Narada

The Hindu sage Narada started out on a pilgrimage to the temple of lord Vishnu. One night he stopped at a village and was given hospitality in the hut of a poor couple. Before he set out the next morning the man said to Narada, “You are going to Lord Vishnu. Ask him to give me and my wife a child, for it is many years now that we are childless.”

When Narada reached the temple, he said to the Lord, “that man and wife were kind to me. Be merciful to them grant them a child.” The lord replied, with an air of finality, “It is not in their destiny to have children.” So Narada performed his devotions and went back home.

Five years later, he set out on the same pilgrimage and stopped at the same village and was offered the same hospitality by the same couple. This time there were 2 little children playing at the entrance of the hut?

“Whose children are these?” asked Narada.

“Mine” said the man.

Narada was puzzled. The man went on, “soon after you left us 5 years ago, a holy mendicant came to our village. We put him up for the night. The next morning before departing, he blessed my wife and me..And the Lord gave us the gift of those two children.

When Narada heard this, he could not wait to get to the temple of Lord Vishnu again. And when he got there he shouted right from the entrance, “Did you not tell me that it was not in their destiny to have children?”

When the Lord heard this, he laughed aloud and said, “That must be the doing of a saint. Saints have power to change destiny.”

One is reminded of a wedding feast at which the mother of Jesus got him, through her prayers to work a miracle before his own destiny permitted it.

This story is to be read together with my previous posts…and my last Sunday’s reflexion. Thank you Anthony de Mello.