Ways of God are inscrutable

Hema had not expected such a surge of crowd at the famous shrine of Guruvayur.Someone had told her that the crowd was lean during this period. There was a long queue moving at snail’s pace thro the rows of parallel railings that seemed endless. The Sun god was also merciless with scorching heat that radiated through the galvanized sheets. Not a blade of grass moved and the air was still. The jostling crowd of perspiring and smelly people and the continuous chatter all around would not allow her to focus her mind on the God thro prayer. After every half an hour the wicket gate opened to allow a small batch only to close again for another thirty minutes.. She had come alone to discharge her vow for a day. She was to catch the evening train the same day.
She was incessantly praying “Lord Guruvayurappa, please enable me to have a good darshan of you.I am afraid whether this massive crowd would permit me to stand even for a few seconds to offer my prayers in peace. I have been waiting for this visit for several years and was made possible through your grace only even now. I don’t not know when my next visit to India will take place.Om Namo Narayana, please bestow Your Grace on me.”
The crowd slowly inched forward. She was at last nearing the main entrance .An elephant that took the God in procession a little while earlier was swinging its trunk and eating coconut leaves. While she was watching, a young girl of nine years in a green skirt old approached her and gave her a plantain fruit telling “Have this fruit, aunty: you will have a good darshan.Do not worry.” Hema said ‘So sweet of you, there is too much of jostling by the crowd.I will take the fruit when I come outside after the darsan lest it gets crushed.” The girl replied with a bewitching smile “No, no, please have it now itself. You will see me again no doubt” Even as Hema accepted it, the crowd pushed her inside the gate. She being short could not get glimpse of the Lord as many others tried by craning their necks at the entrance. She could just see the lamps burning inside. She was disappointed and her appeals to Him became more intensive and passionate. As she was approaching the point opposite the God before His sanctum sanctorum, she saw the officials virtually pressing the pilgrims not to stand for even two seconds. She broke into tears when she tripped just before the God as someone pushed her. The officials who saw her predicament stopped the pilgrims behind her till she found her legs and told her unbelieving ears ”Please have a good darshan of the Lord” They gave her some flowers and chandan paste even she stood for adequate time before Him to her hearts content. To her great bewilderment and surprise she felt that the Lord appeared to her as a young girl. She thanked them for this unusual gesture and moved away.

As she came out, she asked the other pilgrims in what manner God had been decorated and was told in the usual Balakrishna style with flute in His hand. Confused with the differing version to what she saw, she came to the place where the girl who gave her the fruit stood only to find no trace of her. Then it struck her like hammer blow that God had appeared to her in the same form in a green skirt as the girl who gave the plantain, made her trip before Him as if in prostration and gave her extended time to have His darshan.The ways of God to show kindness to His devotees are inscrutable.
Kpartha12@hotmail.com