A widow from a poor village in Bengal did not have enough money to pay for her son’s bus fare, and so when the boy started going to school, he would have to walk through the forest all on his own.
In order to reassure him, she said:
‘Don’t be afraid of the forest, my son. Ask your God Krishna to go with you. He will hear your prayer.’
The boy followed his mother’s suggestion, and Krishna duly appeared and from then on accompanied him to school every day.
When it was his teacher’s birthday, the boy asked his mother for some money in order to buy him a present.
‘We haven’t any money, son. Ask your brother Krishna to get you a present.’
The following day, the boy explained his problem to Krishna, who gave him a jug of milk.
The boy proudly handed the milk to the teacher, but the other boys’ presents were far superior and the teacher didn’t even notice his.
‘Where did you get that jug?’
‘Krishna, the God of the forest, gave it to me.’
The teacher, the students and the assistant all burst out laughing.
‘There are no gods in the forest, that’s pure superstition,’ said the teacher. ‘If he exists, let’s all go and see him.’
The whole group set off. The boy started calling for Krishna, but he did not appear.
The boy made one last desperate appeal.
‘Brother Krishna, my teacher wants to see you. Please show yourself!’
At that moment, a voice emerged from the forest and echoed through the city and was heard by everyone.
‘I can’t! He doesn’t even believe I exist!’
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It was a lovely surprise Paolo, this story (at least the beginning) is so much similar to a story my grandma (thakuma) would tell me as a kid (it is a year since she passed away, I am filled with nostalgia and gratitude and awed by the coincidence that I was reminded of this story in your blog). It is my favourite story: in her version the boy (named Jatil) was asked to bring sweetened curd for the class picnic. Krishna’s (or Madhusudan dada, as he was called in her version) jug of curd that he gave to Jatil that day was a small and pithy one, but Jatil was happy he had something the teacher had asked him to get. But the arrogant Pundit was angry, how will a small pot of curd be enough for a class of twenty! He made fun of Jatil’s poverty in front of his classmates. So angry he was, he even threw away the pot, the curd spilt, but the pot refilled itself again, and again, and again, thus the arrogant Pundit was taught a lesson… I can hear my grandma’s voice teaching me the song “Madhusudan dada dekha dao na” (Brother Madhusudan, please show yourself – in Bengali) while Jatil crosses the forest every day – while I was to play Jatil’s part in a neighbourhood play based on the story.
God’s blessing is neverending, it is we humans who often turn a blind eye to his miracles!
fe nos mueve a todos hasta a veces hacer realidad lo imposible he increible creo yo es el motor de nuestra vida,creer en nosotros mismos y en nuestros sueños .Sin importarnos el reirse de los demas es eso o no……?
I know this story so well,it teaches us that u need extreme faith in watever u do.the boys faith made krishna come everyday.strong faith in self is needed.thanx for reminding me one more time.
love always
nice story for the day, only one minute in the stressy life ;)
i heard this story in my childhood n it represents that beliefs are central to our lives…..
Respected Sir,
This story is veery beautiful but it is not full, one most important para is missing.
Dear Gargi,
For the benefit of the readers can you just add that one important para to complete the story?
黑天会听到你的祈祷
孟加拉国一个穷村子里的寡妇没有足够的钱送她的儿子坐车上学，而那孩子上学路上必须一个人步行穿过森林。
为了安慰他，寡妇说：
“儿啊，不用害怕森林。请求你的神黑天与你同行，他会听到你的祈祷的。”
男孩子听从了母亲的建议，而黑天也忠实地每天现身，护卫着他去学校。
当孩子的老师要过生日的时候，男孩问母亲要钱，想给老师买礼物。
“我们没有钱，儿子。请求你的兄长黑天为你准备一份礼物吧。”
第二天，男孩向黑天诉说了他的困境，黑天送给了他一罐牛奶。
男孩自豪地将牛奶献给了老师。但是其他同学的礼物要比他的好得多，老师根本没把他的礼物放在眼里。
“你是从哪儿弄来的牛奶？”
“是黑天，森林之神，送给我的。”
老师、同学甚至学校的雇工都大笑起来。
“世上哪有森林之神，这不过是迷信罢了。” 老师说，“如果他真的存在，让我们一起去见他吧。”
一大群人跟着去了。那个男孩开始呼唤黑天，但是黑天没有出现。男孩子做了最后的请求。
“黑天兄长，我的老师想要见你。请你现身吧！”
这时候，一个声音在林中响起，回荡在整座城市上空，所有的人都听到了。
“我不能！因为他不相信我的存在！”
Very true. People believe in the light or not. Belief is a gift. Maybe the sceptics can see glimpses of the light in us and in the world from time to time?
