Swearing before God

After my long absence from the blogosphere, I have written and discarded many pieces in the past few months. Probably I would have continued my break if this interesting article had not caught my eye. It is about the present and previous Chief Ministers of Karnataka taking 'truth test' before Lord Manjunatha at Dharmasthala to prove their innocence about a certain political matter. As kids when we all knew that when we were lying and someone made us swear, the easiest one used to be "God Promise!" - we knew God was indestructible and was also forgiving , so no harm done to anyone. How easy! So at least I know where these guys are coming from when are planning to swear on/before Gods and not anyone/anything else.

The other thing we all know is that all politicians are liars. So in all probability both of them would be lying in some way or the other before the Lord. What if this particular God is not as forgiving as we assumed the Gods to be. What if one or both of them suddenly light up in flames as wrath of God for lying (isn't this what happens in most of the mythological stories?). Wouldn't this be a much better solution than lie detectors, judicial/political debates? And since it will be God's judgement, no one will even be questioning it and the punishment will be immediate.

Update 7/10/2011: Unfortunately, the drama in Dharmasthala did not unfold as was publicized and the current CM got a cold feet. What fun it would have been. Anyway, there's always a next time ...