Shri Nathji once told a very interesting story about a powerful King who made the mistake of mocking God.
The King said to himself:
It is said that God can destroy the world in a fraction of a second, that he can humble the great in a trice and make a king a beggar in a moment! But surely it would take God quite some time to destroy a King like me and wreck a kingdom like mine, which is so vast and powerful!
The next day he went out on a hunt. In the middle of the hunt the king separated from his men. A voice rang out from the Heavens,
Lift him up and remove him to another region in space and time!
The King, along with his horse, suddenly found himself in new regions, surrounded by strange people.
Seize him! the people shouted, It’s the famous robber! The crowds pounced upon him. He was thrown in jail. The king of this faraway province was actually a friend and subordinate of the King. He even had a portrait of the King in his palace. But he refused to have the prisoner brought to the palace. Of what use my seeing him? He is but a robber; let him be punished!
The arms and legs of the prisoner were severed from his body and he was left to lie on the crossroads. And it was thus that twelve years passed. During this time, the citizens of the town gradually grew to respect the maimed person, for he was a learned man and knew widely of the scriptures as well as of several languages.
The daughter of the King came to take tuition from him, and he taught her various philosophies he knew. During such an hour of teaching, he read out a passage from a book, which said:
God can destroy in a trice even the most powerful of Kingdoms, and change the face of earth in a brief moment.
Suddenly, he remembered his own blasphemy against God in the past, and the events that had transpired since then. A spiritual realisation dawned on him. His soul was flooded with repentance. He fell down on the ground and wept.
With the coming of this spiritual enlightenment, he miraculously regained his arms and legs.
He asked for his horse, and the horse was brought before him. The king of the province was informed of the miracle. The robber was in fact the King of the entire kingdom!
Impossible! said the smaller king, there was no news of the King being lost!
The portrait of the King was brought from the palace. Everyone was shocked. It was no robber, it was the King.
In the meanwhile, the King sat upon his horse and shut his eyes. The next instant he was back in his own Kingdom, in the middle of the hunt.
Your Highness! said his courtiers and men, where have you been? We have been waiting for you for two hours!
Two hours! the King said to himself–and yet, he knew that twelve years had elapsed!
God could stretch or squeeze time as he wanted to. He could obliterate Kingdoms, make them vanish in a moment, and create new ones. He was the Creator of all that existed, space as well as time. His powers knew no bounds. Neither did His Grace.
Brahma the Creator created the world in the twinkling of His eyelash. And yet the twinkling of His eyelash could mean thousands of years for man.