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IT ALL BEGAN in the year 1960. The sun was scorching. the newly married young Dashrat Manjhi was on his agricultural land. He was so tired and looking for his beloved wife, Phaguni Devi. Every day she brought lunch to her dear husband through a one-and-a-half-foot rocky narrow pass, that was the only access to the field from their village, Gahlour in the Gaya district of Bihar State.
The Gahlour valley is so picturesque in the foothills that extends from Rajgir to Bodhgaya, the ancient seat of two famous philosophies of the Indian sub-continent, Buddhism and Jainism.
On that fateful day, while coming so, Phaguni devi stumbled on a rock and fell. It caused her to bleed profusely. the pain was so acute, that she could not tolerate it. the injury was severe. She wept bitterly. On seeing the miserable condition of his better half, Dashrat's heart was broken. He vowed to fight and to vanquish the hill that stood silently before him. the unfathomable love for his young wife had induced in him a firm determination to raze down that entire hillock to the ground!
His target was 360 feet long and 25 feet high rock about 50 KM east of Gaya in Bihar.
The agonizing screaming of his young wife instigated the then 26-year-old Dasharat to combat that stony giant with a simple country-made chisel and a hammer. the only indomitable force that propelled him to march on was his deep ... deep ... love for his wife...!
He made it his mission...!
THE PEOPLE OF Dashrat's native village Gahlour and the nearby Wazirganj thought that he had gone mad; but, it did not deter this man from his resoluteness!
His wife, father and other kith and kins persuaded him to think rationally and not to lose his mental balance; yet, he remained unyielding!
Everyone that came to know of him branded him a cranky eccentric: but, it, in no way, affected him!
He was breaking rocks like a lion pounced upon its prey in a fit of rage!
Really an impossible deed!
The heart-rending cry of his beloved one alone ringing ceaselessly within his mind and soul.
DASHRAT WAS SO engulfed in this Herculean task. The sound of the iron on the boulders echoed all through the day and much of the night. At times, the tingling sound of his chisel filled the air on the full moon night. this made the people to consider him a possessed man. Unminding such onslaught, Dashrat took a vow not to shave his beard and hair until he achieved his uphill goal!
Three years had passed.
The narrow pass seemed visibly wider. The villagers realized that Dashrat was not a madman. The story about him soon spread to other villages. The people began to come for just a darshan of Dashrat Manjhi. He became an idol in that area.
His hard-attentive labour gave the efficacious result after a long span of about 25 years of the 20th century. The people who defined him a crack were stunned with bewildering stoic silence to see that 4’ 2” high, frailish, suntanned man had solitarily cut a 16 feet wide pass, well to be called a road, through the unbelievable 360 feet long and 25 feet high hilliness!
In fact, this epoch-making feat cut short the distance between the sub-divisions of Atri and Wazirganj by a whopping forty-two kilometres,
The efflux of time had prevented his beloved wife, whose love had been the sole inspiration for this mega event, from seeing his day of achievement. However, the septuagenarian, Dashrat Manjhi is now revered by all the people of his locality as ‘Sadhu Baba’ and his village Gahlour is named after him as Dashrat Nagar!
Sound intriguingly...?
But it’s true!
THE UNQUENCHED LOVE towards his wife had transformed a simple man to work vigorously with firmness in both mind and spirit to root out the entire block of the huge hurdle that had caused the anguishing tears and the oozing blood from the bruising wound upon his endeared woman!
What about you...?
Even if you browse the Bible desultorily, you cannot miss the categorical recordings of how God loves this world; how he came to this world and poured out his blood unto its lost drop, only to save us; how he died a torturous death to redeem us and how he raised from the death victoriously to show us a victorious path to eternity!
Do you say, “I am also one among those who are saved” ... ?
Praise the LORD!
But... have it in your mind − it’s all nothing but His pure grace!
Ephesians 2:8&9 says: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the Gift of god - not by works, so that no one can boast."
Yes, it's really a wonderful gift from our LORD God!
But...
Why did He give this matchless gift to you?
It's all because of His abounding love towards you!
"This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." [1 John 4:9&10] |
And ... this is the good News!
- A Good News to every living mankind! Yes ... this gift of Good News is common to everyone in this world!
THE BIBLE SAYS: "Everyone who calls on the LORD will be saved." [Joel 2:32 & Romans 10:13]
Jesus also gave a clarion call in Matthew 11:28 - Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
What a glorious opportunity awaits each fellow human being!
But... now you cannot avoid some questions which crop up within yourself! -
- To let them hear, one has to go and tell them about this Good News of Great Love and Salvation. Unless one does not go, no one can hear the life-saving Good News!
And Who Is That Person To Go?
- Simple... it is YOU...! Yes... you are that person to go!
Do you have any doubt?
Or...
Do you want to know the reason?
Come on ... let us see one by one:
YOU HAVE ALREADY been enjoying His great Love!
You experiences the Salvation!
Above all you know personally well who Jesus Is!
Read the following verses from your Bible carefully ...
"Praise be to the God and father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For, He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He Loves." [Ephesians 1:3-6]
"How great is the Love, the father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" [1 John 3:1]
"Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory." [Romans 8:17]
"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." [Ephesians 5:1-2]
These words tell us that we are His children and the way to keep that incomparable heavenly inheritance continually.
If you say that you are His child, then you are the right choice to go and tell this Good News to those who till now have not heard this Gospel even once!
Also this is your unshakable privilege to do your Father's will!
Your LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ had also gone through the same path of ‘doing his Father's will only’ during His sojourn in this world. So if you say that you are His child, then you are also ought to go through the same way that your redeemer had already passed through!
Moreover, if you are His child, then it is natural that you await His coming. But the Bible clearly says in Mark 13:10 that "this Gospel must first be preached to all nations" before He comes. So, it is obligatory for all those who claim to be His children to preach His Gospel everywhere without wasting any time.
Does it seem to be a mountainous job? Or, is there any such high mountain blocking your way?
Don't worry ... ... you don't need to toil like Dashrat Manjhi for a laborious span of your precious years to start with!
Hear what Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 - "... if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU."
Yes ... it is true! You just say with faith and take your first step ... it will be enough for all your hurdles to go: whether it be your parents or your kith and kins or your studies or your job or your money or your prestige or your ego and whatever it may be ... everything that blocks your way will vanish away.
It will happen miraculously: for, 'the One who breaks open the way is going up before you.'
Put all your faith in Him. That is the secret for making all things possible to fulfil His Great Commission. Nothing will be impossible for you... an open and clear way is lying ahead of you!
Lakhs and lakhs of dying ... thirstful souls are awaiting the Gospel everywhere around you!
A mortal love towards a woman made an ordinary ... common man to do an astounding feat!
If it is the case, how much more we have to do for the LORD God who first loved us and died a torturous death for us upon the cross while we were yet sinners!
So, it's left to you, for, the ball is now in your court!
