HARD ARE THE RULES FOR A SANNYASI

THE Rules for a sannyasin are extremely hard. He
cannot have the slightest contact with 'woman and
gold'. He must not accept money with his own
hands, and he must not even allow it to be left near
him.
Lakshminarayan Marwari, a Vedantist, used to
come here26 very often. One day he saw a dirty
sheet on my bed and said: "I shall invest ten
thousand rupees in your name. The interest will
enable you to pay your expenses." The moment he
uttered these words, I fell unconscious, as if struck
by a stick. Regaining consciousness I said to him:
"If you utter such words again, you had better not
come here. It is impossible for me to touch money.
It is also impossible for me to keep it near me." He
was a very clever fellow. He said: "Then you too
have the idea of acceptance and rejection. In that

case you haven't attained Perfect Knowledge." "My
dear sir," I said, "I haven't gone that far."
Lakshminarayan then wanted to leave the money
with Hriday. I said to him: "That will not do. If you
leave it with Hriday, then I shall instruct him to
spend it as I wish. If he does not comply, I shall be
angry. The very contact of money is bad. No, you
can't leave it with Hriday, Won't an object kept
near a mirror be reflected in it?"

EQUAL VISION IS THE FIRST AND LAST SIGN OF RENUNCIATION

A HUSBAND and wife renounced the world and
together undertook a pilgrimage to various holy
shrines. Once, as they were walking along a road,
the husband, who was a little ahead of the wife,
saw a piece of diamond on the road. Immediately
he began to scratch the ground to hide the
diamond in it, thinking that if his wife saw it
perchance she might be moved to avarice, and thus
lose the merit of renunciation. While he was thus
scratching the ground, the wife came up and asked
him what he was doing. He gave her, in an
apologetic tone, an evasive .reply. She, however,
finding out the diamond and reading his thoughts
remarked, "Why did you leave the world if you
still feel the distinction between the diamond
and dust?"

SIMULATION OF HOLINESS MAY BECOME A STIMULATION FOR IT

ONK night a fisherman went into a garden and
cast his net into the lake in order to steal some fish.
The owner heard him and surrounded him with his
servants. They brought lighted torches and began
to search for him. In the mean time the fisherman
smeared his body with ashes and sat under a tree,
pretending to be a holy man. The owner and his
men searched a great deal but could not find the
thief. All they saw was a holy man covered with
ashes, meditating under a tree. The next day the
news spread in the neighbourhood that a great sage
was staying in the garden. People gathered there
and saluted him with offerings of fruits, flowers,
and sweets. Many also offered silver and copper
coins. "How strange!" thought the fisherman, 'T
am not a genuine holy man, and still people show
such devotion to me. I shall certainly realize God if
I become a true sadhu. There is no doubt about it."

TODAY'S IMITATION IS TOMORROWS INSPIRATION

A THIEF entered the palace of a king in the dead
of night and overheard the king saying to the
queen, "I shall give my daughter in marriage to one
of those sadhus {holy men) who are dwelling on
the bank of the river," The thief thought within
himself: "Well, here is good luck for me. I will go
and sit among the sadhus tomorrow in the disguise
of a sadhu, and perchance I may succeed in getting
the king's daughter."
The next day he did so. When the king's officers
came soliciting the sadhus to marry the king's
daughter, none of them consented to it. At last
they came to the thief in the guise of a sadhu, and
made the same proposal to him. The thief kept
quiet. The officers went back and told the king that
there was a young sadhu who might be influenced
to marry the princess and that there was no other
who would consent. The king then came to the
sadhu in person and earnestly entreated him to
honour him by accepting the hand of his daughter.

But the heart of the thief was changed at the king's
visit. He thought within himself: "I have only
assumed the garb of a sadhu, and behold! the king
comes to me and is all entreaties. Who can say
what better things may not be in store for me if I
become a real sadhu!" These thoughts so strongly
affected him that, instead of marrying under false
pretences, he began to mend his ways from that
very day and exerted himself to become a true
sadhu. He did not marry at all, and ultimately
became one of the most pious ascetics of his day.
The counterfeiting of a good thing sometimes
leads to unexpected good results.

NONE WILL FOLLOW THEE AFTER DEATH

A DISCIPLE said to his Guru that his wife loved
him very much and so he could not renounce the
world. The disciple used to practise Hatha Yoga.
To convince him of the hollowness of his plea, the
Guru taught him some secrets of this branch of -
Yoga. One day, all of a sudden, there was great
consternation in the disciple's house and wailings
and sobbing were heard all around. The
neighbours came running to the house, and saw
the disciple in a room, quite motionless, in a
peculiar convoluted posture. They all thought that
life was, extinct in the body. The wife of the
disciple was crying: "Alas! Where have you gone,
dear? Why have you forsaken us? Ah! we never
knew that such a calamity would befall us!" In the
meantime the relatives brought a cot to take the
corpse out for cremation. Then they found
themselves face to face with a very serious
difficulty. As the man was in a contorted posture,
his body would not come out through the door.
Seeing that, one of his neighbours, brought an axe
and began to cut the wooden frame of the door.

Till then the wife was weeping in an uncontrollable
fit of sorrow; but no sooner did she hear the sound
of the axe than she ran to the spot, and, though
still weeping, anxiously enquired what they were
about. One of the neighbours told her that they
were cutting the door as her husband's body could
not otherwise be taken out owing to its peculiar
posture. "No, no," cried out the wife, "don't do so
now. I have been widowed and there is none to
look after me. I have to bring up my fatherless
children. If you now cut the door, it cannot be
repaired again. Whatever was to happen has
happened to my husband. You had better cut his
hands and legs and take him out." Hearing this, the
Hatha Yogi at once stood up; the effect of the drug
having gone by this time, and bawled out,
"Woman, you want to cut my hands and legs?"
And so saying, he went away with his Guru
renouncing hearth and home.

