The Man Unknown

This is the story of a man who was ridiculed for his endless credence in God. When one’s faith exceeds anything else, including logic, is that faith or mindlessness? Does selflessness compel the almighty to come help his believers?

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As the old saying goes, “Faith is unquestioning belief.” This story is of a small village in the state of Gujarat called Targhari. Though the village was small, the hearts of the people living there were big. They were very generous with visitors or travelers passing through the village and would often overwhelm them with delicious and generous meals.

One of the residents of this village was Ganesh. He belonged to a close-knit family and though they didn’t have many riches, they had grown up learning values of love and compassion for all. He was well built, with dark black hair and dusky skin. He would dress up in the same simple clothes every single day that he tagged as his ‘work clothes’ with the same old pair of shoes that he tagged as his ‘work shoes’ and leave at exactly the same time - 8 am - every morning. He owned a small manufacturing business of textiles and worked diligently there every day of the week. Ganesh was not only known for his skills and finesse, but also for his industriousness and honesty.

Ganesh was a firm believer of God and would go to any extent to do good deeds that his God would approve of. Often, the fellow villagers found him feeding stray animals, helping the poor, escorting the old - all out of the selfless emotion of helping make someone’s day a little better, a little easier. Ganesh’s business was suffering due to his honesty, as the world was a bitter place where good-hearted and honest people were only taken advantage of. The villagers often used to mock him saying he was foolish to help others when he himself needed help. They would especially stress over the importance of earning money at this point and how he would fail to survive in this world without it, how he would be unable to even support his family. However, Ganesh always remained untouched by these words and continued helping the needy. In his heart, he knew how invaluable good deeds were and that they would help him and his family more than anything else ever could. Money was important, but doing good was important as well as necessary in today’s world.

One summer afternoon, he was working as usual when one of his machines malfunctioned. He knew the cost to mend it was so high that he could not afford it at this point in time. He also knew that the production would halt unless the machine was mended immediately and his eyes started clouding. He felt a strong discomfort from this stress, such that he had never felt in his entire career. He was overcome with such a strong sense of weakness in his legs that he was almost scared. He quickly dropped everything he was doing and asked his staff that he needed a break. He went over to his office table, collapsed into his chair and turned the fan speed to ‘high’, breathing heavily and sweating. His weakness suddenly turned into drowsiness and before he knew, he was asleep. This worried his staff but they decided to remain patient with the situation till Ganesh woke up.

Just a few moments had passed when a sadhu arrived at their workplace. He seemed to be healthy, though not dressed very well, as well as tired and thirsty. He approached one of the workers, Navin, and said, “Is this Ganesh bhai’s textile factory?” as if he had known Ganesh since ages. On seeing his confidence while mentioning Ganesh, Navin happily confirmed the same. “I was passing from here due to some work and found myself too tired to continue. I remembered Ganesh then as I was in this area. I thought I would pay him a visit and ask if I could rest for a while”, he said. “Sure, of course”, he replied with the kindness that was always available in generous amounts at their workplace. “I won’t be much of a bother, don’t worry. I am just sitting here in the fresh air and if you could please help me with a glass of water, that would be splendid.” “I’ll bring it right away”, and Navin left to fetch a glass of water, as the sadhu smoked at his bidi.

When Navin got close to the water jug, he found the other workers looking at him very strangely. “What happened? Do I have something on my face?”, he asked out of curiosity. “Well, we were going to ask you what happened”, they replied in unison. “Why would you say that?”, he said, confused. “Well, because you were talking into the air that’s why”, said the others, still with a look of bewilderment on their face. “Are you kidding? I was talking to that sadhu there”, he said, turning around, only to find there was no one there anymore. He was surprised, and went there to check if the sadhu had left already. To his amazement, not only was the sadhu not there, but he also couldn’t find him anywhere near their workplace. He checked on the outside, around the entrance, in the street - but no sign of him.

Just when he was coming back with a puzzled look on his face, he was met by Ganesh who had just woken up. “How are you feeling, sir?”, he asked out of concern. “I just had a good sleep, I guess that is something I really needed. I feel completely refreshed and ready to start working. Mani just told me the machine got fixed, which is surprising, as I thought we were in deep trouble. He said it was something minor and somehow slipped our eyesight. Come on, are you ready to start again?” Hearing this, Ganesh was even puzzled. Something didn’t seem right.

“Sir, did you see the man who had come here asking for you?”, he enquired. “Well, I was only sleeping. Who was it?”, he asked. “Some sadhu, said he knew you. He was tired and wanted to rest and hence stopped by”, said Navin. “But by the time I fetched him water, he had disappeared.”

“Oh, I know no sadhu. Kishan, who was this man Navin is talking about?” and Ganesh started asking his men, when they started sharing how they had noticed Navin talking into thin air. “Sir, if there was any sadhu, none of us saw him, that's for sure”, they all said.

“Do you not believe me? Come here, stand where he was standing and tell me if you can’t smell the lingering burnt odour of the bidi he was smoking.” and Navin started getting impatient. As the workers came there, they were astonished when they could actually smell the smoke, now fainting.

“This cannot be, did I just miss meeting my God?”, exclaimed Ganesh, already filling up with great sorrow. “Navin, it was my Lord who had visited! Didn’t you notice? He made me fall asleep because he knew I would recognise him. The machine got fixed on its own! It all makes sense now!”

Everyone was gradually enveloped in shock as the pieces all came together.

Ganesh’s God had visited to help him. After this incident, the story spread through the village like wildfire and so did Ganesh’s business. He bought another piece of land and built another manufacturing unit there - solely for the purpose of earning money for good deeds. His riches grew exponentially and within a few years, he was trading internationally.

Alas, the unknown man had made all the difference! Or maybe, Ganesh’s faith had.