The Message

Recently, we were at Chintpurni temple, Himachal Pradesh. After a soul-filling darshan and prashad, we came back to our taxi via the usual markets selling memorabilia that every temple-goer in India is familiar with. My wife stopped over at a shop selling bangles and I was generally eying the shop. The 40+ shop keeper told her the price of various articles and as she became busy with the wares, he asked me to step in and sit down. Tired as I was, I accepted the offer readily. Out of politeness, I told him that we were from Chennai and were blessed to have a grand darshan at the temple. He smiled at me and asked:

Do you know the meaning of Maa's name (Chintpurni)?

Well, the one who fulfils our desires, I said. Widening his smile, he said that it is just the other way around.

"Kaam karo apna - ghar ke liye, bhacchon ke liye, daftar mein aur society ke liye. Saara chinta unko deido. Woh karegi chinta kyoon ki woh jaanti hai aap ko kya chahiye. Chinta bhi wohi karegi and poora bhi wohi karegi. Aap sirf apna kaam karo".  Do what your dharma is.

I just sat there looking at the shop keeper, spell bound and suddenly with so much reverence as I had felt in the temple. Perhaps tempting my wife to buy thrirty rupees worth of bangles was just Her way of making us understand the purpose of our life. She was teaching.

As Paulo Coelho says, signs and symbols are always present. We need Her grace to recognize and understand their meaning.