As a mortal always needing love and nurturing, I have often wondered if God really loves me? If yes, why do I have to go through so many agonies, metal and physical? May be my definition of love is confused.
I will narate the following story which I often remember when I think about God "liking" me. I do not know its origin.
One day sage Narada went to Lord Narayana with a query - "Who is a beloved devotee of yours?" Now, Narada muni, as we all know, is a foremost devotee of Lord Narayana. Always repeating the Lord's name, Narada muni moves about the three worlds, stringing his veena.
Lord Narayana, immediately pointed the sage to a farmer on earth. Narada muni became curious as to what this farmer did that made him the Lord's beloved. So, sage Narada came down to the earth.
The farmer was poor, he had a wife and children to support. He toiled all day long in the farms to make ends meet. In the evening he came spent time with his family and had supper with them. Then at night he lay on the bare earth with only his hand for a pillow. Just before going to sleep, he repeated the name of Lord Narayana a few times.
Narada muni was shocked that repeating the name of Lord Narayana just a few times a day made the farmer one of the Lord's beloved devotees. He went back to Vaikuntha (Lord Narayana's abode). He asked the Lord, what made the farmer his beloved devotee. The Lord said repeating his name just a few times qualified the farmer to be one. Narada muni argued that if that was the criteria, then he should be the Lord's beloved devotee because he repeated the Lord's name infinte times.
The Lord then gave sage Narada a pot of water filled upto its brim. He asked the sage to take it to Mount Kailasa and come back without a single drop of water falling. Narada muni did not understand the reason for this. But nonetheless he accepted the Lord's wishes. Narada muni went to Kailasa and came back. All along he made sure that the water did not fall out.
Sage Narada handed the pot of water to the Lord and pointed out the fact that not a drop of water had spilled. Then the Lord asked him one question - "All this while did you take even a minute to think of me and utter my name?"
Now sage Narada understood what the Lord was trying to teach him. The poor farmer, in his whole day of work thought about the Lord at least once, which the sage in is preoccupation to prevent the water from being spilled did not do even once.
Thinking about God even once without any condition (like wanting something to work out etc) makes one a beloved devotee of the Lord!
