Indian Stories
by Sri Chinmoy
The founder of Sikhism, Nanak, was meditating one day with a group of disciples near a Hindu temple. When Nanak wanted to enter the temple along with his disciples, the guards would not allow him; they mistook him for a Muslim. He had a long beard, long hair and a long moustache, and his whole face seemed to be a Muslim face. His disciples told the attendants that he was not a Muslim but the great Master, Guru Nanak. But the guards were so ignorant that they had never heard of him and they refused to allow him to enter.
The disciples were very sad and mad, but they were helpless. They were afraid that if they did anything, the police would come and arrest them. So they left the temple and went to a nearby beach. Evening had set in, and Nanak asked them to meditate with him. They all meditated for some time, but the meditation was not deep, for they were still harbouring anger and humiliation. Nanak felt very sad. It was not because he had been prevented from entering into the temple, for he knew that ignorant people will always do that kind of thing. No, he was sad because he had become one with the sadness of his disciples. He said to them, “Look at the sky. See how beautiful and vast it is. Look at the moon, look at the stars. How beautiful they are! Let us be inwardly and outwardly as vast and beautiful as the sky, the moon and the stars.” On other days the disciples would have all cheerfully become one with their Master, but on this day they were still mad, and they were not showing any kind of cheerfulness.
Nanak said, “In this world there will always be people who will insult us, but we should be above their insults. The attendants were not nice to us, but I tell you that the god of that temple is pleased with us. He will do something for us.”
To their wide surprise, while Nanak was talking two large dishes full of fruits and Indian sweets appeared before them. They could not account for this, but Nanak said, “It was the presiding deity of that temple who brought this food. I saw him with my inner vision, but you did not see him.”
But the disciples were not satisfied. They said, “No, it cannot be.” They thought that one of the disciples had gone out and brought these things for them.
“Is this the kind of faith you have in me?” Nanak asked. On other days the disciples would have believed their Master. But today they were doubtful, because they felt that their Master should have shown his spiritual and occult power and entered into the temple. But Nanak did not do anything when the guards insulted him.
“What do you want?” Nanak asked. “Do you want me to show you another miracle? I have shown you so many miracles, but have any of them changed your life? No! Again, if you want one more miracle I can show you, but I tell you it will not change your nature. It will only increase your curiosity. But perhaps in this way you will be silenced. Go and taste the water of the sea.”
Some of the disciples hesitated, others went. The water was full of salt. Nanak asked those who had drunk the water to come and sit before him, and those who hadn’t drunk to sit elsewhere. Then he asked those near him to drink the sea water again. This time, when the disciples drank, the water was as sweet as honey.
“Really you have performed a miracle!” they cried. “Just two minutes ago it was all salty. We were about to vomit. But now it is all honey, so sweet.”
So the people who drank were satisfied with this miracle, and both they and those who, out of fear, didn’t drink the water, remained silent.
Nanak said, “I have pleased your curiosity, but I wanted something else from you: compassion-forgiveness, forgiveness-compassion and, the most important thing of all, oneness with the Will of God.”
A great seeker named Bamadav was known throughout the land for his unparalleled kindness and compassion, not only towards humanity but towards all earthly creatures. Although he was extremely poor, his was the heart of magnanimity and generosity.
One day, Bamadav was preparing his simple evening meal. He had put butter on two pieces of bread, but had not yet buttered a third piece. He was about to eat the two buttered pieces when all of a sudden a dog started barking outside the door to his small cottage. When Bamadav opened the door, the dog ran in, grabbed the unbuttered piece of bread and ran away.
Bamadav ran after the dog, pleading with it to stop: “O dog, I am asking you to return my piece of bread only so that I can butter it and give it back to you. You are a guest, and guests should be treated with utmost affection and love.”
As soon as Bamadav said this, the dog changed into a human being full of luminosity, and said to him, “I am the Supreme Deity. I came to you to see your oneness with my entire creation.”
Bamadav was overwhelmed with joy and fell at the Supreme Deity’s Feet. The Supreme Deity blessed the great seeker, saying, “You saw Me in a dog. Others would have beaten the dog, instead of begging to get the piece of bread back in order to butter it. Your oneness with the animal world, your oneness with all the worlds, your oneness with My entire creation — all have pleased Me beyond your imagination. Therefore, I am granting you the supreme realisation: Eternity’s Peace, Infinity’s Light and Immortality’s Life.”
One day the great seeker Ramdas met the God-realised soul Tulsidas and prayed to him, “O great soul, do help me realise God. I have been praying and meditating for years and years, but still God-realisation is a far cry. Do help me realise God.”
Tulsidas said, “I shall not only help you to realise God, but I shall make you see God tomorrow.”
Ramdas said, “Tomorrow? O great soul, perhaps you are cutting jokes with me. Am I fit for God-realisation?”
“Yes, you are more than fit,” answered Tulsidas. “Tomorrow, God will come to you. Keep your house clean, prepare nice, delicious food for God and pray and meditate the whole day most soulfully. God will definitely come to you.”
The next day Ramdas brought many beautiful flowers to decorate his room and made a delicious meal for God. He remained soulful the whole day and prayed and meditated.
