The Lost Bracelet

The LOST BRACELET

It was like any other evening, when me and my wife Shweta had gone to Shiv temple for darshan. It was dusk and an absolute serene environment. The familiar soothing tunes of bhajan from the loud speaker breached the silence to reach ears. Sitting in the temple my mind was preoccupied with the junk thoughts, as I was getting late for a congregation, which my boss was to attend. Albeit I was physically in the temple, but mentally calculating the pros and corns on being late, my mental absence in temple was to the extent of thinking of an alibi for being late. Suddenly I realized, pandit ji was preparing for evening aarti. I looked at my watch and found, I was actually racing against time. If I attended the aarti, I would definitely be late for the official function. The inner voice in me rose to the occasion and said “ I was at the Gods door step, it would be kind off insulting Him, in-case I left the prayer halfway”. But the clever mind of mine had a counter view to that, it argued, I had come for a darshan and I had done that. Moreover, God would understand but Boss wouldn't  The latter argument over shadowed the former and I left the temple at the brink of commencement of the aarti.

Me and my wife reached for the official gathering well in time, as we commingled with the crowd, in a few minutes, my wife came to me appearing perplexed, eyes wide open, she spoke with a heavy voice“ I have lost my Gold Bracelet”

I said “ what?”

“are you sure you wore it , when you came to the party” I said.

She said “ yes 100 percent sure”

Without wasting even a minute, we excused ourselves. Since temple was the last place we had visited, both of us rushed back to the same spot where we had sat down. To our dismay, we couldn't find the bracelet. The aarti was still going on and almost on the verge of culmination. It was a well lit place frequented by the masses, so in case, if she has lost it here, chances of its retrieval appeared bleak. Notwithstanding that, making a fair attempt both of us asked almost everybody in the vicinity, but nothing to gain. With a heavy heart  both of us headed back, on the way, we decided to go home and confirm, if it was still laying in the safe and the feel of having worn it to the party was a mere subconscious feel. When she didn't find it at home, her last hope of finding it drowned, she had a long drawn face, I could see the tears trickle down her cheeks. Her dearest piece of jewel was no more traceable.

Sitting on the sofa, I pondered over the sequence of events once again. I realized, it couldn't have fallen in the temple, had it fallen there, we would have definitely heard the metal knocking the tilled floor and the bracelet wasn't at home either. A thought appeared to me, that the only place we hadn't checked was in the parking where she first got down from the car. “ lets go to the parking lot” I  said.

“ Why” she said.

I said “that’s the only place we haven’t checked”. I explained my thoughts to her. And the search once again began, as we approached the parking area, from a distance in the headlight beam, I spotted a shine on the ground. I stopped the vehicle and asked her to move up, and check, if it was her bracelet. Her loud scream “ Milgaya” ended this high voltage drama. And we then moved in to the party hall  to actually party hard.

I got the divine message “ obeisance before the God has to be with sincerity”. Looking in the chronological manner into what had happened unfolds the message. I had actually left the aarti giving preference to reaching in time, before the boss arrives, over my submission to the Almighty. But see the act of supreme power, I had to leave the gathering  without meeting the boss, to rush back to the temple, only to attend the aarti that was still going on which I had left in between ( as if I had been recalled back to the temple). And then again a mere thought took us to the place of bracelet. Some people would call it a sheer coincidence, but with this incident my belief was reinforced that divine power has His own ways of teaching a lesson and passing message. It’s up to us to understand the hidden message. Whenever there is a such message, one can hear it through the inner voice, this voice doesn't have sound, and instead it has a sound message.