MODERN JANAKAS!

A GENTLEMAN of modern education was once
discussing with the Master the nature of householder
uncontaminated by worldliness. To him, the
Master said, "I know of what sort is your
'uncontaminated family-man' of the present day! If
a poor brahmana comes to beg of this master of
the house, he (being an uncontaminated familyman
and having no concern with money matters,
for it is his wife who manages all those things!) says
to the begging brahmana, 'Sir, I never touch
money, why do you waste your time in begging of
me?' The brahmana, however, proves inexorable.
Fired with his importunate entreaties your
uncontaminated family-man thinks within himself
that he must be paid a rupee, and tells him openly:
'Well, sir, come tomorrow, I shall see what 1 can
do for you.' Then going in, this typical householder
tells his wife, 'Look here, my dear, a poor
brahmana is in great distress; let us give him a
rupee.' Hearing the word 'rupee' his wife gets out
of temper and says tauntingly, 'Aha, what a
generous fellow you are! Are rupees like leaves and
straws to be thrown away without the least
thought?" 'Well, my dear,' replies the master in an
apologetic tone, 'the brahmana is very poor and we
should not give him less.' 'No', says his wife, T
cannot spare so much. Here is a two Anna bit; you
can give that to him, if you like.' As the Babu is a
family-man quite uncontaminated by worldliness,
he takes, of course, what his wife gives him, and
next day the beggar gets only a two Anna piece.
So you see, your so-called uncontaminated familymen
are really not masters of themselves. Because
they do not look after their family-affairs, they
think that they are good and holy men, while, as a
matter of fact, they are hen-pecked husbands
guided entirely by their wives, and so are but very
poor specimens even of common humanity."