Vithal !

Hi gr8 day people!
The Topic seems weird? Of all the people I talking about Vithal :D ! For those who dont know, Vithal is a Hindu God's name. My mom has been using this as a slogan these days after reading a Marathi poem which appeared in the newspaper.
Ill translate the poem for you in English from the Marathi translation i heard.

There was a small prosperous village. It had beautiful countryside, mountains, river, forest, farms, school. There was a famous big Vithal temple there. The villagers worshiped Vithal religiously. The temple priest was a great devotee of Vithal & was working with his father on maintaining the temple & the deity since his childhood. He had not married nor was interested in anything else except serving His Vithal. He used to take lessons for school children in the temple grounds, teaching them schlokas & scriptures. The children were very fond of him. The village people, elders, heads of the village all respected the priest.

Once there was a flood in the village. The village farms, houses all were getting swept away in the flood.All the villagers were getting relocated to a safer place. But the priest stayed in the temple, praying to Vithal & said 'My Vithal will only save me'. The school children on seeing the priest still in the temple told him to come with them. But the priest didn't move. The villagers came & offered their help. Again the priest resisted saying the same thing 'My Vithal will help me'. The village heads came & requested him to come with them but to no vain.

Till now the temple was fully submerged except the roof-shikhar. The priest was sitting on the roof holding on to the tip of the temple. The water level was fast rising. Soon a rope came gliding by in the water. The priest saw it but didn't take it. Kept on chanting Vithal's name. Then later a boat came towards him from no-where without anyone sailing it, but still the priest didn't step into it. He was very adamant that His Vithal will surely save him. But soon the water reached beyond the temple peak too & the priest drowned & died.

On reaching heaven the first question he asked Vithal is: I have devoted my entire life to your service, selflessly worshiped & served you still you couldn't save me. What kind of god you are? Where did I fall short in my service?
Vithal just smiled & replied, Son I was there trying to help you but you didn't realize it.You were searching for a black stone made Vithal to come & save you. I was there in the form of the school children who were pleading with you to come with them. I was there in the form of the villagers, elders & heads who requested you. But you didnt see them, because all your life you have excepted God which is created by you all to come & help you. When the form of beings was over, I tried to come towards you in the form of rope & the boat, whose presence was never there. Still you claiming to be my biggest servers didn't see nor realize.

Son, I come to help each one of you in different shapes/forms/sizes/situations/conditions/... but you all are most of the time looking for something which you have in mind & thus miss many opportunities I try to throw at you.

Moral of the Story: We dream/intend/pray/... for things we want & have in mind a certain way/method/ to get them. The opportunities for these things come towards us in multiple ways, but since we are looking in the wrong or our predefined directions, miss them most of the times. So be alert & open to all situations/opportunities. Let your inner voice/intuitions tell you.

Open yourself to these opportunities.

Till then bye. T.c

P.S. Unfortunately we couldn't save the poem. If any of you come across it please let us know. We would like to keep a copy of it. Thanks in advance.