We have heard and read that God is everywhere and in everything but He blesses us by visiting us. We are taught to prepare ourselves all our lives for this fabulous event. We perform our daily worship, visit temples, offer charity, meditate, do mantra, observe penances, etc., so that we are ready for that momentous moment. We never know when God visits us, so we need to be ready to receive Him at any time. Though we tell ourselves that we are always ready, we give greater importance to our daily routines and priority to our personal comforts. And when He does arrive, we are not there to receive Him. Later on we rush and look around only to see clear signs that He had arrived and left! Let us look at this story of the priests and their preparation for the visit of God:
There was a huge temple which was very famous and had a hundred priests to look after it and attend to the devout and visitors. One night the chief priest had a dream and God told him that He would visit their temple the next day. The chief priest did not believe his dream. He had dutifully performed his job in the temple for many decades and offered prayers and worship on behalf of the devout. He offered food and fruits to God and took them home to eat. He offered his prayers to God and seen them vanish into emptiness. For sure, it was just a dream. But what if that dream came true and God did come? He confided about this dream to other priests. They jeered at him but finally they all decided to clean up the temple and be ready just in case God did really turn up.
The entire temple and premises were thoroughly cleaned and decorated with flowers, flags and festoons. Lamps were lit everywhere and fragrant incense was burned. Sumptuous food was prepared and a variety of fruits and sweets were kept ready. All day long the priests keep looking at the road leading to the temple but God did not come. It was evening and they gave up hope. They decided to have the wonderful feast they prepared for God and all of them gorged on the delicious food. They laughed and joked: We know God is in the stone idol in the temple and we have been worshiping Him for years. Is He ever going to come?
After the heavy meal, they were all sleepy and went to bed early. At midnight, a chariot came to the gates and its sound was heard. One of the sleeping priests heard it and called out to others. The others mocked at him and said it was the rumbling of the clouds. They went back to sleep again. Then the sound of the chariot halting at the gate was heard and the sound of someone climbing up the steps of the temple and knocking at the door. Another priest who heard these sounds called out to his associates. They were angry with him for disturbing their sleep and said it was the sound of the wind knocking at the door.
The next morning the priests were astounded to see a few footsteps on the steps of the temple. There were also chariot wheel marks on the road and at the gate. The footprints on the steps were uncommon and unknown. The priests burst into tears and rolled on the ground where the chariot had halted. The entire village gathered at the temple gates hearing the wailing of the priests. The priests told them the truth: God had knocked on the door of the temple last night but we were comfortable in our beds and rationalized the sound of the wheels and the knocking for thunder and wind and slept away!
God knocks on the door of every home and heart. His grace visits us. But we keep our doors shut. Even when we hear a knock, we rationalize it and go back to sleep. The grace of God is available to all of us. We must make effort to keep the premises clean. We should keep a clean body, clean mind, pure thoughts, do mantra and meditate and be ready. This is in our hands. His Grace pours on us when He wants it so. When He comes, He comes on His own accord. So let us be ready to receive Him with our daily practices of SitaRam mantra, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru.
