In the month of September 2010, I happened to see a news item about spate of tourist visits to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, a splendour to enjoy with all twenty gates raised. It is just about 130 kilo meters from the city. One can start off in the early morning from the city and return by night fall.
I mooted the programme, with my son and two sons-in-law, engaged spacious Innova taxi and started off with six adults and three children, one fine morning on a holiday (Diary Note... Friday, 10/09/2010)
Cool breeze. smooth road in good condition, with green fields passing by on either side was making the journey pleasant. In my heart of hearts, I was feeling sorry for missing my regular yoga by spiritual master. My mind was contemplating on the routine prayers delivered by the guru, though far away in the city we left behind. After about fifty kilo meters of journey, my grand daughters requested the driver to stop for a while to go for toilet. He slowed down and parked the vehicle by the side of the road. All passengers came out of the car to stretch their legs for a while. The driver was standing just behind the car. Just as a sedan car zoomed past us with good speed, a small gravel stone kicked
off by one of its tyres, y came like a bullet, passed from the side of head of the driver and hit the back window glass of our vehicle. It was broken. We were stunned for a while upon the unexpected damage to the car. Naturally, the driver was quite upset about the expenditure to be met to replace the glass.
With a thought of solacing, I approached him and asked, 'Do you believe in God ?' Pat came reply
from him ' Oh ! surely sir, I have faith in Him and perform my daily prayers regularly,' I said, 'then immediately express your gratitude to Him'. 'What for,sir ? I do not understand you''. ' See, you have to show your gratitude to Him for saving your life with a very narrow escape. If the gravel hit your temple instead of the car what would have been your fate ? Can you imagine the fate of your wife and children without you ? I can assure you that my contemplation on the spiritual yoga at this very moment being practised in the city, worked as a sincere prayer to please the God and made Him divert the damages from you to the car. You can get the glass replaced of course with a little expense, but can your family get back you, if some unwarranted thing happened ? It is difficult to understand the intentions of the God, but they are always for the benefit of His devotees only'. To fortify his faith in my deliberations, I narrated a small story......
'Once Lord Siva with His consort Parvati embarked on visiting his devotees on earth in disguise.
They went to the house of a poor brahmin devotee, who welcomed the guests with open hands and shared whatever meagre food he had. The night passed by. Parvati expected Siva would bless the poor brahmin family with some prosperity. But Siva was silent. On the contrary, as the divine couple left the place in the morning, they heard brahmin family crying over their dead cow. Agitated Parvati asked Siva with some annoyance in her tone, ' On the one hand you haven't blessed the deserving poor brahmin with wealth and on the other hand you haven't stopped the death of his source of income, the cow. What is the intention behind ?' Siva replied, 'You are thoroughly mistaken. Actually what happened last night was that, the God of Death came here to take the life of the poor brahmin as per his schedule. To save my devotee's life, I asked the God of Death to take the life of the old cow instead. Rest assured, soon he will be better off financially too'. Parvati sighed with
great relief.'
By the time I finished my story, the driver too was relaxed. The vehicle moved on. Our veneration for the Almighty increased all the more, as we could comprehend how safely he was protecting us from accidents, pitfalls in our daily life.
Om shanti !
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