March 20, 2021
At Eco Park, Puducherry
Power of Love
This morning G started off with a story from Indian literature about a young kid, who was deeply inclined towards spirituality. His guru sent him to the forest with instructions to meditate for twelve years and when he “realizes” and has sufficient powers he can leave the forest. The disciple goes to the forest as commanded and meditates. Years later, when he feels he is ‘self-realized’ and has acquired some major ‘siddhis’ (powers) he comes out of the forest. He is extremely hungry and cannot find anything to eat. As he steps out of his place, a bird shits on him. The ‘freshly-minted-enlightened’ sage, with his new-found powers, angrily glares at the bird and the bird instantly drops dead.
The sage walks around until he reaches a house and knocks at the door. There is some rustling in the house, so he knows someone is in there, yet no one opens the door. He knocks harder and more persistently. Finally, a well-poised lady opens the door. Angrily, he retorts, “Do you know who I am? I have been knocking at your door and you have kept me waiting all this time.” Without losing her composure, the lady responds, “It is dinner time and I was in the midst of serving food for my husband. He is the village butcher and this is the only time he has to eat. While I am doing that, I cannot be interrupted. I am not afraid of a yogi who with his spiritual powers killed a bird.” The sage is shocked that this simpleton would know about the incident that had happened earlier.
After telling this story, G summarized:
“The moral of the story is: This lady was in love with her husband and nothing could touch her. Her love made her fearless! Such is the power of love!” This was the story that UG told Julie. Don’t be afraid of any Tom, Dick or Harry or any of these yogis and gurus that instill fear in you and try to control you. The sage (in the story) goes back to his guru and the guru tells him that all the things that happened after his so-called enlightenment is also part of the teaching.
Later in the day, I was talking to Julie and mentioned this story and Guha’s take. She recalled that when UG told her this story, they both were in Sydney, Australia, in 1991. As they were heading to a department store, a bird pooped on UG’s head and he wiped it nonchalantly with an envelope that Julie handed him. At the store UG sprayed some perfume in his hair until he could go back to his place and wash it off. Julie went on to add that back when UG told her the story of the Sage and the Bird, it never clicked why he told her. Thanks to Guha’s summary today, almost thirty years after, she realized what UG might have tried to tell her. I responded to Julie, “G told me this story for the first time about six years ago and I did not understand it either at that time. It was only when he spelt it out later that I got the point that he was trying to make!”