WHY LORD YAMA WAS CURSED BY RISHI MANDVAYYA.

 

Mandavya was a Brahmin who gave away his vast wealth and went away to Himalayas to become an Ascetic and came to be known as Rishi Mandavya.

Once Rishi Mandavya was deep in penance at his Ashram and was under a vow of Silence.

A gang of robbers, running away from soldiers, found the Rishi’s hermitage to be ideal place to hide, hid their loot & themselves in his humble hermitage.

The King’s soldiers who came searching asked the Sage about the whereabouts of the robbers.
The Sage, being under a vow of silence did not answer and continued with his penance.
The soldiers repeated the question several times, but the sage did not answer.
The Soldiers went inside the hermitage and found both the loot and the thieves.
Mistakenly they arrested the Rishi too as they believed that he was helping the robbers by being silent when asked about the thieves.

THE PUNISHMENT :

The Angry King ordered SHOOLA DANDA on them, including the Rishi (as he believed the Sage to be the robbers associate)…..meaning trusting them with a Spear and thus killing them.

The rishi Mandavya, in spite of being pierced and without food, though his yogic powers and ascetic merit was alive and continued with his penance.

The great sage continued with is penance.
Many sages, in the guise of birds visited rishi and expressed their sorrow and unhappiness, Mandavya but the great sage consoled them saying “No one is responsible for my suffering. I think its all due to my past Karma” and continued with his penance.

The people in and around were surprised to see the great sage surviving the pain of the trident and still pursuing the penance. For anybody’s query he used to reply that no one was responsible for his suffering.

A few days later the king came to know through his soldiers that the sage was surviving the heavy odds. The king rushed to the spot and ensured the sage was safely grounded from the trident. The King himself tried to remove the trident but in vain. Then they cut off the trident but the upper pointed edge was struck to the Sage’s body. The king profusely apologized and begged for forgiveness.

The sage pardoned the King saying “You are not to be blamed Rajan...”  and began wandering with the trident edge and kept his penance continuously. He was famously called and eulogized by all as ‘Ani Mandavya’ (Mandavya with trident).

THE CURSE TO LORD YAMA :

The sage was not angry with the King but was definitely surprised as to why he, such a Dharmic person was punished “As far as I remember, I havent done any crime. So, why did the Lord Punish me this way”.  These questions kept bothering the Sage.
So, the great Sage Mandvya met the God of Dharma, Lord Yama and asked
“Hey DharamaRaja, Lord Yama, be kind enough to let me know the reason, I had to go through such a harsh punishment. I did not commit any heinous crime, atleast in this janma. And I would like to know from your records, if I did anything in my previous janma, and if it was my prarabda karma. “

The Lord of Death replied, ‘When you were in your childhood you had inserted the sharp darbha (kusa grass in Sanskrit) grass into the tails of insects. Just as a small gift to someone increases religious merit manifold, a small sin will also multiply manifold and served to the same person.  Hence, I have imposed this punishment upon you “

The shocked and surprised saged asked…”I never remember hurting anyone, even an insect. When was this”?  Lord Yama replied “when you were a child”.

Mandavya was furious and disagreed with the logic and reasoning of the God of Dharma.

He argued “Even the  scriptures does not consider any sinful act committed upto the age of 12 as punishable and you being, Lord of Dharma, have committed injustice and meted out punishment which is disappropriate to the act. The law, after all, should be ethical and amenable to reason. Any unrighteous act (adharma) committed during the ignorant childhood age should not attract punishment.” Saying this, the Sage cursed the God of Dharma to born on to a Slave Woman.

 And then with his power of tapas, he ordained that ‘no child below 14 shall attract sin for its done in innocence without knowing consequences'

Later on the God of Dharma was born as Vidura, brother of Dhritarashtra and Pandu Maharaja.

LEARNINGS :
1. Pain is to the body and not to the soul.

2. Mistakes done unknowingly should be pardoned.

3. Never punish someone without doing proper analysis and investigation.

TEMPLES ASSOCITED WITH THE GREAT RISHI MANDAVYA:

Mandya in Karnataka owes its name to Rishi Mandavya. The Great sage did his penance here.

Once King Indravarma (1001A.D.) who did not have any children asked Mandavya Rishi for guidance, the sage advised him to build a temple for Sri Janardhana Swamy and Lakshmi devi. The King soon had a baby boy.

