Greatest inspiration

The late King Bhumibol is the king and the god in my universe. As a king, time and time again, he led the country out of crises and towards the betterment of our small country. As a god, if being god is to be omnipresent and omnipotent, he was both. All my life whenever and wherever I look, he is there as a picture on the wall and it is most likely that he was there at some point in his life to meet his people in person. That is why his departure touches so many hearts in his kingdom so deeply. He was omnipotent — he could summon rain, turn barren land into fertile ground, prevent drought and flood, and alleviate all sorts sufferings, big or small, of his people in the more real and tangible manner than any gods I know could have ever done.

And yet he is mortal. The fact that he is a mortal like all of us but he could do all that is the greatest inspiration. Because he did not have magical power to bring about things with a blink of an eye like gods in a myth, he has become a living symbol of perseverance, of endurance because we realise how hard it is for a mortal to do all that he had done.

The royal crematorium and the cremation ceremony, however magnificently lavish they may be, cannot compare to the love, loyalty and respect that we have for a man who had spent all his waking moments working hard for his land and his people. He was the ninth king of Thailand in the Chakri dynasty by blood but he has earned a special throne as a king of our heart by his deeds, and forever on that throne will he remain.

SAVITRI GADAVANIJ