Throughout our lifespan, be it childhood or old age, we
always look forward for some miracle to happen. When they happen, we are
thrilled and excited, irrespective of our age. But interestingly, we fail to
acknowledge and appreciate miracles that happen in and around us every day. A
great example of this is our heart beat. This is even without our conscious knowledge
and we are alive because of it. Is this not a miracle? The fact that we breathe
without any effort is a miracle and a bigger miracle is that we have a choice
to control breathing. We always have oxygen to breath and nobody has stolen it
from us, that’s another miracle. Isn’t it astonishing that a running cycle does
not fall but when the same cycle halts, it falls, if not held! It appeared to
be a great miracle to me when I was a child and even today, I admire the
bicycle in motion. Despite scientific explanations to these occurrences, each
one of these are in fact miracles - miracles of our day to day life.
Certain things in creation are perceived to be miracles, but be
sure that everything is in fact a miracle, the fact is, we just don’t notice
it. Here’s story about the biggest miracle ……..
One day, after doing service to his Guru and imbibing
knowledge for many long years, the disciple asked his Guru,”Gurudev, you have given
me so much knowledge that is difficult to acquire and I am ever grateful for
that. Now, please tell me whether I can really see God someday and how?” The
Guru smiled and did not answer the question. Instead he told the disciple,
“Today, you go to the nearby village and get the required materials for a special
puja”. In those days, disciples don’t question the Guru on the instructions
given. Instead, they implicitly obey their Guru. So this disciple simply followed
the Guru’s orders, went to the village, which was very far from the ashram, to fetch the materials for puja.
It was a very hot day and the disciple was very tired by the time he was back
with the puja materials.
The Guru asked the disciple, “What are all the things that you
saw today on your way to the village and back?”
The disciple
said, “I saw some cows grazing, some horses galloping, a few children playing
on the street……and so on”
The Guru asked him, “Are you sure you told me everything that
you saw?”
The disciple thought for a while and said, “Oh, sorry Gurudev.
I forgot to tell you about the monkey sitting on a tree.”
“Are you sure that you have told me everything you saw now?” the
Guru asked again and the disciple confirmed that he had.
Now the Guru told him, “Dear son, you have told me about
every object you saw but failed to remember the sun which illuminated all the
objects you saw and also was with you throughout the day, where ever you went.”
This is how we miss seeing God in us and in everything we see. Instead we look
for some miracle to happen. If we can see properly, we can see the miracle of
all miracles happening within us. This is what the Rishis of ancient India did
and shared with us about what they saw. They are seers. What are we? At least
we can make an attempt to know what they said and most importantly follow what
they told us to do. The choice is with us, given by God.
