Inscrutable are the Ways of Divine

Human mind is just incapable of understanding how destiny works

There was a beautiful Krishna temple in a village.  The allbeloved and blue hued Lord Krishna stood gracefully with a flute on his lips. Numerous devotees used to visit the temple for regular worship. A sweeper employee of the temple was regularly observing the steady stream of devotees. He felt that the Lord constantly standing with a smile on his face for blessing the devotees was a strain for Krishna. He felt concerned that the Lord never took any rest and was ever standing only for the benefit of the devotees. One day, when he found himself alone in the sanctum of the temple, he gently asked the Lord with great sincerity whether he could relieve the Lord of His fatigue. With his usual smile, Krishna asked him how he could do that. The sweeper told the Lord that if the Lord would change Himself into the appearance of the sweeper, and interchange the sweeper into the appearance of the Lord, he could take the Lord's place in the temple for a day and thus give Him some rest!

The Lord smilingly agreed, but told the sweeper a condition. The sweeper, in the place of the Lord, should be strictly silent and not interfere in anything that happened before him. In other words, the sweeper should agree to just remain a silent witness. The sweeper agreed, and they changed their respective appearances and positions.

Later that day, a rich man came to the temple, and placed his fat briefcase containing cash on the ground. He prayed to the Lord to bless him in his business ventures and left the temple, forgetting the briefcase Soon after, a poor, sincere devotee came to the temple, and prayed to the Lord. He offered a single rupee coin that he had with him, and prayed with closed eyes for better times for him and his family who were in dire poverty.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the briefcase in front of him, and was convinced that this was God's gift to him in answer to his prayer, and left the temple with the suitcase.

A little later, a sailor came and prayed to the Lord to bless him before he left on a long  voyage. As he was praying, the businessman who had forgotten the suitcase arrived there with a policeman, and asked the policeman to arrest the sailor, saying he was convinced that the sailor had stolen his briefcase. The sailor protested, but the policeman refused to believe

him. The sweeper, standing on the pedestal in the sanctum in the place of the Lord, felt sad and compelled to protect the innocent sailor. So, he announced that the sailor was not the thief. The startled policeman and businessman thought that this was some trick played by the sailor, and they felt more convinced that he was the thief, and he was arrested.

At the end of the day, the Lord returned and swapped the places with the sweeper, and asked him how the day had passed. The sweeper then related the happenings of the day, and how the sailor had been wrongly arrested.

The Lord asked the sweeper if he did not trust the divine force fully. Krishna explained that the businessman's money was obtained by unfair means, but the poor man was very sincere and offered the only rupee he had to the Lord. The sailor was destined to die due to bad weather had he left on his voyage, but now he was safely in jail, and he would soon be set free once the policeman found that he was nowhere to blame for the theft. The Lord told  the sweeper that His divine plan covered everything in the universe,  and that if one did his own duty well with total faith in the Lord, everything would be well. 

Success be to the sons of Pandu on whose side is Janardana. Where Krishna is, there is justice, and where there is justice, victory prevails.

-        Anuradha Sundara Raman