Aadya, an 8-year-old girl, used to live in a small village called Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh. She was an inquisitive child and owing to this feature of her, her parents were always on the run for the answers. Although her parents, especially her mother found her questions to be quite odd at times, still they tried their best to look for the answers. Not sure, whether they really wanted to give her the right answer or they knew that Aadya wouldn’t settle for anything less than the correct answer.

Aadya belonged to a religious family and they kept organizing some or the other Pooja in their house. It was Aadya’s birthday and their family-priest had come over for the Pooja and just when the prayers got over, Aadya said to Pandit ji if she can ask a question, as if she was waiting for this moment. That was completely unexpected, as she would usually direct her questions either to her teachers or her parents. Though Pandit Ji was smiling and happy to hear that she is curious, her mother however raised brows, knowing the kind of questions she could ask.

She said, “You had told us about the trinity of “Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh” and you also mentioned that we have God inside of all of us”, she continued, “I was wondering which one of them actually resides in our bodies.”

Pandit ji got stunned to hear this kind of a question and said he is really amazed to hear that she is already thinking on those line at such a tender age. He said, “We all have all the Gods inside us, depending on what we think and do.”

“If we are doing something creative, it is Brahma that guides us to create new things, if we are trying improve upon something, it is Vishnu that becomes active and when we decide to end something, it is Shiva that takes the active role at that point of time.”

Pandit ji asked her if she could relate to what he explained. “I am not sure”, Aadya candidly replied.

Pandit Ji suggested Aadya’s father to come over to his house on Sunday, as he had other commitments for the day to address.

Three days later, on Sunday, Aadya along with her parents went over to Pandit ji’s house. Pandit ji was very happy to see all of them. He handed a piece of paper to Aadya’s father and told him that he is going out to water his plants and would come back in about 10 minutes, meanwhile he can read this to Aadya.

Pandit ji immediately went out and her father started reading from the paper –

“Akshay had clearly lost his way, he had been walking through this endless jungle for more than 5 hours now. It was getting dark and the peculiar sound of night insects terrified him. He once planned of taking a shelter somewhere and resuming his search again in the morning, but then he thought whether he would survive until morning with those eerie sounds coming from everywhere. While he was in the middle of his thoughts, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him, his heart started pounding on the very thought of what’s behind. He gathered all his courage to see who was there and the moment he turned around he saw himself lying on his bed and only then he realized he was only dreaming.”

By the time story finished Pandit ji had also come back. The smile on Aadya’s face said everything. Pandit ji understood that Aadya had got her answer. She thanked him for explaining it in such a nice way. She said that now she knows that all the Gods reside in our bodies and that too at the same point of time. She was so glad to have about learned about it that she went on to speak. She said, “I think it was Brahma that created the thought into Akshay’s mind and it was Vishnu that made him continue with those thoughts and finally when it got too much Shiva took control and ended the dream.”

Pandit ji appreciated her for the way she explained her thoughts about the story. He told Aadya to “Stay Curious” as this is the only way to discover something new.

***