Unfathomable

I was planning a trip to Thailand with my family on 23rd November, 2009 and the booking for the same was done two months in advance. As providence would have it, my knee surgery was fixed on 23rd November, 2009. The trip was cancelled. Man proposes,God disposes.

I was sharing this uncanny coincidence and my experience to Ramu, a good friend of mine. He narrated a story which says it all. A king took along his able minister and the retinue for hunting. Accidentally, the king lost the phalanx of his first finger and was very unhappy. His able minister consoled the king saying that things happen for the good. The king flew into rage and sent him to jail.

Some time later, the king again ventured into the deep jungle for hunting and lost his way. He wandered alone and, as cruel fate would have it, was captured by tribals who were making preparations for human sacrifice. The tribals were happy and they decided to propiate their God by offering the body of the king as ‘human sacrifice’. The king was readied and on examination was found to have lost a part of his finger. The chieftain of the tribe was unhappy since a full and complete offering, (Poorna Ahuti) without any part of the body missing, was to be made to the Jungle God . The king was thus released and his life was saved.

On returning to his kingdom, remembering what his able minister had said, the king immediately ordered his release. The king narrated the incident to his minister and profusely thanked him for saving his life and also apologized for sending him to jail. The minister thanked the king for sending him to jail and said ‘ if your Honour had not sent me to jail, I would have accompanied your Honour to the jungle and I would have been the full and complete offering to the Jungle God’.

My life experience has always shown that things happen for a reason and always happen for the good. This may be true of the cancellation of my Thailand trip too.