It is often said that divine form of God appears before men and fulfills all their desires. Pt Shriram Sharma Acharya used to say that whenever God descends upon the earth, He comes as one who seeks help from man. Just as Rama went asking for help from monkeys for the great task. Those who give up their all for Him and join Him, never return empty-handed. Rewards earned are always commensurate with the level of one's devotion to Him.

Here is a beautiful poem by Shri Rabindranath Tagore from Gitanjali, which reveals this profound truth. Acharya ji used to quote this poem time and again in his writings and speeches to exhort people to never hold back when the society or the nation or the prevailing times demand one to rise up and make sacrifices for a great deed. Please read on and contemplate:

I had gone a-begging from door to door in the village path,
when thy golden chariot appeared in the distance like a gorgeous dream
and I wondered who was this King of all kings!

My hopes rose high and me thought my evil days were at an end,
and I stood waiting for alms to be given unasked
and for wealth scattered on all sides in the dust.

The chariot stopped where I stood.
Thy glance fell on me and thou camest down with a smile.
I felt that the luck of my life had come at last.
Then of a sudden thou didst hold out thy right hand
and say `What hast thou to give to me?'

Ah, what a kingly jest was it to open thy palm to a beggar to beg!
I was confused and stood undecided,
and then from my wallet I slowly took out the least little grain of corn
and gave it to thee.

But how great my surprise when at the day's end
I emptied my bag on the floor to find a least little gram of gold among the poor heap.
I bitterly wept and wished that I had had the heart to give thee my all.

Secret Mantra

A man had heard that in the spiritual domain there are many secret mantras that are very powerful. If one can perfect a mantra-sadhana, all one's desires can be fulfilled through its magical powers. He went in search of a guru who could give him one such mantra. He reached a very revered sage and beseeched him to grant him a mantra. After several days of requesting and entreating, the sage agreed to make him his disciple. He gave him Gayatri mantra and explained him the procedures of sadhana. He also told him that this mantra is secret, others do not know it and if you are sincere it would give you innumerable powers. The man began to do his sadhana.

One day he went out of the ashram to a river. He saw some people sitting on the bank loudly chanting out Gayatri mantra. He was stunned to hear them chanting his secret mantra aloud, for all to hear. He then went to a book shop and saw several books on Gayatri. He was surprised again. Then, to his utter dismay, he saw his secret Gayatri mantra written on walls all over the city. He got convinced that his guru has cheated him. There is no big deal about Gayatri mantra, it is no secret and has no magical powers. If it had, would not everyone possess these powers? He returned to his guru and launched an angry diatribe on him for cheating. The sage listened quietly and smilingly asked him to return the next day.

The next day, sage gave the man a stone - an uncut diamond - and asked him to go to a vegetable shop, a grocery shop, a money lending shop and to an appraiser of precious stones in the same order and return back and tell him what would each of them bargain the stone for. The man followed his guru's instructions.

First he went to a vegetable shop. The shop owner said, "What would I do with this stone? It seems to shine a little. Alright, take this bundle of green spinach, I will give this stone to my kids to play."

The man then went to a grocer, who said, "I can use this stone as a weighing measure. Leave it here and I shall give you a kilogram of salt." 

Next, the man went to a money lender who used to take jewellery as mortgage. The money lender felt that the stone may be precious, so decided to keep it with him for one thousand rupees. 

Finally, the man went to a jeweller who was a connoisseur of gems. The  jeweller understood the worth of the uncut diamond and decided a price of ten thousand rupees for the same.

The man returned in the evening and told the sage all the prices he heard. The sage said, "This is the answer to all your doubts about the mantra I gave you. Everyone saw the same one stone you carried but everyone evaluated its worth according to his own intelligence. The mantra I gave you is simple but it is not possible for everyone to understand its worth. The one who uncovers the secret hidden beneath the outer construct of words of the mantra possesses its powers. You need to evolve yourself and develop the eye of a connoisseur. The only method to unravel a mantra's power is to follow the practice of its sadhana with unflinching faith."