The Temple is very famous today as SRI LAXMI JANARDHANA TEMPLE. 


Couples who don’t have children come here and pray for a child and they do get blessed with progeny. 
Hence the Lord is also called as MAKKALA JANARDHANA.

Mandavya Rishi taught Veda to even all the Wild Animals around him. Hence, the forest in which he did his penance is called VEDARANYA (FOREST OF THE VEDAS). The area around Mandya was earlier known as Vedaranya.

VASANTA VALLABHRAYA TEMPLE in Bangalore was built by Mandavya Rishi.

The temple is more than a thousand years old. The legend (sthalapurana) associated with the temple is that it was established (pratishtha) by the sage Mandavya.

Once upon a time, the disciples of Mandavya found him missing from his ashrama. Mandavya settled down in Vasantapura, meditating. It is also believed that if someone unable to go to Tirupati visits the Vasantapura temple, they get an equivalent amount of benefit (punya) from the visit.

The Shiva Linga inside  Someshwara swamy temple in Ulsoor, Bangalore was also worshipped by Mandvaya Rishi.

The Main Deity in the RANGANATHA SWAMY TEMPLE in MAGADI as also installed by Mandavya Rishi.

Source :

MAHABHARATHA  and other scriptures

Stanza 20
mān
dṛṛ
avya-śāpād bhagavān
  ṁ prajā-sa yamano yamah ṛ
bhrātuh
ṛ
ks
etre bhujis ṛ yāyā ṛ ṁ
 jātah satyavatī-sutāt

Regards, 
Srikanth Matrubai


Srikanth Matrubai Author of the Amazon Best Seller DON'T RETIRE RICH

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WHY SHAMMI TREE LEAVES EXCAHNGED ON VIJAYA DASAMI ?

This is the story of KAUTSA MUNI.

When he was a young boy, KAUTSA MUNI was sent to RISHI VARTANTU for higher education.

KAUTSA being a brilliant student soon learnt all the 14 Vidyas from RISHI VARTANTU and became expert in all the sciences.

On completion of his education, KAUTSA, now a MUNI…..KAUTSA MUNI expressed his desire to give his RISHI VARTANTU, his guru, GURU DAKSHINA.

RISHI VARTANTU was having none of it and rejected the offering saying “You learnt all the vidyas with utmost faith, implement them, that itself will be my GURU DAKSHINA”

But, KAUTSA MUNI was adamant on giving Dakshina as he felt that otherwise the knowledge he learnt will not bear any fruit.

On seeing his disciple’s insistence, annoyed and unhappy RISHI VARTANTU reluctantly agreed and knew that KAUTSA MUNI was from a extremely poor background, deliberately asked KAUTSA MUNI to bring 14 CRORES of GOLD COINS (1 CRORE for each of the 14 Vidyas) with the condition that all the coins must be from the SAME PLACE.

KAUTSA MUNI was stumped and didn’t have a clue how to get such a huge number of GOLD COINS that too from a single place.

After meeting many learned persons, he felt that meeting KING RAGHU of Ayodhya (LORD RAMA’s ancestor) would get him his desired GOLD COINS.

KING RAGHU was famous for his generosity.

KING RAGHU welcomed KAUTSA MUNI warmly and washed his feet with water filled in CLAY POT.

Seeing this, KAUTSA hesitantly informs KING RAGHU “Rajan, I had come here to ask you for 14 CRORES of GOLD COINS to pay GURU DAKSHINA to RISHI VARTANTU, but seeing that you don’t even have a GOLD POT to wash a Rishi’s feet, I better move”

KING RAGHU had just spent his entire treasury on doing the VISWAJIT YAGNA and didn’t have any money but the KING  didn’t want a Brahmin to leave empty handed. He requested 2 days time from KAUTSA to arrange for the GOLD COINS.

After deep thought, KING RAGHU felt that attacking KUBERA, the king of Wealth was the best way to get the required 14 CRORE GOLD COIN.

Accordingly, On advise of KAUTSA MUNI, the King RAGHU decided that the war would be fought on SHUDH NAVAMI of Ashwin Masa (9^th day of Dasara).

But, KUBERA realizing the strength and bravery of KING RAGHU himself came down to earth, and told KING RAGHU “Raja, I have filled the SHAMMI tree (BANNI tree) on the outskirts of AYADHYA with GOLD COINS. Take as many as you want”.

