Raj looked at his watch—it was six past forty in the morning—only twenty minutes were left for the beginning of first lecture. What he hated the most was to skip lectures. He had made a promise to himself that he will graduate with good grades, and then go for an MBA degree. Every now and then he reminded himself of this promise; yet he was late, which inferred he was failing to keep up with his goal.

He finally reached his college, and he was late. Damn! Why in the world you didn't walk a bit faster, he scolded himself. But it was done, he has to wait until the second lecture. He caught sight of Ravi, and a smirk ruled his face. Ravi was busy in his cell phone, sitting on a campus bench. Has this guy ever attended even one lecture?

"Hey, what are you doing there?" Raj shouted enough to snap Ravi out of his cellphone.

Before Ravi could beckoned Raj to come sit with him, Raj started heading there by himself. He plumped down on the bench and fixed his eyes on what Ravi was doing: he was reading something, it was ebook, something written in Sanskrit and English. It was Bhagavad Gita; Ravi was quite inspired by those words Sid has spoken to him last night.

When Raj realized it, a grimace made its way up on his face. Many times Raj has told Ravi to read Bible, but he never did it, and now he was reading Bhagavad Gita? 

Inimical feelings triggered in Raj's mind. He thought about those terrible circumstances that he had been through five years ago, which dragged his mind back to those horrible days of the past:

Scaling on the stairs hurriedly, Raj was out of breath; but little it did matter to him if he equates it with pain inflicted upon him by the almighty destiny. He could've taken the elevator, but it was busy and wasting time for that wasn't a great deal. Actually his dad met with a deadly accident, that's the reason why he wanted to see him asap.

As Raj set foot in room no. 564, where his dad was kept (or rather waiting for the operation). He had a brain fog and his heart crumbled to see his dad lying on a bed, battling against the imminent death.

Oxygen mask put on his dad's face, connected to the ventilator, Nasogastric and Endrotracheal tubes were doing their work. Raj felt his breath caught his throat like a gelid wind and froze the windpipe. How dreadful it would be for someone to catch sight of one's dad lying on a hospital bed, almost lifeless?

"Mom! Will he be okay?" Raj mumbled under his choked throat. Each word ripped his throat raw.

"We need to pay one million rupees before getting started with three consecutive operations," she replied.

This was the time, when Raj figured out the curse of not having bank balance or medical insurance, because his family believed in the philosophy of "tomorrow will never come." His dad, Mr Sharma, taught him since childhood to live in the moment; he had heard a story about his grandfather quite often.

Mr Sharma's father was an extremely wealthy man, all his life he accumulated money. In fact he was the richest person in their town. One fine day, Mr Sharma asked his father to help poor people of their town.

"After so much struggle I became rich, those poor people don't want to work, they only want money to drink alcohol," Raj's grandfather said. Mr Sharma believed it to be simply an excuse, just to avoid spending money.

One day Grandfather died with a sudden heart attack. Was he able to take all the wealth with him after death? No. Then what was the point of accumulating so much wealth?

Mr Sharma was never like his miser father. He always helped needy people, and he really never believed in savings. You came with empty hand, you will go with empty hands, he often quoted this dictum to his family.

But right now Raj really questioned his dad's philosophy. Because they were in a tight spot and they didn't have a penny for emergencies such as this. Why not even a freaking medical insurance, Dad? Raj thought angrily.

Raj and his mother felt burden of helpless over their chest. Why are we not rich enough to pay for the operation? This was the only question that ruled their mind. But there should be helping hands for sure since his dad helped many people in the past, surely they will come forward to help.

At first, Raj along with his mother went to the business partners of his dad. But they said with weepy voices that all of their money is stuck in investment. Most of them lied, Raj knew it.

Then they went to their relatives, but they openly denied to help. Why that so!? Because the reason for this was, Mr Sharma got a chunk of inherited property, which they didn't receive, this was their grudge.

Then Raj and his mother went to their family guru, to whom Mr Sharma had given millions of rupees in charity. It was their only hope after facing rejections from everyone, but their guru always made excuses of being stuck up in so called preaching, and he can't come to help although willing to.

Almost all doors were closed, Raj literally felt like to go and kill every one of them. What's the use of such selfish and heartless people?

Just before the final day of paying the fees for operation. A friend of Raj's mother suggested them that there's a church who could help them. And the church did. Thus Mr Sharma's life was saved. Later a year, Raj's family became devout followers of that church.

It was quite interesting how the series of events went: Raj's grandfather was a miser and never gave a part of his enormous wealth to anybody; Raj's father became a "living in the moment" person, so much that he preserved no savings at all; now Raj wanted to have enough money so that he would never be in financial crisis again.

The rest of the story you may know how Raj developed a hostility towards other religions and their God, to whom he had prayed during crisis but got no divine intervention. Of course church never taught him to be like that, but it was his life's inequalities which turned him into a religious bigot. He would always argue: Why nobody helped us at the times of crisis, except church?

