What was Kalam’s father’s response to his son’s query about prayer and spirituality

What was Kalam’s father’s response to his son’s query about prayer and spirituality ? Or, What did Kalam’s father tell him about the relevance of prayers? Class 12 | English (Strong Roots) 6 Marks

Ans:

In the prose piece ‘Strong Roots’, extracted from APJ Abdul Kalam’s autobiography ‘Wings of Fire’, we see that as a child, Kalam was convinced that their prayers reached God. When he grew older, he asked his father about the relevance of prayers, Kalam’s father gave a meaningful answer. Jainulabdeen told Kalam that there was nothing mysterious about prayer. In fact, he regarded prayer as a means of communion between the spirits of different people. He said that prayers help us to go beyond our bodily existence and become a part of the universe which knows no division of wealth, age, caste or creed. Therefore, prayers help us to overcome the narrowness of mind, separatist tendencies and control negative emotions like anger and hatred. Kalam’s father also conveyed complex spiritual concepts in lucid Tamil language. He pointed out that every human being is a specific element within the whole of the manifest divine being. Hence one should not be afraid of sufferings and problems, rather try to analyse its relevence and reasons, Adversities should be treated as opportunities for introspection. Thus, he enriched young Kalam with spiritual knowledge.