Sakshee Gopal

Love Scene: Once upon a time, there lived a guy and a girl on the banks of a river in West Bengal. The guy was very poor and the girl was filthy rich. They were in love with each other and used to meet often in the river bank. Days passed by. One fine day, the girl’s father went to the nearby Krishna temple on the river bank. After finishing his prayer, he proceeded toward his house. But he could not move further. From foothills of the temple, he noticed the couple walking on the river sand. He was a typical rich father and called the guy immediately. The guy came running helter-skelter; shivering with anxiety as to what her father might say. The father told the guy that he will let him marry his daughter. Then he walked off without any questions. The poor guy was bewildered on one side but at the same time was on cloud nine. He was dancing his way to glory. After a few days, the poor guy went to meet his "would-be-father-in-law" to ask about his marriage. The girl’s father asked him who the hell is he and when did he agree to give her daughter to him. The poor guy replied "You had only told me some few days back". To this, the father replied "Did I tell you? Are you kidding me? Do you have any evidence for it"? The poor guy was shattered and had no clue for his evidence. He was pensive for a while and could not think of anybody who could have been witnessing the scene hitherto. So he was visibly upset and went to the river banks with a deep sense of dejection.

Entry of Krishna: Suddenly, something struck him. It was the fact that Krishna had seen this dialogue between these two and that he went ahead to ask Krishna if he could be his evidence. He went and asked Krishna "Oh! My Lord! I am in dire need of an evidence for the words that my sweetheart's father had given me. I believe, only you could have seen it. No one else was there around. So please come with me as my evidence to his house. Krishna appeared before him and told "Oh! My boy! Yes. I will come but on one condition. I will follow you towards his house. You walk front. I will follow you with a 10 foot distance between us. You should never turn back to see or check if I am following you or not. If you keep a check on me, then I would not come any further. If you agree, then I can be your evidence". The guy accepted it and was "leading" Krishna (Parthasarathy ke sararthyJ) Krishna used to wear something like kolusu (anklets) that made a jingling sound. He was following the guy from the footsteps. There were jingling sounds everywhere. Suddenly when they reached the river banks, it was full of sand. The sound of anklets was the only indication for the guy that Krishna is following him. But now since it was sand and that he could not hear the sound, the guy had a doubt if Krishna is following. But he tried not to turn back for quite sometime. But the question of insecurity overcame his belief in Krishna. So he turned back out of anxiety. To his astonishment he found Krishna still following. But Krishna was upset that the guy did not believe Him. So he stayed there itself as archa moorthy (statue form) and did not move an inch thereupon. The place where he stands is now a temple. The name of Krishna there is called "Saakshee Gopal".

Moral: The moral of the story is never to check if God will protect us or if God is really helping us. He is there for us (Naarayane namake parai tharuvaan). He will surely come with us. Sometimes it is evident that He comes with us and sometimes He follows us subtly and sometimes he follows us in a totally invisible way. But in any case, He will always be with us. If not for us, who is He going to be for, after all?