When are the wishes granted? When are they not? Sometimes, we keep wishing for years and the wish does not get fulfilled. On some other occasions, the moment you wish, you get what you want. With me, it happened on many consecutive occasions that my wish was granted almost instantaneously and I thought that I was getting some divine powers and I started boasting of it to my friends. But as soon as I did so, I made a fool of myself as no wish that I declared beforehand was ever granted.

I heard a very interesting story in this connection.

There was a person, who was told that in every twenty four hours, there is a moment when, whatever you wish gets fulfilled. He was very happy to learn about it and thought that it should be so easy to constantly continue wishing about something and get it fulfilled. To test this theory, he sat down one day with a silver cup and started wishing that it should turn into gold. In the beginning he was full of enthusiasm and continued repeating his wish, but as the day advanced, he started getting tired and discouraged. Yet he continued repeating. Yet nothing happened. Doubts started creeping his mind. All this labour will get wasted, if nothing happened. Yet there was a flicker of hope. Twelve hours passed. Fifteen,... twenty,... twenty-one,... twenty-two,... twenty-three,... twenty-three hours and thirty minutes. Yet silver cup remained only of silver. When will it turn into gold? Or was it only a myth?

Any way he still continued. But when it was twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes, he lost his patience and in frustration, he blurted out, 'If it doesn't turn into gold, let it turn into mud'. and lo! The cup did indeed turn into mud.

Was it his luck or his impatience? How even persevering people could lose their patience, when nearest to success?

Sometimes people express their desires or wishes loosely or without giving much thought. An example of this I came across at Allahabad, my home town.

In the heart of the city, there is a market called 'Chowk'. All types of business is done there. A number of people sit on the pavement, occupying a small plot and carry on different jobs of repair etc. When I was coming to the United States, some of the locks of my suit cases needed keys to be fitted. I was told that there are locksmiths there, who will do the needful.

Putting the suit cases in the car, I went there. I found a locksmith who was a cripple. Both his legs were missing from the hips, as also one of the arms from the elbow. He had only one functioning arm and I was full of admiration for him to see how he worked and made keys for the locks, without any assistance, manipulating everything, with one and a half arm. It was amazing to see how he could manage to do all his work by hopping from place to place. I thought that he had lost his limbs in some accident. So while he was making the keys, I asked him how he became cripple? Was there an accident? He said, "It was no accident. He had them from his birth." He further added, "In fact it was my mother's wish that made me so."

"How did that happen? How could a mother wish such a thing?" I was puzzled and enquired.

What he narrated to me was a very revealing story. He said that his mother had already four sons when he was conceived. In India mothers generally want only sons to be born to them. That was very much so in the old days but even now a lot of people have such ideas, specially among the economically backward classes. But such attitude is gradually changing and after a few sons are born they do not mind a daughter and sometimes even wish to have one. So some friend of his mother remarked that it would be good if she now had a daughter. At this the mother exclaimed, "Oh no! For goodness sake no! I would not want a daughter at any cost. I would only want a son, even if he be crippled." and that is what happened. Her wish was granted, word for word.

In another case, it was over twenty-five years ago when I was stationed at Shimla, a hill station in India and there is a temple called Kamnadevi temple (A temple for the goddess granting wishes). It is said that whatever is wished at the temple, gets fulfilled. When we went to the temple, our ten year old son Rajiv said that he had also wished something. On being asked what his wish was, he said that wishes are never disclosed or else they would lose their effect.

My posting in Shimla was supposed to be for a few months only, after which I was supposed to go on promotion to another job of much higher responsibility. But somehow things went on getting delayed. One day myself and my wife were talking amongst ourselves, wondering why my promotion orders were not coming when Rajiv remarked, "How could they? I prayed at the Kamnadevi temple that we should remain in Shimla till the summer was over." Of course Shimla was a nice place to stay during the summer and we enjoyed it, but my promotion was delayed on account of my son's prayers.

Sometimes we wish for some thing and feel miserable when that wish is not granted, little knowing that it was for our good that the wish was not granted. One of our friends was to go on a business trip, but missed his flight despite his best efforts. He felt much agitated and miserable, feeling that he would lose all his business. Later, in the day, , he learnt that the plane by which he was to travel, crashed and everyone on the plane lost his life. He was then thankful to the unseen hand that saved his life.

Do such instances not leave us confused as to what we should wish and whether it is right to get disturbed when those wishes are not granted? After all we do not know what is in store for us and whether what we are wishing is to our advantage. Do we have any control on getting what we want and even if we get it, would it make us happy? Would we not be happier, if we learnt to accept what comes our way.

~*~

Wish Fulfilment ' A Related incident

This happened in October, 1947. I was then posted in Ferozepur. I was posted there to repair the breaches in the railway track and restore communications. Ferozpur was cut off from all sides on account of floods. Railway bridges had been washed off and roads were damaged for long stretches. There were no means of communications to leave the city. I had to go to Delhi for some urgent work. So I thought of taking the help of postal department. I knew that there was a plane service every day to maintain postal communications. So I contacted them and they agreed to take me to Delhi and asked me to reach the airfield at 9.00 A.M. During those days, the airfield was just a landing strip where there was no telephone facility or any other means of contact. You had to reach there, wait for the plane and board it on it's arrival.

I, therefore, reached there in time and started waiting for the plane to arrive. The time however passed on, there was no sign of the plane. It was past eleven. How long should I wait for it? I had read in the news that the Maharaja of Kashmir had requested the Government of India to help and save his kingdom from the attack of rebels from Pakistan. The Government of India agreed to provide help after an agreement being signed for accession of his Kingdom to India. On account of this, all help was being given to carry troops to Srinagar and all air services had been cancelled. Was it that the postal plane also has been diverted for the purpose? How to know that and how long should I wait? When it was eleven O'clock, I got a brain wave. I started thinking that there is what is called 'Will power' and that works when one can wish something with deep concentration. Why should I not try such deep concentration? How long can I deeply concentrate? I felt that I could do so for ten minutes. So I started deep concentration at 11.20 and decided that I will leave if the plane did not arrive by 11.30.

I started deep concentration at the appointed time and continued thinking about the plane. I was extremely amazed when exactly at 11.30, I heard a drone in the sky and looking up saw a plane flying above at 5,000 feet height. So the will power did help to some extent though it was not the postal plane which would take me. But at that time I was only thinking of a plane. When did I concentrate on the plane that was to take me? This thought kindled another ray of hope, and I decided to continue the experiment a little longer. This time, I will totally concentrate on the postal plane and leave if it does not turn up. I started the deep concentration at 11.50 and exactly at 12.00, my postal plane landed. Thus, I got convinced that Will Power has it's effect when one exercises it with deep concentration.

But are we really able to concentrate our minds, single minded? If we get such a power, we will become a part of God. For that we have to clean up our minds completely. As long as we do not get rid of our attachments, desires and hatreds, such a power can be very harmful. So to even think of achieving such a power, I must completely clean my mind of all these blots.