KING RAGHU handed over all the Gold coins to KAUTSA MUNI. 

KAUTSA MUNI then went and offered all the GOLD COINS to his guru RISHI VARTANTU.

RISHI VARTANTU found that KAUTSA had bought far more extra GOLD COINS than the 14 CRORE asked for.
He returned all the extra coins to KAUTSA MUNI. 

In turn, KAUTSA MUNI returned all the extra coins to KING RAGHU.

KING RAGHU didn’t want to take back what was given in charity and hence he went back to the SHAMMI TREE on the outskirts of AYODHYA and kept  all the remaining GOLD COINS under the same tree. 

The people of AYODHYA after the VIJAYA DASHMI pooja went to this SHAMMI tree, worshipped it and exchanged GOLD COINS amongst themselves.

The tradition continues to this day.
People on the VIJAYA DASHAMI day worship the SHAMMI tree and exchange the leaves of the tree symbolizing the exchange of GOLD COINS and express happiness.

HIDDEN MEANING :
Share what you have.

Exchange leaves, hearts and be happy.

King Raghu had become virtually penniless after VISHWAJIT YAGNA but still he did not keep anything for himself but kept the GOLD COINS returned by KAUTSA MUNI back into the SHAMMI TREE

The Soul stirring story of Lord Pundalik Maharaj

Sant Pundalik Maharaj was the Saint who made even the LORD VISHNU/KRISHNA/VITTALA  wait and actually got boon for this!
Yes...Its truly an amazing story.
Here it goes...

Pundalik was born around 5th Century.

Pundalik was a self-indulgent person who cared for himself more than anyone else in the World. 

He was living with his wife and parents in a dense forest called Dindirvan.
His parents were great devotees of Lord Krishna. 

After his marriage, influenced by his wife...he started to ill-treat his parents very much.
The ill-treatment was so much that his Parents decided to go on a Pilgrimage to KASHI to escape Pundalik and his wife's treachery.  

When Pundalik’s wife learnt about this, she forced Pundalik to join the old couple and both Pundalik and his wife  joined the old couple along with a  group of pilgrims on horseback.

The Old Couple instead of escaping from ill-treatment actually started receiving more punishment from Pundalik and his wife during the whole journey.
While the son and his wife rode on horseback, the old couple walked.

During the journey, when the Party of this Pilgrims camped for night, Pundalik forced his parents to groom his horse and do other jobs and took DEEP SLEEP himself. The Poor parents were left cursing the day they had decided to go on a Pilgrimage.

HOW THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUNDALIK HAPPENED : 

Soon, the Party reached the Ashram of the Great Sage, KUKKUTSWAMI.
The Team decided to spend a couple of nights in the Ashram.

All the members in the Party were very tired after the long journey and feel asleep immediately. Somehow Pundalik was not able to get sleep. As he was tossing and turning in his bed....he noticed a strange thing.

Just before Day-break, he saw a Group of 3 Beautiful Young Women, who were dressed in Dirty clothes, enter the Ashram.
They cleaned the floor of the Ashram, fetched Water and washed the Sage’s clothes. They entered the Inner Room of the Ashram and when they came out....their dirty clothes had turned into beautifully clean clothes.

And passing by Pundalik, they just vanished in thin Air.

Pundalik was shocked by the what he had seen. But he kept the matter to himself.

Next night, strangely, he saw the same sight again.
The same 3 women came in Dirty clothes, washed the Sage’s clothers, fetched the water, cleaned the Floor of the Ashram and as soon as they came out of the Inner Room of the Ashram...their clothes had turned once again into clean and beautiful clothes.

Pundalik could not resist himself and threw himself at the women’s feet and begged them to tell who they were.
One Women said “We are Ganga, Yamuna and all the Holy rivers”. “People take a dip and bath in us to wash away their sins. The impurity of their mind, body and soul makes us dirty. That’s why you see our clothers in such dirty condition”.

Pundalik was amazed with their answer..

Pundalik wondered how a saint like Kukkut who had not visited Kashi was such holy and powerful that the three holy rivers came down to purify his ashram.


The three women, reading Pundalik’s mind told him “Spirituality, Devotion, Piety does not depend on visiting Holy Places or doing Pooja/rituals but in performing one’s Karma.”

Sage Kukkutswami had served and nursed his parents with utmost devotion all his life. He thus has accumulated enough PUNYA to earn MOKSHA and bring us, the 3 rivers, down the earth to serve him”.

