King and the Priest : True Story

Lord Krishna in Bhagwat Geeta says"Madhbhaktva bhav" Be my true bhakt, Surrender to me I will absolve you from all sins and lead you to salvation.
Surrendering unconditionally to the Almighty is one way of expressing our confidence in the Divine. For faith works wonders. Faith is not just hoping and waiting for things to happens, rather it is working hard to make things happen and realizing that there are no failures just disappointments. When you have done your best Angels can do no better. God comes to the rescue of all those who surrender to him with full faith and belief in him. God does not differentiate between friends and foes, man and animal, caste and creed. He comes to the rescue of all those who surrender to him.

In Udaipur there is Chaturbhuj Swamiji's temple. In that temple a priest named Devaji used to stay. Everyday he used to do Aarti and prayers in the temple. He had become quite old. Once night time he cleaned the temple, completed Shayan Aarti and put God to rest and closed the temple door and went to sleep in his room.

After a few minutes he heard the sound of the King of Udaipur's carriage. The priest realized that the King of the city has come to pray in the temple. There were no malas(garland) left to put on the King as Thakurji's mala he had worn. Now he felt nervous, the priest did not know what to offer the king. He had become old and had grey hair. His hair got stuck in the mala. He could not decide what to do. Anyway he immediately removed mala from his neck as there were no other mala left and kept it aside for the king. The king knocked at the door of the temple. He opened the door for the King and offered him the mala which he had worn.

The King looked at the mala and said "why there are grey hair on the mala, has Thakurji grown old?" He replied "Yes" and did not know what to do. He was nervous.

The King gave a loud laugh and said"Oh! so now at this age you are telling lies. I will come tomorrow morning to see whether God has grey hair or black hair." Saying this king left the temple.

The priest had never faced this situation in his life. He had no intention to tell lies but since he had to offer something to King he offered him the garland which he had worn and this he did in a haste and due to nervousness.

Full night the priest prayed to God. He totally bowed and surrendered to Lord and wept bitterly in front of God's idol. He told God "I do your pooja very honestly. I do this to take care of my family as I have to feed many people in my family. I am your true bhakt. You know I have never spoken lies in my life. In the morning when the king comes what will be my condition, people will not respect me, they will make fun of me. The king will disown me and insult me. He may throw me out of the temple services. Whole Udaipur city people will collect,even people from nearby village who come to pray in this temple, will humiliate me. Please help me. Do something to save me from this humiliation." His whole body was trembling of fear of insult he would have to bear from the king in the morning.. He went on talking and begging mercy from God.

Morning when he opened the God's idol's door, he was shocked to see that idol's all the hair had turned grey. He could not believe his eyes, how can hair of a statue turn grey overnight.

The king entered the temple and said "Oh! so you have painted Thakurji hair into grey colour or brought from outside a wig or something of grey colour and put it on the God's idol. The priest was quiet. As per ritual the King washed Thakurji's feet and then tried to pull the hair from the idol to prove that the priest had spoken lie and to insult him for that and to see how the hair can turn grey. The king could not believe his eyes that when he tried to pull the hair, the face of God became little stiff and few blood stains fell on his clothes. The King became unconscious and fell on the ground.

The priest sprinkled water on the King, he got up. The king apologised to the priest and said "I came in haste and at wrong time, you had cleaned the temple and put God to rest and I disturbed you at this old age. I am extremely sorry for my mistake." The king appreciated the priest true bhakti and ordered that from now onwards anybody from king's palace would not visit the temple at night, specially when the door is closed and it is rest time for God and the priest. They have to inform in advance about their visits in the temple. Today also you will find in that temple Lord's hair is grey.