Story

[Guest guest]

For a change of pace, here's a story I hope you enjoy:

 

One day Krishna and Arjuna were walking down a path. Towards the evening they

became tired and saw a house. In the house was a mean old man. Through some

method he had acquired a lot of money. He was very mean. They knocked on the

door. The mean old man came to the door and said, "What do you want?" And

Krishna said, "May we have lodging for the night and food to eat?" Usually the

mean old man would have shut the door in their face, but he realized it was

Krishna and Arjuna, so he reluctantly let them in. He had a scrumptious dinner

for himself, but he gave Krishna and Arjuna only bread crumbs to eat. And he

had a comfortable bed, but he made Krishna and Arjuna lie down in the corner

in the mud to sleep for the night. When morning came, Krishna and Arjuna

were about to leave. Krishna put his hand on the old man's head and blessed

him and he said, "May you prosper abundantly." And they left.

 

Evening came again, and they came to another house. In this house live a pious,

wonderful, beautiful old man whose only possession was a cow. They knocked

on the door, and when the old man opened the door and saw Krishna, he

prostrated himself and he said, "What a blessing I've got to have Krishna and

Arjuna come to my home! My home is yours." He gave them his dinner. He

made them sleep in his bed, and he slept on the floor. And he praised them

all night. When morning came, Arjuna and Krishna were about to leave, and

Krishna put his hand on the old man's head and he said, "May your cow drop

dead!," and left.

 

Arjuna didn't say a word, but he was thinking about this all day. Finally he

had the nerve to ask Krishna, "Master, I don't understand your message.

The other night when we came into the house and this old man treated us

poorly, was mean to us, you blessed him and told him, may he prosper

abundantly. And last evening, when we came to this old man, pious

old man who was wonderful to us, gave us dinner and his bed, you cursed

him and said, may his cow die, drop dead. What is the meaning of this?"

 

Krishna explained, "My ways, Arjuna, are not your ways. And your ways

are not my ways. You may see me do many things which you do not

understand. Never judge me by what you see me do. Only love me.

You see, when I cursed the first man, and told him, may he prosper

abundantly, I realized he would come back many times, many incarnations,

and have a lot of money, and his relatives would haunt him to get some

money. The IRS would come after him, and his relatives would want

his money. He will have many lives to work this out. He will suffer many

lives because of his greed. Now when I went to the other old man, I

realized he was giving up everything for God. His only possession was the

cow. And this was holding him back from Self-Realization. So when I

removed the cow from him, then he will be Self-Realized. This is the game

I play with people."

 

The same is true with us. Never believe the Sage thinks like you or does

the things that you do. A Sage may appear to you to be an ordinary

person just like yourself. But that's where the similarity ends. Never try

to understand a sage, his methods, or what he does. Again, just love him.

That's all you have to do. If you can really learn to love the sage,

immediately you will see results in your spiritual life.

 

Robert Adams in "The Silence of the Heart"