Turning red with anger, they continued “But, you, Pundalik, are the biggest sinner of all because of the way you treat your Parents” and looked at him scornfully.

It was a shocker and a rude awakening for Pundalik. This brought a Transformation in Pundalik’s thinking and attitude.
He decided to take care of his old parents before everything else, even God and started serving with utmost devotion and care.

The tide had turned.

Pundalik managed to convince his wife too to start caring for his parents.

Immediately, from the next day, the Parents rode the Horses while Pundalik and his wife walked by their side.

Pundalik started to massage his parents feets when they were sleeping. The Parents were thrilled and seeing the change in Pundalik and his wife, decided to return back to Dindirvan.

ANOTHER PART OF THE STORY :
One day it so happened that Lord Krishna, the King of Dwarka, while feeling lonely, was reminded of his early days in Mathura. He particularly remembered his sports with the milkmaids, the cowherd boys, and his love, Radha. Though she was dead, he longed to see her again. By his divine powers he brought her back to life and seated her by his side. Just then his queen, Rukmini, entered the room. When Radha did not rise to pay her respect, Rukmini left Dwarka in anger and hid herself in Dindirvan forest. Later, Lord Krishna set off in search of Rukmini. He first went to Mathura, then to Gokul. He met the milkmaids and cowherd boys. They too joined in the search. They went to Mount Govardhan in her search.
At last they reached the banks of the river Bhima or Chandrabhaga in the Deccan. Krishna left his companions at Goplapura, and he himself entered Dindirvan forest alone in search of her. At last he found her and managed to calm her.

LORD VISITS PUNDALIK

Since he was in Dindirvan and Sage Narada was singing praises of Pundalik’s devotion to his parents, the Lord decided to visit Pundalik’s house.

But, when he went to his house, Pundalik was busy massaging his father’s feet.
The Lord called Pundalik and said “Pundalik, I am Lord Krishna. Come outside”
Pundalik could see that it was indeed the Lord who was outside but for him now, it was his parents who were supreme even than the Lord.
He wanted to finish his duties and then attend the Lord. Pundalik had reached such a stage, it did not matter that it was the Lord himself standing. All that mattered was his service to his parents.

Pundalik observed that the floor where Lord Krishna was standing was wet. Hence, he threw a brick outside for lord Krishna to stand upon and said "Please stand on the Brick, my Lord. I will finish my duty to my father and come to you". 

Impressed by Pundalik’s devotion to his parents, Lord Krishna did not mind the delay. Standing on the brick he waited for Pundalik. When Pundalik came out and begged God’s pardon
 

Lord Krishna replied that far from being displeased, he was pleased with his love for his parents.
Moved by this devotion of Pundalik to his parents Lord Krishna blessed him and asked him to ask a boon.
Pundalik asked that the Lord should remain on earth and bless and take care of his devotees.
Lord Krishna agreed to stay there and is known as Vithoba or the Lord who stands on a brick.
The present deity of Panduranga is in this posture, that of a small boy waiting patiently on a piece of brick. The hands on the hip actually reflects the boyish nature of Lord Krishna.
This form of the Lord Vithoba is Swayambhu which means that his idol has not been carved or etched but it came into existence on its own.
Pundalika Temple:

The Pundalika Temple is about half a km from the Vitthala Temple. This temple marks the spot where Pundalika, the Lord’s devotee, spent the last years of his life and also is place of his Samadhi. It is on the riverbank of Chandrabhaga.

INNER PEACE

*The Beggar King*

A great flood threatened a city in olden times. The waters were up to the palace doors. The king and the queen in the interest of the prince's safety put the baby in a basket to prevent it from drowning. Unfortunately, in the confusion that followed, they lost sight of the baby's basket.

The crown prince was separated from his parents. The basket with the baby prince went far with the flooding waters and finally ended up near the home of a poor family. They took care of the baby the best they could; no one knew that he was the crown prince. The prince was raised in poverty and as a beggar in the street. For a livelihood, the prince would spend most of the day begging; he too, did not know that he was really the crown prince. Thus, he would become happy if someone gave him something to eat or some money, and would be sad if he did not get any food or money from begging.
Now, the prince had a birthmark that the king and queen knew of. They searched high and low through the kingdom discreetly for a person with that birthmark. Luckily, after many years they finally found the prince, raised as a beggar. Suddenly the beggar's life changed. He was well cared for, educated, and raised to be the next king. He was very happy, as now he spent his time in luxury and learning from the best. A few years later, the king died and the prince was crowned king. He ruled his subjects well.