Now he wanted to give a piece of his animosity to Ravi, who was reading Bhagavad Gita. He thought if Ravi doesn't follow his way, then he shouldn't follow any other way at all.

One cruel expertise always defamed Raj, he knew how to delude people. Like how you gonna kill a tree? Cut it from the root.

"Do you know there are many satanic verses in Bhagavad Gita?" he said obnoxiously.

"What!? Oh please, spare me." Ravi knew why Raj affronted him like that.

But Raj didn't stop there, he kept on finding faults, and then called his two bigot friends, Nikhil and Kumar. Within half an hour, they joined to support Raj, because they weren't living far away.

If it was Raj, Ravi could've dealt with him, but now there were two more people like Raj. Kumar and Nikhil were fanatical and could go on any level it take to delude Ravi. And they actually succeeded in it. They told Ravi a few things about Bhagavad Gita that totally bewildered him.

The clouds of confusion took place in Ravi's head, his heartbeats drummed like a snare. "HELL WITH ALL! This is why I hate religious stuff. This guy claims, my way is only way; other guy claims, my way is only way. I think all ways are going astray." Ravi stormed away after saying that.

Ravi was a long time agnostic, but now he was trying to understand God. What's the big deal if he follows Raj's way or Sid's way?  However, Raj didn't entertain a thought like this; for him, his way was the only way.

His mind was screwed up, but still he called Sid. "I'm coming, tell them to wait. I'll talk with them." He received these assuring words from Sid on the phone.

*****

Walking down to the college campus, Sid was thinking on the reason why Raj can't accept the fact that God is one, why he's so bent on denying it? Definitely it's not what his religion who made him like that, but his ego. Now he can figure out why people hate someone with religious temperament so much!

He knew this was a complicated situation. Of course life really gave a raw deal to Raj. But now what he was doing, that's completely unjust: to delude a person with the wrong information. Sid, however, decided that right now reassuring Ravi's faith in Bhagavad Gita was more important than everything else.

When he reached downstairs, he was welcomed by Kumar and Nikhil and of course Raj; all those memories of that day (chapter 7 and 8) attacked him like wild dogs. He still recoils to think about the storm of confusion that had danced in his mind that day.

Sid was aware of the fact "my religion is superior and your religion is inferior" kind of mentality is not the purpose of spirituality. In fact this was reason why he set off on a journey to find the absolute truth: the universal essence of all religions which bind us together and not divide us. 

"Ravi told us that you're a student of Bhagavad Gita, eh? I have some questions, rather we have some questions," Kumar spoke on their behalf. He had a fiendish smile on his face, which Sid didn't like at all.

"Oh, I see," Sid mumbled. His eyes searched for Ravi, who was disappeared somewhere.

Actually Sid believed it's better to avoid the debate, which Raj pined to have. What's the point of debating with hardliners? Neither they'll accept your points, nor they'll change their prejudices. Raj and his friends, however, pressed on having a debate with Sid. It was inevitable, and here we go.

Kumar cleared his throat, putting forward his arguments based on a topic he called "Satanic verses from Bhagavad Gita."

First argument: Krishna teaches about yoga, but He Himself not a yogi. Wearing a proud smile, Kumar fixed his glinting eyes at Sid; he would bet that it's him who gonna have upper hand all the time.

Sid took a deep breath and smiled, gazing softly towards Kumar; he knew he was going to face such questions. But at least they should've maintain some courtesy!

Anyway, with an attitude and expression calm as water Sid answered that Kumar's whole argument is flawed and baseless. He said:

"Bhagavad Gita, chapter eighteen, verse seventy-eight states, 'Yatra yogesvarah krsno,' which means Krishna is the master of all mystic yogis. He is the Lord of yoga. Apart from that, in chapter fifteen of eleventh canto of Srimad Bhagavatam (the highest Vedic literature), Krishna has discussed about the detailed description of yoga system to His devotee, Sri Uddhav. 'Yoginām siddhi-do bhavān,' Here Sri Uddhav says to Krishna: You are the bestower of all yogic perfections."

Eyes widened, Kumar felt a lump in his throat, he sucked in a deep breath to calm himself because his heart became restless after hearing Sid's answer. Actually, it was funny he didn't remember that Sid was the same guy whom once he'd met. However, Sid recognized him at first place. Some way or other it was because of Kumar, he set off on the journey of self-discovery. 

Kumar hawked harder. "Alright ... I'm putting forward argument number two; Krishna is hate-mongering God, He calls for violence in Bhagavad Gita."

With same tranquility Sid answered that Bhagavad Gita doesn't calls for silence or violence, it calls for transcendence. It talks about our eternal identity as a soul and relationship with God, Krishna. Nowhere throughout Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tipped Arjuna about how to fight in the war.

