Earnest Devotion & Faith

A clever villager used to enter the village temple in the early hours of the day and sit on, with eyes closed, in the hope that people will honor him as a great devotee. Since he did not get up and go about his business until about mid noon, the temple priest was hard put to it to close the doors and go home for his daily tasks there. So he struck upon a plan to stop the nuisance. He knew that the closed-eye session of dhyana [meditation] was all pretence. He hid himself behind the idol of a deity, and when the villager was well set in his pretence of deep meditation, he said, in an imposing sonorous voice, “Listen! Excellent devotee! I am mightily pleased by your asceticism and your steadfastness. Come, I shall merge you into Myself.” At this, the fellow ran fast out from the temple, leaving no trace of where he had gone to!

The devotion and sense of surrender of men are similar to those of this imposter. Faith is weak, discipline is absent; earnestness is lacking.

“The Devotee Ran Away”
Chinna Katha I

There was a small temple of Srinath in the town of Govardhana, some centuries ago. A poor Brahmin of that place had an only son, a little boy of six, who was always exulting in the stories and legends of Krishna and who delighted only in listening to the leelas [divine play] of the Lord. One day, he went out into the meadows with the cattle and when he saw the temple and the image of Krishna inside the shrine, he took it to be the Lord Himself. He called out very piteously asking Krishna to come out and play with him in the moonlight. Though the doors were locked by the priest, as he went out at noon, the Lord came and hand in hand the two walked along the fields in the cool silver light. Krishna had the flute and he sat on a boulder and played on it to the extreme delight of the Brahmin lad.

After a few hours, he returned with the friend, whom he called ‘brother’ and, quite unnoticed, he disappeared into the temple shrine, where the idol could be seen through a slit in the door. The boy could not bear the pangs of separation from his divine playmate. He spent the night and the morning crying outside the door and was discovered there by his parents and the priest. The parents beat the boy for giving them so much trouble, but, the priest found the idol bleeding, as a result of the blow. If you call on Him as a little brother, He responds and becomes a rollicking playmate for you. Call on Him as a guru. He will instruct and inspire. He never fails those who call on Him sincerely and in faith.

“God Never Fails Those Who Call on Him with Faith”
Chinna Katha I