That Smile of God!!!

It was the Year 1994. My elder brother was contesting an election and my mother has a vow (maanasika) before Lord Jagannath that we will put a flag in the Neela Chakra (the metal wheel at the top of Lord Jagannath temple is known as Neela Chakra; i.e. Blue Wheel in English) if the former wins the election. It’s a custom in the temple where the devotees get the chance to place a flag in the top of the temple. Actually, winning that election was not that easy as he was pitted against the brother-in-law of an influential political leader. Somehow, he won the election with a good margin and we were supposed to fulfill the vow made before the God.

We went to the temple accompanied by a contact person who has taken the responsibilities of all arrangements. While others were busy with the arrangement for the flag, I went inside the God’s place and had a darshan (an opportunity to see the image of the deity). It was crowded and was very difficult to have a proper darshan and somehow I have managed to view the God, but was completely dissatisfied.

When I came out, the person who was making the arrangements called me loudly and asked me to see how the flags offered by us would be flying. I only laughed at him as the person who was carrying the flags was actually carrying around 15/20 flags; including ours and of other devotees also. I asked him that how could we know which of those flags were offered by us? He was smiling and replied with conviction that we could see if we have faith on God.

Everyone has his/her ways of having faith on the unseen power, so I have decided not to start an argument with him and went on to have another darshan. By that time, the crowd had reduced allowing me to have a satisfying darshan of the God. Somehow, I felt that the God was smiling. Each of the devotees can vouch for the fact that the smile of Lord Jagannath is always divine, but that day I felt that he was smiling sarcastically at me. I was a bit amused.

When I came out of the main temple, that person again called me loudly and asked me to look at the top. The flags were flying and to my dismay, there were only two flags with yellow color. All the other flags were of red color. I must mention here that - we have offered two yellow color flags. The bigger one was for my brother and the smaller one was for the son of my uncle (mammu).

Call it a coincidence, belief or anything that you may like, but I could be able to resolve the mystery behind the sarcastic smile of the Lord. Probably, he was laughing at my stupidity of not having enough faith on my own devotion. Even today, whenever I do fold my hand before the God, I used to ask for forgiveness for all my foolishness and I can sense the charming smile with assurance that if one has enough faith on the God, he/she can always sense His presence everywhere.