I love this story. I heard it when I was a child. It is beautiful
Thankyou so much… 1 minute of such reading really do create wonders. Keep on inspiring for the Lord has bestowed the shower of enlightening in you Paulo.
Nice story !! it would have been great if Krishna could be a bit more flexible and listen to them and appeared at least once in front of them… the world could have been much different if we were not so bent on to decide who should be the first to break the ice … Faith, trust are the bonding it grows together when both can understand each other and so the love is :)
It’s easy to make people believe and follow when you do miracles. Krishna did not appear because he wants them to believe from within rather than it being manifested externally through him appearing miraculously.
lovely story ….
Dear Sir,
This is a story I had read as a kid from the ‘Amar Chitra Kathas’ which my Dad used to get for us every month.(It was a monthly cartoon comics book) and they opened a whole new world of reading of Indian Mythology, the world and History to us.
Today as I read your story I was reminded of those days.
Dad n me both love your books esp. ‘The Alchemist’.
Thanks & Best Regards
Madhavi Sood
I guess you took the reference of an Indian gajal song by Jagjit singh which is one of my favourites….. But still, the theme is strong……………
Hi Paulo,
My grand dad used to tell this story to us when I was a kid..I felt very happy reading it here.
Have a good day!
Faith is the hope that keeps us going……thanks for the reinforcement.
La fe debería acompañarnos siempre para en cada paso que damos encontrarnos con Dios.
Como todos los sus textos, es hermoso a prueba de FE.
Meera Bharat .. Mahaan ….!
Krishna is our inner self which leads us when we feel that we are alone…
Sometimes Faith is what it takes…………thanks
There is a wonderful lesson for all of us that is to be learnt from this story-One,that nothing in your life works,no one succeeds until he has faith in himself and his actions and is just and righteous in his thoughts and actions.And to my atheist friend Jake and all the non-believers here-The story doesn’t say that good things will happen in your life on their own,Only if you believe in God.Rather it says,if your intentions and desires are right and pure,if your heart is clean and if you really want something desperately in your life,whether or not you believe in the existence of God AND, you work hard for it,the entire universe around you will conspire to help you achieve that thing.Exactly the idea that Paulo propagates through his book,’The Alchemist.’
‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’,these are two major events that occurred in the history of mankind from where the central Hindu ideology ‘Your Karma (action) decides what you get in your life’, comes from.In both these real life events that happened thousands of years ago,what most people fail to realize is that God is not shown as someone to be feared and forcefully believed in.Instead,God is shown as being someone,who taught us how we as humans are supposed to lead the right way of life.They showed us the right path by being born on this earth in human form-as King Ram in ‘Ramayan’ and as Krishna in ‘Mahabharat.’In both of these major events,God teaches us the way of life to be lived-a path full of duties,justice and righteousness.And just like we humans face different emotions,different situations,good times and bad times,even Ram and Krishna themselves,though regarded as the Lords of Lords,faced countless unfortunate circumstances and events and struggles in their lives and led a lonely and isolated life in return of fighting for the larger good of mankind.But they did not let circumstances deter then from walking on the path of justice and righteousness.Ultimately,even they had to pay for some of their wrong deeds when they finally met with their end and had to do a lot of penance for it.That’s how they eventually achieved salvation.An important takeaway message from this-Nothing and no one,including Ram and Krishna themselves are above our Karma.Our karma decides what we get and who we become in our lives and what we finally achieve out of it.
The opposite of “seeing is believing” is true and that is “believing is seeing”
What you believe you see.
Love
YOU NEED TO BELIEVE DEEP INSIDE WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL AND MIND, .. . BUT MIRACLES HAPPEN IF YOU BELIEVE , FEEL, VISUALIZE.
Love the story Paulo. Love God, love faith, love believing, love having love ,peace and blessings in this world. Love learning, love my ability to talk to my angels and have them talk back. Love knowing I deserve to be happy and and being helped by the ones who love me most. Thank you .
