Victory of Faith

There was a drought in a village. There had been no rain for almost a year and a half. The soil had dried up and started cracking. Cultivation had stopped. The people there were anxious for even a drop of rain.

One day, the village headman organized a meeting. Everyone in the village attended. Discussions began on how to get out of this danger. Everyone thought that the village goddess was unhappy with the villagers for some reason, which is why this situation was like this. Only if the goddess could be appeased would rain come.

After such a discussion, they went to the priest of the village temple. After hearing everything, the priest gave a ruling. He said that on the next full moon day, a yagna would be performed in the village field. Every person in the village would have to be present at that yagna, and everyone would have to offer fruits, flowers, etc. to the fire of the yagna. Only then would the goddess be pleased and give rain.

Four days later, it was full moon. Everyone in the village came to the field with flowers, fruits, and puja items. The priest called the goddess at the auspicious moment, chanted the Vedic mantras and started the yajna. Everyone in the village participated in the yajna. One by one, everyone kept offering flowers, fruits, and offerings to the goddess.

The yajna continued for several hours, but there was no sign of a cloud in the sky. The sun continued to shine like every day. After a while, the yajna was about to end, but seeing no change in the weather, one of the priests said, "Thakur Mashai, there is no sign of a cloud in the sky. It seems that the goddess did not accept this puja, we offered the sacrifice in vain."

The priest said, there must have been a mistake. I had asked everyone in the village, children, old people, women, men, to come and offer the sacrifice. It seems that the conditions of the yajna were not fulfilled, there was someone who did not offer the sacrifice.

Whispers could be heard in the crowd. Everyone checked whether the entire family had come. Then a woman said, "Thakur Mashai, my son did not come to offer the sacrifice."

Go and call him, said the priest.

At that time, everyone saw a seven-eight year old boy running from a distance. He had a plate in his hand, which had some fruits. The most surprising thing was that he had an umbrella under his arm.

As soon as the boy came closer, the village head scolded him and said, "What the hell, where have you been? This sacrifice is going to fail because of you. Everyone's sacrifice has failed."

The boy said, "I went to the neighboring village to bring flowers. I was coming straight here with flowers. Then I remembered, it will rain as soon as the sacrifice is over, let me see if my mother took the umbrella." So I went back to the house. When I went, I saw that my mother had not taken the umbrella. That is why it was too late to bring the umbrella.

The head shouted, "You fool, do you think that just by offering the sacrifice, the rain will come?"

At that time, the priest said, "Chief, let him offer the sacrifice in the yajna, may the intention of the yajna be fulfilled."

As the priest said, the boy approached the goddess. He gave the umbrella to his mother, respectfully offered flowers to the village goddess, and offered the sacrifice in the yajna-kund. And then everyone saw that in an instant, the sky became cloudy, lightning started flashing, and rain began to fall in torrents.

The people of the village danced. They started praising the goddess. On the other hand, the chief started scolding the boy, "Look, it wasn't raining because of you. If you hadn't wasted time in bringing the umbrella, it would have started raining long ago."

Hearing this, the priest said, "This is not right. If he hadn't brought the umbrella, there wouldn't have been any rain. In fact, the goddess accepted the sacrifice of that boy alone in the entire village, and no one else. There was faith in his sacrifice, which none of you had. He believed that as soon as he offered the sacrifice, rain would come. If you had this faith, you would have also brought umbrellas. This is the victory of his faith.