NATURE OF GOD

GOD has the nature of a child.
A child is sitting with gems in the skirt of his cloth.
Many a person passes by him along the road. Many
of them pray to him for gems. But he hides the
gems with his hands and says turning away his face,
"No I will not give any away." But another man
comes along. He does not ask for the gems, and
yet the child runs after him and offers him the
gems, begging him to accept them.

TO HIM THESE ARE MERE DUST AND STRAW

ONCE a thief broke into the temple of Vishnu and
robbed the image of its jewels. Mathur Babu and I
went to the temple to sec what was the matter.
Addressing the image, Mathur said bitterly: "What
a shame, Lord! You are so worthless! The thief
took all the ornaments from your body, and You
couldn't do a thing about it?"
Thereupon I said to Mathur: "Shame on you! How
improper your words are! To God, the jewels you
talk so much about are only lumps of clay,
Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, is His consort.
Do you mean to say that He should spend
sleepless nights because a thief has taken your few

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM

ONE day in course of a conversation about God,
Mathur Babu observed, "God too must abide by
his own laws, He has no power to transcend
them." "What an absurd proposition!", I exclaimed,
"One who has made a law can repeal it at pleasure
or make a new law in its place."
'"How can that be?" said Mathur. "A plant that
produces only red flowers cannot produce flowers
of any other colour,—white, for instance, for such
is the law.
1 should like to see God produce white flowers
from a plant bearing only red flowers," "That too
He can do," answered I "for everything depends
on His will." Mathur was not convinced. The next
day, while taking a stroll in the temple garden I
came across a china-rose plant with two flowers on
the same stalk, one of which was red and the other
snow-white. I broke off the branch to show it to
Mathur, who felt highly surprised at the sight of it
and exclaimed, "Father, I will never more argue a
point with thee!"

THUS SAW ARJUNA

ACCORDING to the Jnani there is no Incarnation
of God, Krishna said to Arjuna, "You speak of Me
as an Incarnation of God. Let Me show you
something. Come with Me." Arjuna had followed
Sri Krishna a short distance, when Sri Krishna
asked him, "What do you see there?" Arjuna
replied, "A big tree with black berries hanging in
bunches." Krishna said, "Those are not black
berries. Go nearer and look at them." Arjuna went
nearer and saw that they were Krishnas hanging in
bunches. "Do you see now", said Krishna "how
many Krishnas like Me have grown there?"

SHE CAME AND WENT AWAY

BY the roadside on the way to Kamarpukur is
Ranjit Raya's lake. Bhagavati the Divine Mother,
was born as his daughter. Even now people hold
an annual festival there in the month of Chaitra, in
honour of this divine daughter.
Ranjit Raya was the landlord of that part of the
country. Through the power of his tapasya he
obtained the Divine Mother as his daughter. He
was very fond of her, and she too was much
attached to him; she hardly left his presence. One
day Ranjit Raya was engaged in the duties of his
estate. He was very busy. The girl, with her
childlike nature, was constantly interrupting him,
saying: "Father, what is this? What is that?" Ranjit
Raya tried, with sweet words, to persuade her not
to disturb him, and said: "My child, please leave me
alone. I have much work to do." But the girl
would not go away. At last absent-mindedly, the
father said, "Get out of here!" On this pretext she
left home. A pedlar of conch-shell articles was
going along the road. From him she took a pair of
bracelets for her wrists. When he asked for the
price, she said that he could get the money from a
certain box in her home. Then she disappeared.
Nobody saw her again. In the meantime the pedlar
came to the house and asked for the price of his
bracelets. When she was not to be found at home,
her relatives began to run about looking for her.
Ranjit Raya sent people in all directions to search
for her. The money owed to the pedlar was found
in the box, as she had indicated. Ranjit Raya was
weeping bitterly, when people came running to him
and said that they had noticed something in the
lake. They all ran there and saw an arm, with
conch-shell bracelets on the wrist, being waved
above the water. A moment afterwards it
disappeared. Even now people worship her as the
Divine Mother at the time of the annual festival
By dint of austerity, a man may obtain God as his
son. God reveals Himself in many ways;
sometimes as man, sometimes in other divine
forms made of spirit.

FEW, VERY FEW ARE THEY

A RICH man said to his servant: "Take this
diamond to the market and let me know how
different people price it. Take it, first of all, to the
egg-plant seller." The servant took the diamond to
the egg-plant seller. He examined it, turning it over
in the palm of his hand, and said, "Brother, I can
give nine seers of egg-plant, for it." "Friend," said
the servant, "a little more say, ten seers." The eggplant
seller replied: "No, I have already quoted
above the market price. You may give it to me if
that price suits you." The servant laughed. He
went back to his master and said: "Sir, he would
give me only nine seers of egg-plants and not one
more. He said he had offered more than the
market price." The master smiled and said:
"Now take it to the cloth dealer. The other man
deals only in egg plants. What does he know
about a diamond? The cloth-dealer has a little
more capital. Let us see how much he offers for
it." The servant went to the cloth dealer and said:
"Will you buy this? How much will you pay for
it?" The merchant said: "Yes, it is a good thing.
I can make a nice ornament out of it. I will give
you nine hundred rupees for it." "Brother," said
the servant, "offer a little more and J will sell it to
you. Give me at least a thousand rupees." The
cloth-dealer said: "Friend, don't press me for
more. I have offered more than the market price.
I cannot give a rupee more. Suit yourself."
Laughing, the servant returned to his master and
said: "He won't give a rupee more than nine
hundred. He too said he had quoted above the
market price." The master said with a laugh:
"Now take it to a jeweller, Let us see what he has
to say." The servant went to the jeweller. The
jeweller glanced at the diamond and said at once, "I
will give you one hundred thousand rupees for it."
One offers a price for an article according to one's
capital. Can all comprehend the Indivisible
Satchidananda? Only twelve rishis could recognize
Ramachandra. All cannot recognise an Incarnation
of God. Some take him for an ordinary man, some
for a holy person, and only a few recognise him as
an Incarnation.

STRIP NAME AND FORM AND LOOK BEYOND

ONCE a sadhu placed his disciple in a magnificent
garden with the intention of imparting to him the
knowledge of the real Self and went away. After a
few clays he came back and asked the disciple, "Do
you feel any want, my boy?" On being answered in
the affirmative, he left with him a fair woman
named Shyarna, and advised him to take fish and
meat freely. After a considerable time he came
again and asked the same question as before. This
time the disciple replied, "No, I have no want,
thank you". The sadhu then called both the disciple
and Shyama to him and pointing to Shyama's
hands, asked the disciple, "Can you tell me what
these are?" "Why, these are Shyama's hands",
replied the disciple. He put the same question
several times, pointing to Shyama's eyes, nose, and
other parts of the body, and the disciple gave
appropriate answers. Presently the idea struck the
disciple, "I am talking of everything as Shyama's
'this' and Shyama's 'that'. What then is this
Shyaraa?" Bewildered, he asked his Guru the
question, "But who is this Shyama to whom belong
these eyes, ears and the rest?" The sadhu said, ''If
you wish to know who this Shyama is, come with
me, and I will enlighten you". So saying, he
revealed to him the secret.