One of the first stories that I read as a child
titled “ All For the Best”. So the story goes .. Birbal constantly asserted
that everything happens for one’s own good. Emperor Akbar, who was young, was
distrustful of Birbal’s wisdom and questioned the minister’s constant, optimistic
assertion.
One day while handling a sword, the Emperor chopped
off the tip of his little finger. Birbal immediately told the Emperor not to
worry, everything that happens has a purpose behind it and that purpose is for
good. The Emperor became exceedingly angry with Birbal and threw him in jail.
The Emperor bandaged the finger for a few days and
then, as a diversion, went into the forest to hunt. He was later separated from
his hunting party and eventually captured by a tribe of cannibals intending to
make a human sacrifice. The Emperor was bound like a sacrificial lamb and taken
before the temple. When the temple priest examined him, the priest announced
that he could not be sacrificed because he was not a perfect specimen, since
the front portion of one finger was missing. As he was not fit to be
sacrificed, the Emperor was released.
On his return, the Emperor thanked God for injuring
his finger and thereby sparing his life. He then immediately went to the prison
to meet Birbal.
“O Birbal, please accept my apologies for
imprisoning you. Now I understand how my injury was for the best. But tell me,
why did God allow me to imprison you? How is it for the best that you have been
confined here due to my anger?”
Birbal replied, “Your Majesty if I had not been in
prison, you would surely have taken me with you when you went hunting, and when
the forest cannibals rejected you bat their sacrifice, they would surely have
found me an excellent substitute!”
Birbal had faith that something good would come about in spite of the loss
of the king’s finger. Many a times events and incidents that happen in our life
have not immediate answers, are painful, are trying and could be
self-defeating. If only in those moments we could become aware of the faith
that lives within us. A faith so powerful that it could change the view of our
life and give us strength to overcome anything that comes our way.
My housemaid works for a meager salary. She is extremely poor. She
surprises me with her smile and right attitude to life. She truly follows the
inner wisdom that she is blessed with. Once she told me that their household
income was not enough to buy them fresh vegetables and fruits so they have been
surviving on a grain diet all these years. She did not know how she would support
her children’s further education. Then she ended up the conversation saying
that may be God has a plan for them and he will take them through, with a
smile. I was choked. No matter what I do will I ever be able to have the depth
of faith and gratitude that she lives by.
Our gratitude is so superficial. We express our gratitude when we are
happy. What happens to gratitude when we are whining and complaining about our
bad times, health or enormous other reasons and situations we choose to complain
about.
I think faith and gratitude are two sides of the same coin. If you have the
faith, gratitude will follow. Ore if you have the gratitude faith is already
there.
The question is :
In moments of despair do I choose faith that leads to freedom?
In situations so grim, do I choose to be a looser, or have the gratitude
for the lesson I learned and move on?
Do I choose to thank God, each and every day, each and every moment of my
life and change the direction of my life ?
How deep do I dive in this faith of divinity ?
For the deeper you dive the higher you soar!
Love and Happiness..