Miracles happen every day, but many times we don’t pay attention to it, When we really start understand who God is for us , we will notice that more miracles will be happening every day, without faith and believe things will not just happen… What more we need having a child is the miracle isn’t it? why do we always ask for more? Even though God doesn’t like when people test him, he still does many miracles so people can see it and believe in it more and more, God wants to help us all, God is a father, he is a creator, so he would do anything and show any miracle to help us to help ourselvs…
La fe es algo que se gana con las penas del alma, es asi de simple se cree con el alma y los milagros se materializan. Mi historia es de mi embarazo de mis gemelos, cuando tenia 4 meses de embarazo el neonatologo se dio cuenta que habia un problema con uno de los bebes, no tenia fluido anmiotico, eran gemelos que estaban en la misma placenta, pero en diferentes sacos, me sugirieron un aborto, a lo cual me negue rotundamente, la noticia fue tan imprevista y el dolor tan grande, necesitaba ayuda y nadie me podia ayudar solo Dios, los doctores me dijieron despues de muchos analisis y estudios, que nada podian hacer, que necesitaba un milagro, senti una necesidad tan grande de ir a la iglesia, soy catolica y fui a la iglesia un jueves por la tarde y tenian una misa de sanacion organizada por un grupo carismatico, y oraban al espiritu santo por sanacion, jamas habia visto algo igual, pero llore durante toda la misa, pedi a Dios con todas mis fuerzas su ayuda y el milagro que necesitaban mis bebes, cuando termino la misa el sacerdote nos dijo que formaramos una fila para ponernos la cruz en la frente con el aceite bendito los que necesitaban un milagro de snacion y cuando fue mi turno algo grandioso paso, al estar frente al sacerdote llorando le dije que necesitaba ayuda que no podia sola con tal sufrimiento y necesitaba un milagro para mis bebes y me dijo todo estara bien y el milagro ya se realizo y senti un calor y vi una luz blanca que me envolvia, mis piernas no me respondian y senti que alguien me tomaba y me colocaba en el piso de una forma tan suave y con gran carino y cuidado. cuando desperte, estaba en el piso y mi amiga que me acompananba me dijo no te espantes fuistes tocada por el espiritu santo al que le pediamos por sanacion y le conteste sabes que rtodo esta bien, mis bebes estaran bien. Una semana despues de esta experiencia tuve la cita con el neonatologo de nuevo y al hacemer el ultrasonido, se veia confundido y le pregunte que pasaba, me dijo “jamas he visto esto, el bebe tiene los nivels de fluido amniotico normales, el tiene una obstruccion de la uretra y esto no es posible, no se que paso” yo le dije yo se si que paso, jamas dude de la gracia de Dios y de que mi milagro ya habia sucedido, rece cada noche al espiritu santo por una senal de que estarian bien al nacer, si Angelo este es su nombre mi angel del cielo, lloraba y orinaba seria la senal de que estaria bien y asi paso los dos ninos lloraron y orinaron al nacer, jamas dude de mi fe, los doctores me hicieron hablar de todas las posibilidades y siempre insistian de que el bebe al meno uno moriria y no sabian que consecuencias esta condicion tendria en el otro, me dijieron tener al sacerdote para bautizarlo antes de que muriera en el quirofano, hablaron conmigo si queria un funeral o donar los cuerpos al hospital para estudios, siempre les dije no es necesario todo esto y me miraban como si hubiese perdido la razon, jamas acepte lo que me decian y les repetia mis bebes estaran bien, mis gemelos cumplieron 11 a&os el dia 27 de Octubre del a&o pasado, esto es prueba de que el que cree con el corazon, puede ver los milagros de Dios, aprendi que no es como se dice, hay que ver para creer, es al contrario tenemos que creer para poder ver.
Que historia tan linda, es cierto lo que tu dices tenemos que creer para ver. Gracias por compatirla, me llena de mucha fe tu hermoso relato.
A year ago I started my journey of faith, I studied much in the way grew better as a person was faithful servant, disciple, grow as a man and as a person, I was never allowed to see my teacher, but even without seeing it moved on I abandoned my life stable and went in search of a dream, out of the warmth of family and falls in the world, after a time the road was tortuous no longer recognizes my faith that I was huge upset, and was being lost when over the road and the magic did not happen to me specifically, but I lost the faith, now I have more faith I can only hope, hope that one day return to a steady pace and walk right again, important steps towards my neighbor, steps Faramir a difference to someone somewhere in the world, not stopped believing in God or Eiwa how you want to define it, I stopped having faith, I can only HOPE.
