Just a call away !

Some incidents happen in our life which we cannot forget. Some memorable moments where we feel like we are reborn but do not have a valid explanation. What can we say about such moments? Are they illusion of our mind or has it really happened? I have to take you over to my childhood days when this incident actually happened.

It was summer vacation in my school and as usual I was persistently requesting my parents to take me to a new place. They were kind enough to fulfill my request and they booked our tickets to Puri, Orissa. We were going to spend one week of time in Orissa to visit various places and the beach ! I was 8yrs old but I still remember that day. We had visited the famous Lord Jagganath temple in Puri. This place is famous for its annual rath yatra in which the three main temple deities are hauled on decorated chariots. After visiting the temple and praying to lord jagannatha we decided to go to the beach for sometime and spend the evening.

It was a very wonderful day with lots of sunshine, birds were chirping and the cool breeze near the ocean was very pleasant. The whole atmosphere near the Puri beach was alluring. This is one of the best beach destination in the eastern coastline of India. I decided to make a palace with the mud near the shores and I got busy with that activity. My father decided to take a holy dip in the ocean and then swim amidst the ocean waves.

By the end of the evening, it started getting dark and the ocean waves were raging. We could absolutely hear the roaring sound of the waves even if you are near the shores. By this time me and My mom were tired with building my mud palace. We started looking for my Dad but we couldn't see him anywhere. My mom started panicking and she started screaming for my dad. I was a child and when I saw my mom in this situation I started crying very badly. It was difficult for my mom to manage me and handle the situation. At a distance inside the ocean we saw him waving his hands to us. He didn't realize much but he went bit deep inside the ocean where the waves had actually start forming. Those waves were full of rage and my father was getting pushed back by the waves. He made his best attempts of swimming but he couldn't succeed in front of these waves. Meanwhile me and my mom were screaming at the top of our lungs. My mom requested nearby people to go and help him to come out. But those people didn't know swimming either. Moreover, it was getting dark so people were going back to their hotels.

After around twenty minutes of trying my father almost lost his hope of coming back and he was actually getting drowned slowly in the ocean water. At this moment me and my mom didn't know what to do and we started praying to Lord Jagannatha. We left all our hopes to him and started chanting the divine songs and shlokas. My mom started requesting to the lord "Hey Lord, we came here with lot of hopes and getting blessed from you. Please save my husband. We don't know whom to approach at this peek time. Please dear Lord, if at all our prayers are reaching you, then save my husband !". Even my father who was struggling to come out of the ocean started to pray to the Lord and for a min he didn't do much efforts to come out of the ocean as he thought that he won't be able to reach the shore now. Of course his prayers were different than ours. He prayed for our well being after his departure. We both closed our eyes and were praying to the sun and to the Lord. But my father who was still the water experienced a sudden jerk to his body. It was kind of like a little push that encouraged him to fight back with the waves. He was suddenly pulled towards the shores by wind or by his own efforts, it was not clear. But in few moments the waves themselves starting pushing my father towards the shores and the whole story was different now.

Was it by chance? Was it fate? Or was it the dear Lord himself? All we could say is that finding God is never so easier. But we realized that when we actually experience the presence of God, our lives become perfect. We all hugged each other and I couldn't stop crying. When we opened our eyes we didn't find God, but we knew that he was there standing with us near the ocean - Smiling and saying "Whenever you need me, I am just a call away !"

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Image courtesy - Makemytrip