavy, this way I will never get to my destination.”  Then he went to hide inside his shell hopelessly.

God picked him up and showed him the earth from far above.  It was such a small sphere.  Then God told him, “Look at it! It has no beginning and no end; it is infinite.  No one is supposed to get ‘there’.  There is no ‘arriving at the destination’, only going and going.  It is an eternal journey, even if you travel a tiny distance at a time.  So each time you go, you have arrived.”

“What you carry on your back my dear is more than a shell—you are carrying a piece of the Universe, a piece of me!”

Then God placed the Turtle back down on earth.  Now, he no longer felt the heavy burden on his back and there were no distant roads ahead of him.

***

The Turtle began his journey saying “moving forward even if only a few steps at a time”.

And this is how he carried a piece of God on his back with love—as he went.

Translated from Persian by Layla Khamoushian, www.dreamgatepress.com (Layla Kamm)

Erfan Nazarahari nooronar.com

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