El Alquimista hay que saber leerlo,y te recomiendo que lo leas seguido para no perder la nocion de lo que estas leyendo.Hay que leerlo con fe sientiendo cada palabra que esta diciendo el libro y sobretodo hechar la imaginacion a volar a partir de ahi entraras en profundidad.
Dear sir,
I have always narrated this story with lot of emotional drama to my daughter during bed time! What surprises me is that I met you around 10pm on Saturday and you have blogged the story on the 29th! Is it coincidence, I feel totally connected through Krishna Kanniah! Love, peace n happiness !!
Not Krishna but Ram, similar kind of a story..Here..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtdmlIobTI..Was this an inspiration ?
Well, I need not say you are a splendid author and the support for openness here makes you someone to look upto.
I loved the video! Thanks for sharing!
When I was pregnant with my twins- a son and daughter (Ira and Ved), my mother would tell them this story everyday after I would have my lunch and dinner and they would settle down. This became a ritual for three months continuously. I would tell my mother to tell them another story. But she was insistent that she would tell them the same story. They were born three months later and I lost both of my babies. February will make it 6 months since they have gone.
The reason I write is because last month something strange happened. I bought your book ‘like the flowing river’ and started reading it. One particular day I was coming back from the temple and was reading a chapter from your book in the car with no book mark. I was missing my children a lot and started crying in the car wanting some sign to show that they alright and kept the book aside. After crying I think for a good 10 minutes , I picked up the book to read the story I was reading. The page that opened was the story of Krishna, the story my mum used to tell them every day.
It happened again today . I hadn’t read your blogs the last week and this week and decided to open one randomly. I was thinking about them , about how they would have been 6 months old today and was a little down and I happened to coincidentally open this blog posting of yours. I honestly dont what to think of these incidents. But in a way I wanted to thankyou and I dont know why.
God bless all of you
Vian I cannot begin to even imagine how You feel to lose something so precious
Thankyou for sharing Your experience’s and for being so open
I belive your experience to be a beautiful message form Your Lovely babies x
God bless you…
I am so sorry for your loss, Vian. May God bless you and hold you tightly whenever you experience the pain of this loss.
But I also want to share that I smiled when you said that you wanted a sign and your twins brought you to this story, first in the book and then again online. They are with you, in your heart, in your spirit and will always be with you, maybe not in body, but they are there and they want you to know, Many blessings are asked for you!
Hello Vian,
Our earthly loss is always a heavenly gain
Although our hearts hurt and mourn in humanly pain
The fact still remains the same
That Heaven Has Gained more Love
To sprinkle down from above.
I’ll pray for your kids and you tonight.
God bless<3
Vian,
I am so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine…
I don’t believe in coincidences. Things happen for a reason…things that may not always be explainable. I believe this is a sign that your twins are ok and know that they were loved and are not forgotten. <3
Perhaps the pain you are feeling now, your story, your compassion, may help ease another's pain one day, the pain only one can understand who has lost a child(ren).
And in my favorite book, The Alchemist…
“There’s no such thing as coincidence… he was about to describe, though: the mysterious chain that links one thing to another."
"Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there.”
Many hugs for you,
Lori
vian … non so cosa dirti .. ma il tuo dolore e’ anche il mio ….la vita e’ cosi
whatever we may call HIM….HE works in mysterious ways…you are very blessed for receiving these signs. :-)
Vian,
God might just want you to know that your babies are fine. he has them with him. or say, krishna has taken them with him. and that they will always be safe with him. Dont worry, just hold onto your faith….he might bring them back to you soon …or have something alse in store for you.
God Bless u too Vian. Totally feel for ya. Take care..
Dear Vian,
I pray for your son Ira and daughter ved. Your strength is your belief and faith.
I pray for your strength.
Anandakumar.L
tHE hUMAN dROP
Chennai
South,India
So the mighty Krishna cannot show himself to those that don’t believe, but he can talk to those that don’t believe? Makes perfect sense! It’s just another argument asking us to believe in w/e because what if we’re wrong? what if this magical water can cure our cancer, or this Dijinn can grant our prayers?
It is not that krishna spoke to those who dont believe in him… Its jus that he could not stop himself from responding to his believer’s call…
Call Him from your heart… he will come (whatever form you expect him in ….)
What a lovely story. Thank you, my dear friend.
((((LOVE))))
Thanks Paulo Coelho. I always read your blog. This one made me ponder while I’m having coffee this morning. What a good start of the day.