But O God, the whole day passed, and there was no sign of God. Ramdas was lamenting like anything. “Why has God not come? How could such a great soul like Tulsidas deceive me? But there is no sign of God.”
All of a sudden Ramdas saw a buffalo standing near his door. He was so mad. “How could that buffalo come here? Where did it come from?” he said.
The buffalo entered into his house and began eating the food and destroying the flowers. The animal ate many of the fruits which Ramdas had kept so devotedly for God. Ramdas was so furious that he took a stick and started beating the buffalo. But the buffalo just kept eating to its heart’s content and then ran away.
“Is this my fate?” cried Ramdas. “I wanted God and instead a buffalo has to come and ruin everything. O Tulsidas, is this your God? Tomorrow when I see you, I will give you a piece of my mind!”
The next day he went to Tulsidas, but the God-realised soul was in a very high mood. For some time Ramdas did not dare to speak. Then Tulsidas said, “So, God came to you?”
Ramdas said, “God came? A buffalo came!”
“A buffalo?” asked Tulsidas.
“Yes,” answered Ramdas. “It came and ruined everything.”
“You fool!” Tulsidas said. “It was not a buffalo. It was God in the form of a buffalo. He wanted to examine you to see if you had established your oneness with his entire creation. If you had been in a very high consciousness, you would have seen and felt that it was not a buffalo but God Himself. God took the form of a buffalo and examined you. You have mistreated God so mercilessly that now it will take a very long time for you to realise God. So you may as well forget about God-realisation.”
Ramdas cried and cried before Tulsidas, “How could I have known God would take the form of a buffalo and thus play a trick on me?”
Tulsidas said, “Pray more soulfully, more devotedly, more unconditionally and more unreservedly. Then you will know everything: where God is and who God truly is.”
Ramdas said, “From now on, I shall try to be worthy of one day receiving God in God’s own Way.”
Published in Great Indian Meals: Divinely Delicious and Supremely Nourishing, part 1
One day an old man walked a long distance to see how the rice was growing in his paddies. When he came home, he was dead tired. His son, who was very, very spiritual, began to devotedly massage his father’s feet while the old man was resting. The father was relaxing with his eyes closed, appreciating his son’s devotedness and the good massage. After about half an hour, the father fell fast asleep.
All of a sudden the son saw Lord Krishna standing right before him, watching his devotedness with appreciation and admiration. For a few seconds the son folded his hands and then he continued massaging his father’s feet.
He said to Krishna, “O Lord, I am so happy that you have come to see me. I pray to you every day most soulfully, but now you have come at a time when I am massaging my father’s feet. Look, there is a chair over there. Would you kindly get the chair and sit down? At this moment I cannot bring it to you.”
Krishna said, “No, I have been sitting for a long time. I can’t sit anymore. And you are massaging your father’s feet, so you are unable to come over here to me.” The son said, “Krishna, I see your presence inside my father. Since I have already started massaging him, will you not forgive me?”
“What is there to forgive?” asked Krishna. “Nothing pleases me more than to see someone do his duty. You have received illumination. In your father you see my presence, so you don’t have to come to me.”
While this conversation was going on the father woke up. “What are you doing?” he asked his son. “With whom were you speaking?”
“I was speaking with Lord Krishna,” replied the son.
“Lord Krishna! Where is he?” said the father.
The son said, “He appeared here. And I did not go to him because I was massaging you.”
The father said, “You fool! I have been crying to see Lord Krishna and you have actually talked to him without even offering him something to sit on.”
The son explained, “I did ask him, but he said he was not tired, and he appreciated my devotedness to you.”
“What kind of son do I have?” lamented the father. “I am only a mortal, an ordinary human being. The Lord Himself came, but you could not go and see him. O Lord Krishna, forgive my son and forgive me for having such an idiot in the family.”
The son said, “Say what you want. But you know that in you I always feel the presence of my Lord Krishna. So when I didn’t go to him, he did not mind. On the contrary, he was very proud of me because I was doing my duty. Krishna said that nothing pleased him more than to see someone doing his duty.”
The father said, “If what you are saying is all true, then I am really blessed that I have such a nice, wise, soulful and devoted son who can bring Krishna to us. But blind I shall always be. It seems I shall never see him. Even if my eyes had not been closed, perhaps I would not have seen him with my naked, human eyes. You were able to see Krishna because he opened your third eye, the eye that sees. I am so proud that at least my son has seen him. But how I wish I could know for sure that this is all true.”
At that moment Krishna appeared and said, “It is all true, all true. It is because of your son’s faithfulness and one-pointed devotedness to you that today you are seeing me. In you your son saw me, and that is the supreme realisation. Now you, the father, try to see me also in your son. Then you will also be blessed with the supreme realisation that I am in all, with all and for all. I am the creation, I am the Creator; I am the life of the creation and the Light of the Creator. Again, I am the one who is all light, all life, all compassion, all oneness, all satisfaction and all perfection. See this and feel this in all, and then grow into this realisation.”
Both father and son fell down at Krishna’s feet and said, “Krishna; O infinity’s Lord, you have come to us with a finite form so we can touch you, feel you and become like you. Infinite is your greatness, eternal is your goodness.”
Published in Great Indian Meals: Divinely Delicious and Supremely Nourishing, part 2