NOT UNTIL THE ILLUSION BREAKS

A GURU said to his disciple: "The world is
illusory. Come away with me." "But revered sir,"
said the disciple, "my people at home—my father,
my mother, my wife—love me so much. How can
I give them up?" The guru said: "No doubt you
now have this feeling of T and 'mine' and say that
they love you; but this is all an illusion of your
mind, I shall teach you a trick, and you will know
whether they love you truly or not." Saying this, the
teacher gave the disciple a pill and said to him:
"Swallow this at home. You will appear to be a
corpse, but you will not lose consciousness. You
will see everything and hear everything. Then I
shall come to your house and gradually you will
regain your normal state."
The disciple followed the teacher's instructions and
lay on his bed like a dead person. The house was
filled with loud wailing. His mother, his wife, and
the others lay on the ground weeping bitterly. Just
then a brahmana entered the house and said to
them, "What is the matter with you?" "This boy is
dead", they replied. The brahmana felt the pulse
and said: "How is that? No, he is not dead. I have a

medicine that will cure him completely." The joy of
the relatives was unbounded; it seemed to them
that heaven itself had come down into their house.
"But", said the brahmana, "I must tell you
something else. Another person must take some of
this medicine first, and then the boy must swallow
the rest. But the other person will die. I see he has
so many dear relatives here; one of them will
certainly agree to take the medicine. I see his wife
and mother crying bitterly. Surely they will not
hesitate to take it."
At once the weeping stopped and all sat quiet. The
mother said: ''Well, this is a big family: Suppose I
die; then who will look after the family?" She fell
into a reflective mood. The wife, who had been
crying a minute before and bemoaning her ill luck,
said: "Well he has gone the way of mortals. 1 have
these two or three young children. Who will look
after them if I die?"
The disciple saw everything and heard everything.
He stood up at once and said to the teacher: "Let
us go, revered sir. 1 will follow you."

DISPASSION COMES LIKE A FLOOD AND NEVER BY DROPS

How does a man come to have vairagya
(dispassion)?
A wife once said to her husband: "Dear, I am very
anxious about my brother. For the past one week
he has been thinking of becoming an ascetic, and
has been busy preparing for that life. He is trying
to reduce gradually all his desires and wants." The
husband replied: "Dear, be not anxious about your
brother. Pie will never become a sannyasin. No one
can become a sannyasin in that way." "How does
one become a sannyasin then?" asked the wife.
"Thus" exclaimed the husband; so saying, he tore
his flowing dress to pieces, took a piece and tied it
round his loin, and told his wife that she and all of
her sex were henceforth mothers to him. He left
the house, nevermore to return.

HE WENT AWAY, TOWEL ON HIS SHOULDER

A MAN was going to bathe. He had his towel on
his shoulder. His wife said to him, "You are
worthless. You are getting old and still you cannot
give up some of your habits. You cannot live a
single day without me. But look at that man!
What a renouncer he is!"
Husband: "Why? What has he done?"
Wife: "He has sixteen wives and he is renouncing
them one by one. You will never be able to
renounce."
Husband: "Renouncing his wives one by one! You
are crazy. He won't be able to renounce. If a man
wants to renounce, does he do it little by little?"
Wife (smiling): "Still he is better than you."
Husband: "You are silly; you don't understand. He
cannot renounce. But I can. See! Here I go!"
That is called intense renunciation. No sooner did
the man discriminate than he renounced. He went

away with the towel on his shoulder. He didn't turn
back to settle his worldly affairs. He didn't even
look back at his home.
He who wants to renounce needs great strength of
mind. He must have a dare-devil attitude like a
dacoit's. Before looting a house, the dacoits shout:
"Kill! Murder! Loot!"

THE HOMA BIRD

TPHE Vedas speak of the Homa bird. It lives very
high in the sky. There the mother bird lays her egg.
She lives so high that the egg falls for many days.
While falling it is hatched. The chick continues to
fall. That also goes on for many days. In the
meantime the chick develops eyes. Coming near
the earth, it becomes conscious of the world. It
realises it will meet certain death if it hits the
ground. Then it gives a shrill cry and shoots up
towards its mother. The earth means death, and it
frightens the young bird; it then seeks its mother.
She dwells high up in the sky, and the young bird
shoots straight up in that direction. It doesn't look
anywhere else.
Persons who are born with God-consciousness
realise the danger of coming in contact with the
world. From their very childhood they are afraid of

the world, and their one thought is how to reach
the mother, how to realise God.

IT'S NOT EASY TO ATTAIN TRUE HUMILITY

A MAN went to a sadhu and said with a great
show of humility: "Sir, I am a very low person. Tell
me, O Master, how I am to be saved." The sadhu,
reading the heart of the man, told him, "Well, go
and bring me that which is meaner than yourself."
The man went out and looked all round but found
nothing whatsoever meaner than himself. At last
he saw his own excrement and said, "Well, here is
something which is certainly worse than myself."
He stretched forth his hand to take it up and carry
it to the sadhu when suddenly he heard a voice say
from within the ordure: "Touch me not, O sinner.
I was a sweet and delicious cake, fit to be offered
to the gods and in appearance so pleasing to all the
spectators. But my ill-fortune brought me to you,
and by your evil contact I have been reduced to
such a detestable condition that men run away
from me with faces turned and with handkerchiefs
covering their noses. Once only did I come in
contact with you and this has been my fate. What

deeper degradation may I not be thrown into if you
touch me again?"
The man was thus taught true humility and became
the humblest of the humble. As a result he attained
the highest perfection.