Once upon a time, an old woman lived all alone in a hut close to the edge of the forest. She used to collect food and firewood from the forest and spend most of her time taking care of a small idol of God just like a mother takes care of her child.
One stormy evening, the old woman had a visitor, a priest, from the neighboring village. who was on his way to the town to visit his relatives. He approached the old woman and asked her if he could spend the night in her hut's verandah and leave for the town once the stormy weather was cleared. The old woman welcomed him to her hut and offered him food and bed for the night's rest. While he retired to the bed laid out in the verandah's corner he saw the old woman take food to God's idol place in a corner of the hut and feed it the way a mother feeds her child.
The following morning when the priest woke up and looked inside the hut to thank the old woman, he found her busy bathing and feeding God's idol and treating it like a child. The priest cleared his throat to attract the old woman's attention. On hearing the priest's voice, the old woman turned around to wish him and asked him if he would like to have breakfast with her before he could leave for the town. The priest agreed and sat down to have breakfast with her.
During breakfast, the priest told the old woman she was not worshiping God the right way. He then taught her a few mantras she had to chant and all that she had to do while offering prayers to God. He then thanked the old woman and headed towards the town.
After completing his religious engagements at the town the priest returned to his home and resumed attending to the religious duties.
One night, the priest had a dream, he dreamed that the old woman's idol of God was weeping like a child and told him, 'I have lost my mother because of you! She does not love me anymore. She is always busy chanting mantras she does not understand, therefore. my mother and I are really sad. Please go and tell my mother to take care of me the way she used to take care of me. She used to speak her heart and mind to me. she would sing songs and lullaby to me. I was her child and you made me her revered God. She now fears me and mindfully practices all religious procedures and formalities you taught her to doggedly follow. I miss my mother's love and care and how she used to speak out her worries and happiness while attending to her child. You have forced me to become her revered God"
When the priest woke up in the morning, he immediately visited the old woman's hut and found her seated all alone in the verandah looking lost and sad. The priest approached her and offered his salutations... He then narrated his dream to her and asked her to worship God the way she used to, just like her child. The old woman, who was listening carefully to what the priest had to say, was very happy. She said that God had visited her too in her dream and asked her too to take care of him like her child.
The priest thanked the woman and returned to the village temple.
I enjoyed this bedtime story whenever my Nani(Maternal Grandmother) would narrate it.
Now when I contextually refer to this story along with our Indian Philosophy "Visitor or Guest is like God." I wonder about all the official paraphernalia spending of tax money (the public exchequer) on the so-called state visits when any Head, be it the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Defense Heads or Business Heads visits any place within the country or any other country. It is an ironic-paradox, the elected/non-elected political, who represent the public need to spend an astronomical of tax-payers' money on their safety. If the public they represent is a threat to them, then we should question the efficacy of the spirit of democracy and republican democracy.
You may generously "comment" your interpretation of the story I had heard from my Grandmaa.
No comments:
Post a Comment