I remember an old folk story according to which there was a poor illiterate farmer who never prayed in his life. Somebody had told him that God will appear to everybody, once in his lifetime and grant one wish each. The farmer thought it to be true and patiently waited without ever praying until he got old. When he was old, he turned his head upwards and prayed, “Oh God, now you may show up.” As he thought God would do, God appeared before him.
“Why did you call me?” God asked him.
“Grant me the boon that I get everything I wish.”
“You will feel whatever you wish,” answered God and then disappeared behind the clouds, without even waiting for a note of gratitude. As the farmer began feeling manifestation of wishes one by one, thoughts of God presence filled his time. The story continued saying that he lived happily all his life. He never wanted anything more.
This story came to my mind when I happened to hear about a farmer by name Dashrath Majhi, who lived in a remote village in Bihar. His wife died without any treatment, because the nearest town with a Doctor was 70 km away from their village. Well, that could have been a far shorter distance, if not for a hill in between the village and the town. Dashrath did not want anyone else to suffer the same fate any more. He felt like walking through a short cut done at the hill. He did the unthinkable: Dashrath Manjhi's claim to fame has been the herculean task of single-handedly carving a 360-foot-long (110 m), 25-foot-high (7.6 m) and 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) road by cutting the mountain of Gehlour hills with a hammer, chisel and nails working day and night for 22 years from 1960 to 1982. This passage reduced the distance between Atri and Wazirganj blocks of Gaya district from 70 km to just 7 km. Feel what we wish is the first step towards manifestation of what one wished.
