Lord Rama feeds Swamiji

-
Swami Vivekananda was travelling in Uttar Pradesh, India in the hot summer. A merchant who was travelling with him, knowing that Swamiji was not having any money or other means with him,was looking at Him with disdain and was making fun of Him.He was eating well at every station where the train halted and also made fun of Swamiji. When the train arrived at Tharikot at noon, the temperature was blazing hot, Swamiji went out being hungry and thirsty. He was not even having a Kamandalam, to collect water and drink. To seek relief from the heat, He went to take rest under the station roof.A porter resting there, refused to give Swamiji space to rest. So Swamiji went and rested in the floor under the sun.

The merchant came there also and sat on a convenient seat.He again got some food and ate heartily. He then told Swamiji, “Hey, Sanyasi, Since you renounced money, look at your trouble now! You have no way of eating or drinking now.Why can’t you earn like me? If you earn well, you can enjoy life as much as you want!”

Suddenly a man came to that spot. He had a packet, water to drink, tumbler and a mat. He spread the mat under the shade and came straight to Swamiji.”Swamiji, I brought food for you. Please come and partake”, he invited. Swamiji was totally taken aback and told him, when he again invited Him, “Look here, my friend! You are mistaken. Possibly you are thinking of someone else. I have never seen you before!”

“No, Swamiji, You are the Saint I saw! I have no doubt about it!”

Swamiji was astonished and said, “you saw me? Where?”

“Swamiji, I am selling sweets. I dozed off after lunch. Lord Rama came in my dream. He showed You to me and told me, “Look here, My son has not eaten anything for the past two days. You immediately get up and take Pooris and sweets and go the railway station.” I woke up, realised that it was a dream.So I went back to sleep. Lord Rama did not leave me and shook me and woke me up. Immediately, as per the Lord’s directions, I prepared everything and brought them here for you. I identified You even at a distance. You are the Swamiji who came in my dream. Please come and partake the food. You must be hungry. Pleaste take, before the food becomes cold!”

The merchant was seeing all these with astonishment. He realised his mistake when he thought that if Lord Rama Himself had arranged for food for Swamiji, how great a Mahan, Swamiji could be! He immediately fell at Swamiji’s Feet and asked for pardon. Swamiji silently blessed him and went to take food, as arranged by the devotee lovingly! “

Popular posts from this blog

Power of the begging bowl

-
India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love, the garb of the Sannyâsin; not by the power of wealth, but by the power of the begging bowl. Say not that you are weak. The spirit is omnipotent. Look at that handful of young men called into existence by the divine touch of Ramakrishna's feet. They have preached the message from Assam to Sindh, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. They have crossed the Himalayas at a height of twenty thousand feet, over snow and ice on foot, and penetrated into the mysteries of Tibet. They have begged their bread, covered themselves with rags; they have been persecuted, followed by the police, kept in prison, and at last set free when the Government was convinced of their innocence. They are now twenty. Make them two thousand tomorrow. Young men of India, your country requires it. The world requires it. Call up the divinity withi
Read more

Boys with the faith of Nachiketa

-
Swamiji: Well, this body is in such a pitiable condition, but none of you are stepping forward to help in my work! What shall I do single - handed? This time the body has come out of the soil of Bengal, so can it bear the strain of much work? You who come here are pure souls; and if you do not become my helpers in this work, what shall I do alone? Disciple: Sir, these self - sacrificing Brahmacharins and Sannyasins are standing behind you, and I think that each one of them can devote his life to your work -- still why do you speak in this way? Swamiji: Well, I want a band of young Bengal -- who alone are the hope of this country. My hope of the future lies in the youths of character -- intelligent, renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient -- who can sacrifice their lives in working out my ideas and thereby do good to themselves and the country at large. Otherwise, boys of the common run are coming in groups and will come. Dullness is written on their face
Read more

Weakness to Strength

-
In spite of the greatness of the Upanishads, in spite of our boasted ancestry of sages, compared to many other races, I must tell you that we are weak, very weak. First of all is our physical weakness. That physical weakness is the cause of at least one-third of our miseries. We are lazy, we cannot work; we cannot combine, we do not love each other; we are intensely selfish, not three of us can come together without hating each other, without being jealous of each other. That is the state in which we are — hopelessly disorganised mobs, immensely selfish, fighting each other for centuries as to whether a certain mark is to be put on our forehead this way or that way, writing volumes and volumes upon such momentous questions as to whether the look of a man spoils my food or not! This we have been doing for the past few centuries. We cannot expect anything high from a race whose whole brain energy has been occupied in such wonderfully beautiful problems and researches! And are we not a
Read more