Vision of God

Ravi and Gopal were thick friends. Ravi did not believe in God. In spite of being an atheist, he was good at heart. Gopal was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. He would narrate all his day’s happenings to Lord Krishna and converse with Him.
One day, the friends were engaged in a conversation. The topic revolved around God and as both the friends had contradicting views, the conversation slowly turned into a heated argument. Ravi claimed that God did not exist and everything about God was a mere bluff. Gopal tried his best to convince Ravi of the existence of God and explain him the truth. Ravi only retorted, ‘Well! If God were to exist, why don’t you ask Him to appear before me some day?” Gopal thought for a while. It did not sound like a bad idea to him. He replied in the positive.
When Gopal conversed with Sri Krishna that day, he related to Krishna his friend’s challenge. The omniscient Lord replied, ‘Oh my dear child! Those who fail to understand me, refuse to believe in me and refute my existence will not trust in your words until their true moment of realization comes. So, do not bother about your friend.”
Gopal did not leave there. He insisted that he had given a word to his dearest friend and he persisted that Sri Krishna should appear before his friend. Finally the Lord obliged.
The next day, when the friends met, Gopal’s face was writ with excitement. He asked Ravi, ‘My Lord would have given you darshan! Did you see Him? Now do you believe in Him?’ He kept on going posing a slew of questions in sheer excitement. Ravi stopped him short. He said, ‘Hey! Gopal! I am an atheist, no doubt! But I do read a lot of books. I have read many people say that the vision of God is simply impossible even for those who totally believe in him. How could your God appear before a non-believer like me!’
From this anecdote, we should learn that it is not wise to force someone in something that he does not have faith in.