THE WHOLEHEARTED AND COMPLETE FAITH
Once there was a priest. He used to travel far and wide to deliver sermons. He would read out the Bible to the people, exhort them to say their prayers and also tell them how to pray properly. Once he reached an isolated island by a ship. There lived three old men. They were very simple, unsophisticated and ordinary people.
The priest asked, "Do you say prayers?"
They said, "We only know how to remember God. That is all. We do not know anything else."
The priest asked, "How do you remember Him?"
They said innocently, "We just sit down and say, 'protect us, protect us.'"
Giving them a dirty look, the priest said sternly, "Is this the way to pray? You have wasted the whole of your life. I will tell you the proper way to say your prayers."
The priest taught them a prayer from the Bible. The poor old people were illiterate. They would forget it again and again and the priest had to tell it repeatedly.
After teaching the prayer, the priest left their place by the ship. After a little while, when night fell, the priest noticed that three lights were advancing towards the ship.
The priest wondered what it could be.
When the lights reached near the ship, the priest noticed that the three old men, with lantern on their hands, were fast approaching the ship, walking on the water, the way we walk on the earth!
The priest gasped on wonderment at this sight.
The old men shouted, "Priest, sire please stop for a minute. We have forgotten the prayer you had taught us. Kindly say it again to us."
The priest exclaimed, "You are walking on the water!"
One of the old men said, "What is there to be surprised at? We do not have any boat but we can walk comfortably. We humbly requested God to help us to reach you; thereafter we started walking."
The priest folded his hands and said, "Holy men, please go back. You need not learn anything. You should keep on remembering God the same way you have been doing it earlier; God enshrined in your hearts, listens to your sincere devout call. That is all."
You need not have wealth, strength, prosperity or bookish knowledge to attain God. The only way to attain Him is to call Him with strong faith in Him. What did those old men possess? Nothing. The only thing they had was their strong faith in God. With that faith as their only possession, they would call God, say to Him, whatever they wanted to and ask Him whatever they needed. With that faith they attained the power, which is beyond the reach of even the great mystics.
If strong faith in God springs from your heart, nothing else will be left to be done by you. You will overcome all your miseries. God will extend His hands towards you. Do not miss catching hold of those hands then.
