by Smt. Mandira Lahiri
There were two monks in India, walking
from one village to the next, begging for alms. One day they came upon a young
girl who was crying to herself near the banks of a river.
One of the monks approached her and asked,
“Sister, why are you crying?” She said, “Do you see that house on the other
side of the river? That’s where I live, and early this morning I waded across
the river without any problem. But now the water has risen, and there is no
boat anywhere near to take me across the river.” “Don’t worry, I will take you
to the other side.” said the monk. He
picked her up and carried her on his back safely across the waters to the other
shore. Thereafter, the two monks continued their journey to the next village.
They walked in silence for several hours, when suddenly the second monk spoke
up and said, “Brother you have committed a terrible sin. We have taken a vow of
chastity, never to touch a woman. Didn’t you feel pleasure and a strong
sensation when you touched that woman?” The first monk replied, “I left her
behind two hours ago, but you, apparently are still carrying her with you.”
Once upon a time there was a yogi who was
famous for his accomplishments and austerity. He owned only two loin clothes —
one was to wash, and the other to wear. He visited the capital of the kingdom
and his fame reached the ear of the king, who politely invited the yogi to his
palace. The king greeted the yogi with
due reverence, showed him around the palace, and took him to the treasure
vault, where he had enormous amounts of jewels and gold. He said to the yogi, “Take
whatever you like of my treasure; it is yours.” But the yogi proudly declined,
stating, “Worldly possessions don’t mean a thing to me. All I possess in the
world are these two loin clothes.” The king was impressed and said to the yogi,
“Please stay with me for a day or two and teach me the secret of your great
detachment and wisdom.” The yogi accepted his invitation. A servant showed him
to a bare room, where he could spend the night. In the middle of the night
there was an awful lot of noise. Somebody threw open the door of his room and
shouted, “Run for your life! The palace is on fire.” The yogi dashed out of the
room. There were flames and smoke in the hallways, and people were running. As
he was rushing out into the night, he saw the king in his robe next to him. And
as he looked back at the palace going down in flames, the king said to the
yogi, “Well there go all my jewels and treasures. But I don’t care, you have
taught me that possessions don’t matter, and that all one needs is a simple
garment.” Hearing the words, the yogi suddenly turned and started running
towards the burning palace. The king didn’t know what the yogi was doing by
running to certain death. So, he ran after him and caught up with him, “What
are you doing? Have you gone mad? You are sure to meet certain death in the
flames.” The yogi turned towards him with fear and worry on his face and said,
“My loincloth, my other loincloth, I left it in the palace, I must save it,
it’s all I have.” And the king suddenly laughed, “You are willing to give up
your life for your puny loincloth? And you are teaching me about detachment and
being free of possessions!”
Narada was a yogi so accomplished that one-day
God Vishnu appeared before him and said, “Narada, I grant you any wish you may
have. Just tell me your wish, and I’ll make it happen.” So, Narada said to Vishnu,
“All I want is to understand Maya, the power of illusion.” Vishnu sighed, “That
is very difficult to do. Is there nothing else you want, money or power, or
some divine pleasure?” Narada however insisted, “That’s all I want.” Vishnu
said, “All right then. But it’s a lovely day, so let’s take a walk while I
explain this to you.” They were walking among the hills like two friends,
looking at the magnificent snow-capped mountains in the distance. The sun was
shining very strongly, and Vishnu stopped beneath a shady tree and said to
Narada, “It is hot and I’m very thirsty. So, before we go into this, could you
perhaps fetch me a glass of water from that cottage down there? I’ll wait
here.” Narada said, “But of course, Lord, I’ll be right back.” Narada trotted
off and knocked on the door of the cottage. The door was opened by a beautiful girl,
whose beauty captivated Narada as she invited him into her house. He met her family, and they invited him to
have lunch with them. Before he knew it,
Narada had fallen in love with the young girl. They invited him to stay the
night and eventually he married the girl. They had children and led a happy and
prosperous life. One year the monsoons were stronger than ever. It kept on
raining day after day, flooding the fields and sweeping away the houses. As the
waters kept rising, Narada took his wife and children by the hand, the youngest
on his shoulders, and together they tried to save their lives by climbing on
top of the roof. But the children, one after the other, were swept away by the
raging waters. Just when he was attempting to pull his wife onto the roof, she
also was engulfed by the flood. Narada felt utterly devastated by this total
loss of everything he cherished. He was hanging on to dear life and, in his
despair, he fervently started to pray, “Please, Lord, help me in this misery.”
And through the roar of the water came Lord Vishnu’s voice, “And where is my
glass of water?”
In the book ‘Nectar of Wisdom’, Prajnanpurush
Sri Sri Babathakur narrates an incident from His childhood which goes this way —
when His body was very young, His father had taken Him to an open-air theater
where a mythological play was to be performed. The play had started very
dramatically, and the boy had taken keen interest in it. Just before the last
intermission, the hero was killed and was removed from the stage. During the
intermission, the boy needed to urinate and went outside the circle of
spectators to do so. Standing there, He saw the hero deeply engaged in
conversation with the heroine who was smoking (at that time all the actors were
men).
The boy was very surprised to see the dead
hero alive, for he had been so engrossed in the play that he had taken it for
reality. He shouted at the top of his voice: “Oh father the hero is not dead
and the heroine is smoking!!”
The father heard the boy shouting and came
up to him, pulled the boy very roughly by the ear and scolded him loudly, for
the boy’s behavior had embarrassed him. The other boys tried to defend their
friend by pointing out that he had done nothing but spoken the truth. The
father then stopped scolding his son, and both returned to watch the end of the
play.
If I sum up the morals of the three
stories and the anecdote from Sri Sri Babathakur’s life, it will be more or
less as follows — we spend most of our time on this earth like deluded beings
because of our strong sense of otherness. Our desires and attachments pull us
down all the time! We come under the spell of Maya. Meaningless mental chatter
goes on in our minds which dictates us to do things that are so short-lived.
The only way out is to dwell on our Higher Self — listening to our Sadguru Sri
Sri Babathakur’s divine words will make that happen. All the filth and muck
will be washed away, and our Real Self will shine forth which shall lead us to
eternal happiness.
