Faith and Gratitude

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..