Story of the week - The Forbidden Fruit

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Story of the weekSaturday, June 12, 2004

 

The Forbidden Fruit

There was a famous dacoit once who advised his son while initiating him into the

ancestral profession, never for a moment to listen to stories of the Lord. "Do

not stay to listen to any Purana or any reading of the Bhagavatha," he exhorted

the young aspirant. The son scrupulously observed this injunction for years and

amassed a good fortune.

One night, however, while running with his loot on his shoulder through a side

lane of the city to avoid the police, a piece of glass cut his sole. He sat for

a while to pull it off and stop the flow of blood. He was then behind a house,

where some one was reading and explaining the Bhagavatha to a small group of

listeners; he listened perforce for a short two minutes. The spark fell on the

heap of cotton. During that short period, he heard the pundit explaining the

nature of God. He has no ears, no eyes, no limbs: he has a thousand forms; He

is without form. "Sarvathah paani-paadam," as the Gita says. That description

got fixed in his heart. He could not shake it off.

A few days later the police came to know of the depredations made by him as well

as his associates and kinsmen. In order to know more about their activities they

entered the area incognito, one constable as Kali and some others as the

worshippers and priests. They shouted and yelled, cursed and terrified the

dacoits and called upon them to come out of their homes and fall at the feet of

Kali.

Many did so, but the son who had heard the Bhagavatha, albeit for two minutes,

knew just enough to save his skin. He was not terrified at all. He challenged

the constable who was acting the role of Kali and tore off his make-up and

exposed the plot and instilled courage into the hearts of the gang. Then, when

the police left discomfited he argued within himself thus: "If two minutes of

the forbidden fruit could help me so much, what can I not gain, if I devote

myself entirely to the stories of the glories of God?" He left off the evil

path and became a Sadhaka.

— Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Source: Chinna Katha I, 133 http://beaskund.helloyou.ws/askbaba/stories/s1023.html

 

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