“Auspicious opportunity is but another name for God,” so says a modern philosopher. When God wishes not to reveal Himself as the doer of an act, He assumes the pseudonym “opportunity”! If we look into the lives of the most renowned warriors and the great men who have accomplished extraordinary deeds in the history of the world, we find that opportunity has aided them greatly. Some say that God, in His special grace, sends such opportunities to these individuals. There are those who attribute the favorable turns in life to the glory of the hour of birth, the fruits of one’s horoscope, the destiny written by Brahma, or the merit earned in previous births.

If, in our own time, the great Mahatma Gandhi had not received the opportunity to go to South Africa, would he have attained the veneration of the people as the greatest among men, as an avatar?

We know how much opportunity aided Chandragupta, Vikramaditya, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and George in their lives. From this, it would be wrong to conclude that God is partial. Besides the celebrated heroes and great men of history, God continues to send opportunities to countless others as well. But it is up to man’s intelligence and his ability to make the right decision at the right moment to make use of those opportunities.

Those who let opportunities slip through their fingers live and die in obscurity, without name or fame. Those who seize and make use of opportunities etch their names into the annals of history.

What other explanation can there be for the vast differences in the fortunes of those born at the same hour, on the same day?

At this very moment, such an opportunity presented itself in the life of Prince Arulmozhi Varman. When he flung aside the mahout who had come near him, and when the cry arose, “The elephant has gone mad!” that opportunity approached him— It had arrived. Had he failed to make use of it, this history would have taken a different course. Raja Raja Chozhan could never have ascended to such an exalted place in the annals of Tamil Nadu.

Fortunately, he possessed the timely intelligence to recognize that opportunity and seize it. He recalled the tale that the boatman Murugaiyyan had told him the previous day. In an instant, he deduced that the man who had approached the elephant was not the true mahout, but someone with evil intentions—hence the elephant had tossed him aside. If he tried to discover at that moment who the man was, and for what purpose he had come, the opportunity would slip away. The confusion among the people caused by the cry, “The elephant has gone mad!” could not be exploited later. His chief aim at that moment was to escape from that crowd and reach Thanjai as swiftly as possible. There could never be a more fitting chance to fulfill that aim.

Therefore, he called Murugaiyyan to his side, whispered something in his ear, then climbed onto his shoulders and leapt onto the elephant’s back. As he did so, he struck the howdah atop the elephant. The howdah tumbled down and rolled to the ground. Then, in the elephant’s own tongue, he spoke a few words to it. Instantly, the elephant trumpeted and set off. As before, it moved swiftly, bellowing in a terrifying voice. In a few moments, it broke into a run.

At the same time, Murugaiyyan shouted loudly, “Ayyo! The elephant has gone mad! Run! Run at once!”

The people, seized by even greater panic than before, scattered in all directions. They fled through side streets and alleys nearby. Some darted into open houses and hid themselves. Even those with the bravest of hearts, who feared nothing else, would flee before a mad elephant. No matter how great a hero, none could stand against a frenzied elephant. To face it with weapons was impossible; to stand unarmed, unthinkable. What could the unarmed crowd—men, women, elders, and children—do but scatter and flee before the rampaging beast?

The Prince guided the elephant past the town of Thiru Aaroor. Instead of directing it straight along the road to Thanjavur, he turned it northwest. From the very start, he had thought to reach Pazhaiyaarai on the way, and if his noble elder sister was there, to meet and speak with her before proceeding to Thanjai. Now,

It was decided in an instant. It was only natural for a maddened elephant to break away and run across the path. If they continued along the Thanjai road, the people would surely follow them without respite. But if the elephant took an untraveled path, the crowds would not be able to keep up!

Thinking thus, and making his decision with lightning speed, he turned the elephant off the road, steering it northwest across a shortcut. Fields, bunds, canals, rivers, breaches in the embankments—without caring for any of these, the elephant thundered on, trampling everything in its way. The prince’s heart, too, was seized by a strange exhilaration, soaring like a bird freed from its cage, wheeling through the open sky. A sense of excitement and anticipation welled up within him, as if he were approaching a pivotal moment in his life.

At the very moment the elephant began its wild run, Murugaiyyan shouted, “The elephant has gone mad!” and ran after it. He made a rough guess of where the mahout, who had been tossed aside by the elephant, might have fallen, and hurried in that direction. Not far from the Chola palace where the prince had stayed, there was the famed Kamalalayam tank, celebrated throughout the land. Murugaiyyan went to the banks of that tank and looked around. Many who had been frightened by the elephant were standing on the shore; some had even waded into the water itself. One man was floundering and swimming awkwardly to the bank. Murugaiyyan looked closely at him. It was the very same sorcerer who, on the first