One day, the beggar prince who turned king, was thinking about his life; he reflected where his life had taken him. Suddenly, he felt like going back to the street and begging, just for the experience of it. So disguised as beggar, he went begging for a day. Just like before, some people gave him money or food, and some people did not.
However, this time he did not feel anything if he got anything or not from begging. Whether people gave him money or not, he continued to be at peace, because inside the disguise he knew he was the king.

*Moral:* This story teaches us about who we really are. Each of us is a child of God; God’s Blissful soul is in each of us. However, we do not realize it and do not feel Bliss. When something bad happens to us, we feel bad; when something good happens to us, we feel happy. In life, something good or bad will always happen to us.
However, if we want to be Blissful all the time, we have to do spiritual practice, that is, realize that we are God’s children with His Blissful soul in us. Then, we will live like the beggar king in this story.

The Temple to Hell!!

This Is The Temple Where Indians Are 'Hell' Scared To Go. Here's The Reason Why. Would You Visit It?

There is one temple in this world where every person on this Earth has to visit, if not in life, then after death. This temple is of Yamraj, situated in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. The place is called Bharmour.

The temple here looks more like a home. Many people fear to go inside it, and just pray from outside and leave. The reason is, according to legend, the god of death, Yamraj, lives in this temple. And this is also the only place in the world dedicated to this god!

One room inside this temple is dedicated to Chitragupta, who is considered the secretary of Yamraj, and keeps an account of all the good and bad karmas of a person. It is said that after death, every soul is first brought to this place, before proceeding its journey further. People believe that the temple has four invisible doors made of gold, silver, bronze and iron. Yamraj decides which soul should pass through which door.The religious text of Garud Puran also talks about such 4 doors through which every soul has to pass post death.To decide that, the soul is presented before Chitragupta, who gives a description of a person's sins and good deeds. For this job, Chitragupta takes the help of God Shravan, the son of Lord Brahma. It is believed that Shravan knows everything about heaven, hell and Earth as he can hear and see people clearly living on Earth.

His wives are famous by the name of Shravani. They understand a woman’s nature very well.

Karma & its effects

Karma and Retribution.😊🙏🏼😊

Once there was a king who distributed food to the brahmanas.
One day, as he was giving out food to the priests, an eagle flew above holding a dead snake in his claws.
Out of the mouth of the dead snake fell a drop of poison into the food that the king was distributing.
No one knew or saw that this had happened, so the king continued distributing the food.
The Brahmin who accidentally got the poisoned food from king died, and the king was feeling very sad about it.

Chitragupta, one of the assistants of Yamaraj (the god of death) who had the job of assigning retribution for karmas to the living beings had a problem.
When this incident with the king and the poisoned food happened, he did not know who to give the karma to.After all, it was not the eagle's fault that it had carried the dead snake in its claws (since this was its food), nor was it the dead's snake fault, nor was it the king's fault because he did not know that the poison fell into the food.
So Chitragupta went to Yamaraj for a solution. Yamaraj told him to wait patiently. Soon a solution would present itself, the lord of death assured him.

One day, few other brahmanas entered the kingdom in order to meet the king.A woman was sitting next to the road, selling wares and they asked her: "Do you know where the king's palace is and how we can get there?"She said: "Yes," and pointed at the right direction. "But, be very careful," she said, "the king is known to kill brahmanas!"
The moment she said that and criticized the king unrightfully, Chitragupta got his answer.He decided to give HER the karma for the death of the brahmana!

Moral of the story:
If you criticize anyone and you are right about their deeds, you will get half of their bad karma.But, if you criticize someone and you are not right about their deeds, then you will get 100% of their karma.So be careful about what you think or say about other people.- Srimad Bhagavatam (5.10.17)

As you Sow, so shall you Reap

A  small  story which beautifully illustrates that what you sow, you reap.

"Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  small time  business  man  from  a  small  village who  used  to  sell butter  in  the  nearby town. 
A  big  shop  owner  in  the  town  was his  regular  customer.

The  villager  used  to  deliver  every  month the  shop  owner  the  required  butter  in  1 Kg. 
Blocks  and  in turn  he  used  to  get grocery  items  like  sugar,  pulses  etc  from the  big  shop  owner.