The Pirate Bay proudly promotes you, sir!
In my experience, faith is simply trust. If we have ‘evidence’ then trust doesn’t come into it… evidence is like a guarantee or insurance policy. Surely true freedom is not to have a constant safety-net assuring us that our needs are already met; but rather the confidence to take risks, safe in the knowledge that needs will indeed be met should they arise. My idea of wealth is not to have sufficient money, but to be able to metaphorically stand naked & alone in a hostile environment without fear.
A person cannot fake trust. We learn to trust by doing it; a little at first and then more as we feel assured that we will not be let down. So faith grows.
‘God’ is a word laden with baggage, but to ignore the insecure protests of your head, and follow your heart is the path of trust/faith that I believe will never let you down… just remember that it is the true prayers of the heart that are ALWAYS answered, and not the fear-driven yearnings of our insecure minds!
So very well expressed!!! Thanx for sharing these thoughts.
lol
Yo creo porque es mi decisión, basada en asuntos que no son el asunto de nadie más, o al menos de la mayoría pues simplemente no viene al caso discutirlos, aunque si alguien quiere discutirlos y ese alguien es razonable no veo por qué negarle ese placer. Si alguien que no cree reprueba el hecho de mi fe sólo me conduce al siguiente conocimiento: hay gente que está tan adicta al sufrimiento que siente que la fe en Dios es una agresión a su derecho inalienable de sufrir de modo consistente hasta el último de sus días. Yo respeto el derecho de los incrédulos a su sufrimiento y a la defensa de su ego y del mismo modo me reservo el derecho a no discutir mi fe ni mi absoluta carencia de sufrimiento así como tampoco mi consecuente gozo de contemplar la dicha divina. Pero esa reflexión no es sólo acerca de mi relación con ateos sino acerca de gente de mi propia religión que, siendo mis amados amigos, no aceptan que yo crea y practique otras religiones y creencias. ¿No es mejor que nos simplifiquemos la vida? Ciertamente creo que sería lo más inteligente. Nadie quiere ver sufrir a sus amigos.
i read this while listening ”the best is yet to come” on youtube.
Ebin:D
I remember this story. It is pretty popular in India.
It’s great that people understand and try to spread these messages to the world
Love you Paulo. I can see what you are trying to do! You are taking on a new level. All the best. All supports.
I have to agree that a story such as the Krishna prayer leads me to feel confused at the end. I do not feel it proves any point except “have faith or else.”
Which I find silly, because if I claimed to have faith that I could fly, everyone would call me an idiot and point out those who could not fly. “They did not have actual faith in themselves/the flight god” I’d say. They’d show me all sorts of evidence on how it was impossible…”with faith, nothing is impossible” I would reply.
And it would not matter how much better it made me feel to believe.
In this case, you would all agree it is simply ignorance. Yet in other cases (none in particular – be it Taoism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Catholicism or Born-Again Evangelism) we say it is their own choice and we should leave others to walk their own path.
Even if that path leads directly into a train?
As Dawkins said, we all are atheists when it comes to most of the deities of this world. (well, he adds “some of us just go one god further)…
end my philosophy-major rant
Seriously, I CAN fly!
:-)
mmmm, beautiful!
muito bom paulo,voce é um dos melhores
Perfectly said sir.
May lord krishna bless us all
If you book them, they will come.
Hi Paulo,
You story reminded me below…
Praying for Rain
‘There was a drought that had swept the farm lands . The crops weren’t surviving and it would only be a matter of time until the people began to severely suffer. So the Pandit of a Temple of one of the local towns called all the people together to meet in the town square and pray, in faith, for rain. He also asked them to bring tokens of their faith to hold while they prayed. After an hour or so of prayer, the rain was started like “Cats & Dogs”
The town’s people danced in joy with empty hands. And then one little girl held up her object of faith and everyone turned to look. She opened her umbrella.’
The Pandit said, “She is the only person who has faith on GOD, who has faith on prayers”.
nice one! thanks for sharing :-)
Faith is a gift many of us have yet to recieve .
Perhaps faith is not something we should expect to freely receive, but rather we have to work at it?
I don’t believe it shows a good level of education to web-blog about theism.
I was gravely disappointed by the ‘Alchemist’, after such praise led me to believe it would be something profound.
Kind Regards,
A.Muhhamed
Another of your (stimulating) writings… Thank you Mr Coelho for the inspiration!
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