LISTEN TO SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. J K SIVAN A young Sannyâsin went to a forest, and meditated, worshipped, and practiced Yoga. After many years of hard work and practice, one day when sitting under a tree, n some dry leaves fell upon his head from the tree. He looked up and saw a crow and a crane fighting on the top of the tree, which made him very angry. He said, "What! Dare you throw these dry leaves upon my head!" Saying so he angrily looked at the crane and crow. Because of his yogic power a flash of fire went up from his head and burnt the birds to ashes. He was very glad,overjoyed at his power.
After some days one day the sanyasi went begging asusual and stood at a door, and said and called , "Mother, give me food."
The lady in the house replied from kitchen , "Wait a little, my son."
The young sanyasi thought of his power and was angry for her making him wait.
"You wretched woman, how dare you make me wait! You do not know my power yet."
While he was thinking thus the voice came again from inside the house.
"O, boy, don't be thinking too much of yourself. Here is neither crow nor crane."
He was astonished; still he had to wait. At last the woman came, and he fell at her feet and said, "Mother, how did you know that?"
She said, "My boy, I do not know your Yoga or your practices. I am a common everyday woman. I made you wait because my husband is ill, and I was nursing him. All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the Yoga I practice. But by doing my duty I have become illumined; thus I could read your thoughts and know what you had done in the forest. If you want to know something higher than this, go to the market of such and such a town where you will find a Vyâdha (The lowest class of people in India who used to live as hunters and butchers.) who will tell you something that you will be very glad to learn."
The Sannyasin thought, "Why should I go to that town and to a Vyadha?"but decided to go to the nearby town, he found the market and met the big fat Vyadha cutting meat with big knives, talking and bargaining with different people.
The young sanyasi looked at the vyadhaa and thought od. "Lord help me! Is this the man from whom I am going to learn? He is the incarnation of a demon, if he is anything."
The Vyadha looked at the sanysi and said ''O, Swami, did that lady send you here? Take a seat until I have done my business."
The Sannyasi was surprised, "What comes to me here?" He sat and waited. The vyadha completed his work, and collected his wages and told the sanyasi "Come sir, come to my home."
The sanyasi reached the vyadha's house and was offered a seat and told to wait. The vyadha then washed his old father and mother, fed them, and did all he could to please them, after which he came to the Sannyasin and said,
"Now, sir, you have come here to see me; what can I do for you?" The Sannyasin asked him a few questions about soul and about God, and the Vyadha gave him a lecture. It is called the Vyâdha-Gitâ, and is a part of Mahabharatha.A When the Vyadha finished his teaching, the Sannyasin asked "Why are you in that body? With such knowledge as yours why are you in a Vyadha's body, and doing such filthy, ugly work?"
"My son," replied the Vyadha, "no duty is ugly, no duty is impure. My birth placed me in these circumstances and environments. In my boyhood I learnt the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty well. I try to do my duty as a householder, and I try to do all I can to make my father and mother happy. I neither know your Yoga, nor have I become a Sannyasin, nor did I go out of the world into a forest; nevertheless, all that you have heard and seen has come to me through the unattached doing of the duty which belongs to my position."
No comments:
Post a Comment