In the city of Benares, there lived a great sadhu. He had one daughter called Nandini whom he was very fond of. When Nandini reached the age of 21, he thought it was time for her marriage. A match was fixed with one of his students Shyam, who was the son of temple priest in the neighbouring taluka. Shyam used to run a shop of pooja samagri behind the temple. The marriage festivities happened at the Sadhu’s ashram after which Nandini and Shyam left for their family home.
One day, Nandini arrived at her father’s ashram. She was distraught and upset and bitterly complained to the Sadhu about her husband’s conduct. She father, “Father, everything was fine for two months. Than Shyam’s shop caught fire and everything was burnt. Father-in-law has asked Shyam to help him in temple rituals. But, he does not do any work and spends the whole day playing matka with his friends. In the evening, he goes out for drinking and comes back completely sloshed. What do I do?
Sadhu patiently heard his daughter. He had himself given the gyan of the vedas and the Upanishads to Shyam. Shyam had been a disciplined student. Shyam’s father was a very religious person who was widely respected for his spiritual knowledge. The Sadhu decided to meet Shyam and discuss the problem with him. He told Nandini to go back to her in-laws place and send Shyam to the Sadhu’s ashram next day.
Shyam arrived at the Sadhu’s ashram next morning. “Please Sit down Jamaiji and have some tea”, Sadhu told Shyam. “I am very sorry to hear about your shop. I believe you have now started helping your father in maintaining the temple rituals. Since you have such deep knowledge of vedas and the Bhagwata Gita. I request you to please teach one shloka from Bhagwata Gita to my daughter every day. That way, even she will learn and your bond will improve.” Shyam heard his father-in-law and agreed to do as instructed. He took Sadhu’s leave and went back to his home.
Every morning, Shyam started teaching Nandini one shloka from Bhagwat Gita. After that, he used to leave for his daily gambling with his friends. This became a daily routine. As he started teaching Nandini, slowly the teachings of Bhagwat Gita started to come back to him. Days passed and soon Shyam realized his folly and soon gave up his habit of gambling and drinking. He apologized to Nandini and decided to go and meet his father-in-law.
Sadhu welcomed Shyam at his house. “Father, you have opened my eyes and brought me back to the right path. I am so thankful for you.” Sadhu, laughed and said, “May Lord Krishna always shower his blessings on you!
The END
Learnings
1. All of us face challenges in our lives. Sometimes it’s the loss of a loved one or loss in business, poor health, breakdown of a relationship or loss of job/livelihood. How we deal with these challenges is what defines us. Sometimes we mourn for some time and then go back to our lives. Sometimes we become bitter & revengeful. Sometimes we give up hope and become so distraught that we loose our sense of direction and start drifting. Shyam could not accept what happened to his business and was hiding from the truth using various vices. All these vices brought further pain and suffering to his family.
2. Sadhu understood what had happened to Shyam. He knew lecturing and telling Shyam what to do might only make things worse. So he decided the best way was for Shyam to himself realize that what he was doing was wrong. Since Shyam had the foundation to tread the righteous path, all he needed was an awakening of his inner wisdom. When he recited the Gita Shloka to Nandini, he was himself awakened to the timeless wisdom and soon realized his mistake.
3. Sometimes, even when we know what we are doing is wrong, we will not give it up. People telling us what to do does not help. We need to ‘realize’ it and not just ‘Know” it. Several of us go to various spiritual schools and learn various ‘spiritual techniques’. However, till the time the knowledge goes within us and we internalize the teachings, we will continue to do spiritual shopping and drift from one school to another.
4. A smart teacher, like the Sadhu, could be gently guiding us to continue walking on our paths, despite the challenges. Such a teacher could come in our lives in the form of a parent/sibling, a teacher, boss, a friend/colleague or even a spouse/partner! Look around and see if you have such a person in your life. If yes, be thankful. Not all of us ore fortunate to have such a teacher in the physical world. But more on this later!
STORY CREDIT: This story is taken from 'Upanishad Ganga' - A teleserial which was conceptualized by Swami Tejomayananda-Head of Chinmoy mission, with a vision to take the message of the upanishads to the masses. Directed by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Upanishad Ganga covers the entire gamut of Indian culture, heritage, philosophy spanning over 5000 years.
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