About a hundred years ago in India, lived an old lady called Gopal- Ma. She liked to think of God as baby Krishna. She had a little statue of young Krishna. She prayed in front of the statue every day. She was not happy just seeing the statue of Krishna, she wanted to see the real Krishna. Many years went by.

One day when she was praying, something very strange happened. There in front of her, was no more the statue of young Krishna, but the real boy Krishna, smiling and looking back at her! Krishna started to play with her, tugging her sari, and asking for sweets. She was amazed! She rubbed her eyes. She could not believe what she was seeing. But there in front of her, stood Krishna, being naughty and bothering her for sweets!

Gopal-Ma was so happy, tears of joy flowed from her eyes. She gave sweets to Krishna, and she talked and played with Him. Imagine what fun it would be to actually see God as a little child! Gopal-Ma spent the rest of her life thinking of God and loving God as Krishna. This is the true story of how someone was able to see and play with God in recent times.

The story tells us that if we truly love God and desire to see Him, he will come to us in the form we like. Gopal-Ma liked to think of God as young Krishna, so God appeared in front of her as young Krishna. God can be experienced in meditation; He can also be seen as a real person!

Reference: Primary Hinduism by Seeta Lakhani (Ch.2, 'Thinking About God', p.15)