At The Temple

Sometime back, I went to the Balaji temple at Nerul in Navi Mumbai along with my family and some relatives.

As I closed my eyes in prayer I saw a child, perhaps three or four years old. What struck me about the child was a particular look in his eyes, perhaps a vacant look. As soon as I opened my eyes, I again saw the same child. I have seen enough of these looks to understand that the child had some kind of a mental problem.

I could not help feeling relieved at that point. My son Sanjiv who was two years old at that time was playing in the background with some relatives. My wife was praying. Suddenly my mind went back to the time when my wife was carrying my son. At that point, I was very apprehensive that my child to be born would have some mental deformity. There was no reason for me to think thus but I was totally apprehensive. I even contemplated doing some tests to ascertain whether this was indeed the case till my wife
put her foot down.

Suddenly I could not help feeling blessed in life. My son is a normal kid, my domestic life is good and my job is well pretty good too. What was I really complaining about? Here are persons in life who carry a cross not knowing what the destination is many times.

A few minutes earlier, I had seen another child around Sanjiv’s age with whom he was trying to get friendly. I could not help noticing that the child had a protruding belly-the result of malnutrition.

I suddenly realized that as I waited for the priest to open the curtains, that would help us glimpse the deity, that life is quite good after all. In a country of a billion people in which half the population lived below the poverty line cribbing about relatively minor professional and personal problems was tantamount to a crime if not a sin.

I realized then that life is not about the constant search for more but one had to practise contentment too. This alone would lead to happiness. As the priest rolled up the curtains, I bowed my head in thanksgiving to the lord. Perhaps such an important lesson could have been learnt only at a temple.