The ways of the Lord are inscrutable

[Guest guest]

Light and Love

There was a great Bhaktha once who failed in the test and so could not get

the certificate. Every day at noon, he used to look out for a needy guest whom

he could feed lavishly. Thus he spent years, but one day, a frail old figure

toddled into the house and sat for the dinner. He had crossed the century mark

in years. The host had the steadiness of the vow, but he did not have the

discrimination to derive the fruit of that vow. Like water poured on a dry sand

bed, it did not add to its fertility. His heart still remained a dry sand-bed,

though the waters of charity were poured on it every noon. The Viveka-less

heart drank up the charity and he was the same strict ritualist. The decrepit

guest was overwhelmed by hunger and so, as soon as the first dish was served,

he swallowed a big morsel without reciting the name of God. Annoyed at this

atheism, the host cursed the old man and pushed him out of doors to starve or

beg in the hot sun. That night, he had a dream where the Lord chastised him

for the cruelty of his behaviour. The Lord said, "For more than a hundred

years, I nourished that man lovingly as the apply of My eye, though he never

once took a single one of My many names. My dear man, could you not have

suffered him for a few minutes?" Thiruththondar in Tamilnadu showed how to

stand up to this kind of test when the Lord comes as a hungry guest to the

house of the Bhaktha. The feeling of surrender is the best for success in all

such instances. Let His will be done. He is every One. Sharanaagathi (seeking

refuge for protection) is like grass on the ground, unaffected by storms;

egoism is the Palmyra tree that sways in the wind but breaks when it blows

suddenly in a gust. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable; your duty is to

submit to them faithfully, thankfully, and joyfully. (Excerpt from the

Discourse of Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba. "Welcome theTests". 7 March 1962).

Namaste - Reet