Sid added further, maintaining a smile on his lips. "However, that's true, Krishna has told Arjuna to battle. But who was Arjuna? He was a warrior. Is it satanic to tell a soldier that he shouldn't fight back when enemies attack a country? For instance, if terrorists attack a city, is it wise for the Prime minister of a country to call for peace? When thousands of innocent lives are at stake?"

Sid didn't stop here, he threw a counterargument at Kumar; who was panting heavily as if he was running on a trampoline (it was hard for him to believe that Sid was answering his arguments with such ease). Sid argued, nowhere in Bhagavad Gita it is mentioned that those who don't accept Bhagavad Gita as the words of God are going to hell for eternity. However, Kumar professes that those who don't accept his ideology goes to hell for eternity. So his attitude is satanic and hate-mongering.

One by one Sid defeated each and every argument presented by Kumar, even Nikhil tried, but he was defeated too. They almost came on the brink of blasting like a volcano, and were unable to hide their jumpy expressions.

Raj shot daggers at Kumar every now and then, urging him to do something. He had so much faith in Kumar, that's why he would tag him along whenever there's any theological discussion. And Kumar was a great debater, but now he was out of words as if someone sucked out his intelligence. Never in a million years he thought debating with Sid would be so difficult.

Now came Sid's turn to ask questions. With first argument itself, he trapped Raj, Nikhil and Kumar into a philosophical catch-22 or loaded questions. (What is a catch-22? A question like: Have you stopped beating your wife? Here if one says "no," then it means he's still beating his wife; and if one says "yes," then it means he admits that he has beaten his wife in the past.

After the catch-22 question, he pointed out some references of Bible and queried about it. Kumar tried to answer them one by one, but Sid pointed out several flaws in each of the answers, staying calm as before.

Faces of Kumar including Raj and Nikhil showed they're defeated. But do you know they said in the end? And... You guessed it correctly, they said Satan controls Sid's soul. Fantastic, isn't it? When they can't defeat a person in an argument, they have only this thing to say. Sid had experienced this earlier as well.

He let out a chuckle, and decided to put an end to these "Satan ruling you" "Satan owns your soul" getaway-arguments.

He asked, who is the creator of this universe? Nikhil and Raj hesitated, but Kumar answered, it's God. Sid asked another question, who is the ultimate controller of the universe? Kumar answered, it's God. So if God is the creator of this universe, it means He has created Satan also. And if God is the ultimate controller, then how come Satan has control over anyone?

Here's the trick of those questions: if they still say Satan is controlling Sid's soul, then it means Satan is the bigger controller than God. And it'll infer that even if God created this world, but He doesn't control His creation. Since Kumar agreed God is the controller of this universe, so his statement—Satan is controlling your soul, Sid—won't make any sense. Because God is the controller.

Kumar, Raj and Nikhil lowered their eyes in embarrassment; they really didn't know how to deal with loaded questions. They were defeated and didn't have anything to say. You see, Sid also felt guilty by defeating them and he really couldn't say what he has done was right or wrong. 

"Actually, I really don't find Bible and Bhagavad Gita teach anything different," Sid said with a friendly smile, he thought to make amends. "Tell me which is the highest of all ten commandments?

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind (Luke 10.27)," Kumar said, Nikhil and Raj also recited.

"Bhagavad Gita 18.65 says the similar thing," Sid replied with an ecstatic voice. This must've reduced prejudice in his opponents.

Further he quoted several parallel verses from Bhagavad Gita and Bible. Some of them were:

"And they tempted God in their heart." (Psalm 78.18), "I am in everyone's heart as the Supersoul." (Bhagavad-Gita 7.21)

"One God and father of all." (Ephesians 4:6), "I am the father of this universe." (Bhagavad-Gita 9.17)

"And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever." (Revelation 22:5), "That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world." (Bhagavad-Gita 15.6)

"I am alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." (Revelation 22:13), "Of all creations I am the beginning and the end and also the middle." (Bhagavad-Gita 10.32)

"Bible and Bhagavad Gita are never at war with each other," Sid said humbly, he really wanted to convey his heart with this last attempt. "Why do we humans create conflict with 'my God, your God,' huh? One God of both Bible and Bhagavad Gita has said the same thing. When are we going to live as the children of God, the way He has expected from us?"

Kumar, Nikhil and Raj felt embarrassment washed over their heart, their mouth were dried and throat were tight with emotions. Maybe they were guilty for what they'd been doing for so long—their bigot nature. But Sid also had an intuition telling him that they'll not change their heart.

If we look at history we had great saints who taught us how to love God. We had Saint Augustine who said: "To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him is the greatest adventure; to find Him is the greatest human achievement." We had innumerable great saints from every traditions, who only wanted to love God and serve all. But how unfortunate! Some people fight in the name God without meditating on life histories of those great saints.

******

A/N: It's quite a big chapter. Actually, I purposely kept the debate fast-paced, because I hated to make it controversial. The essence message of this chapter in the end, please share, vote and please comment, I really want you to do that :D :D