Once  the  shop  owner  decided  to  weigh the  butter  and  to  his  surprise  every  block of  butter weighed  900  gms.  instead  of  1kg.

Next  month  when  the  villager  came  to supply   Butter,  the  shop  owner  was  very angry  at  him  and told  to  leave  the  shop, to  this  the  villager  replied  him  courteously

"Sir,  I  am  a  very  poor  villager,
I  don't  have  enough  money to 
even  buy the required weights for  weighing  the butter, I usually put the  1Kg  sugar  you give me on one side of  Weighing scale and weigh butter on  another side"

This beautifully illustrates that what  we give to others comes back to us👍

Amazing Circle of life

Prayers are ALWAYS Answered

A truly beautiful story :

      During World War II, a soldier was separated from his unit on an island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his comrades.

      Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves.

      Although safe for the moment, he realised that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and would be killed.

      As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, please spare my life. Whatever will happen, I love you and trust you. Amen." After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close.

      He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave. "Hah" he thought, "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humour. "

      As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hide out and could see them searching one cave after another.

      As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand, but then he heard the leader of the soldiers say, "You may as well ignore looking in this cave....if he had entered here this web would be broken!" So they left and he was delivered!

      To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly he realised that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.

     "Lord, forgive me," he prayed. "I had forgotten that in you a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."

God's ways are not our ways, God's thoughts are not our thoughts.. He will neither leave us nor forsake us..
Let's trust in God always!!

(Sometimes a prayer doesn't change the situation.
But it changes our attitudes towards the situation
And gives us hope which changes our entire life).

There are no "Accidents"

Dr.Mark, a well-known cancer specialist, was once on his way to an important conference in another city where he was going to be granted an award in the field of medical research.

He was very excited to attend the conference and was desperate to reach as soon as possible. He had worked long and hard on his research and felt his efforts deserved the award he was about to obtain.

However, two hours after the plane took off, the plane made an emergency landing at the nearest airport due to some technical snag. Afraid, that he wouldn't make it in time for the conference, Dr. Mark immediately went to the reception and found that the next flight to the destination was after ten hours. The receptionist suggested him, to rent a car and drive himself down to the conference city which was only four hours away.

Having no other choice, he agreed to the idea despite his hatred for driving long distances.
Dr. Mark rented a car and started his journey. However, soon after he left, the weather suddenly changed and a heavy storm began. The pouring rain made it very difficult for him to see and he missed a turn he was supposed to take.

After two hours of driving, he was convinced he was lost. Driving in the heavy rain on a deserted road, feeling hungry and tired, he frantically began to look for any sign of civilization. After some time, he finally came across a small tattered house. Desperate, he got out of the car and knocked on the door. A beautiful lady opened the door. He explained the matter and asked her if he could use her telephone.
However, the lady told him that she doesn't have a phone or any electronic gadget but told the doctor to come inside and wait till the weather improved.
Hungry, wet and exhausted, the doctor accepted her kind offer and walked in. The lady  gave him hot tea and something to eat. The lady told him that he can join her for prayer. But, Dr. Mark smiled and said that he believed in hard work only and told her to continue with her prayers.
Sitting on the table and  sipping the tea, the doctor watched the woman in the dim light of candles as she prayed next to what appeared to be a small baby crib.

Every time she finished a prayer, she would start another one. Feeling that the woman might be in need of help, the doctor seized the opportunity to speak as soon as she finished her prayers. The doctor asked her what exactly she wanted from the God and enquired if she thought God will ever listen to her prayers. He further asked about the small child in the crib for whom she was apparently praying. The lady gave a sad smile and said that the child in the crib is her son who is suffering from a rare type of cancer and there is only one doctor Mark who can cure him but she doesn't have money to afford his fee and moreover Dr Mark lives in another far off town. She said that God has not answered her prayer so far but said that God will create some way out one day and added that she will not allow her fears to overcome her faith.

Stunned and speechless Dr Mark was in tears which were rolling down his cheeks. He whispered, God is great and recollected the sequence of events. ....there was malfunction in the plane, a thunderstorm hit, and he lost his way; and all of this happened because God did not just answer her prayer but also gave him a chance to come out of materialistic world and give some time to the poor hopeless people who have nothing but rich prayers.


 Always be prepared to do .......
What God has prepared you for


" There are No Accidents in Life