D=EFG: Kanakadhaara Sthothram
A young Frenchman was once shipwrecked. He managed to swim to a small island. He had to live on leaves, tubers and wild fruits. He had no human company, only birds, beasts and trees. After a month he could bear it no more. From the depth of his heart he prayed, "Oh God! If You are there somewhere as I am told You are, have mercy on me and help me." God was moved by his plight. Immediately He sent an angel to fulfil the young man’s desires. The angel asked the young man, "What do you want?" The young man was beside himself with joy. He promptly said, "I want the best meal in the world." The angel brought delicious dishes of various sorts and spread them on a beautifully decorated table. The fellow avidly threw himself on the food. When he had finished the angel said, "If you want anything else, ask for it quickly. I have to go back." The young man decided to have a beautiful woman as his wife. They would happily live on the island. He immediately answered, "I want the best woman in the world." The angel took sometime to decide who could be the best among the women of the world...whoosh!… there appeared a hoary woman saint.

The moral of the story: you must properly define the words you use to express your thoughts. Otherwise, others may understand the meaning quite differently from what you intend it to be. So let me precisely define Destiny (D), Effort (E), Fate (F) and God’s Grace (G) to convey clearly to you. ...

Please read the complete article in the print version of SPIRITUAL IMPRESSIONS
( Vol. 1 No. 4 Sep - Oct 2001)

... Sometimes the consequences may be postponed when God, in response to the earnest prayers of the devotee, feels that the devotee may be more mature in a later birth or time to bear the brunt of the consequences. In special cases when the purpose of a punishment (which is only to make the doer learn a lesson or two about the laws governing life) is served, the bad consequences may be cancelled or cut short. Rather than elaborating further on this, I prefer to recount a story based on an actual incident in the life of Adi Shankara, the great avatar of Lord Shiva and Advaita Acharya. This is the background story behind his composition of Kanakadhaara Sthothram This story beautifully illustrates the equation D = EFG....

O. P. Vidyakar