Once there was a sage, who was highly respected by everyone, living by the side of a big river, where he had a small hut. He had a devotee, a lady, who would come everyday , wash his clothes and keep his hut clean. She was on the other side of the river and had to come by boat everyday. One day, the lady was late and the sage enquired the reason for the delay. The lady replied that she was waiting for the boat and was delayed. The sage, with a smile, said that there was no need for a boat to cross the river. With total faith in God, chanting his name, one could cross the river walking over the surface. The lady , with all humiliy, accepted his advice and returned to her village. It was raining heavily, the subsequent night, and the river was in spate with swirling waters ,next day, which was a terrific sight. No one ventured out into the river, even by boat, but the lady arrived at the exact time. The learned sage was really surprised and asked the lady as to how she could come across the river when there was no boat! The lady replied, without any qualms, that she walked over the surface of the water as per his advice. Now, the sage was shocked with surprise. How correct was his advice,that chanting the name of God one could cross the river, walking across ? If the lady could accomplish this feat, why not the sage himself? He prepared himself for a walk over the rushing flood waters . He ordered one of his desciples to tie a rope around his waist and hold the other end of the rope and advised him to pull the sage out of the water, in case he went under. After all safety arrangements, the sage, chanting the name of God, set his foot on the river, only to go under the water. He was immediately rescued and pulled out of the water. Now , the sage asked the lady to walk over the water, and she readily complied with his orders. She was able to walk over the water!! This is a small story from Ramakrishna's fables. Total faith, without logical analysis and doubts, helped the lady in accomplishing the feat, while the sage could not do it himself, despite his preachings. In my part of the country, in some of the Hindu temples, there is a ritual, where devotees walk across burning fire of coal and wood., with bare feet. I have witnessed this myself, lot of times, and the devotees were some of my friends also. But I could never gather the courage of venturing out to do such things. Ultimately, they have gained nothing and I have also lost nothing by walking over fire. But, I wonder whether the mind is conditioned to believe that this feat is possible ? It must be, otherwise with all my doubts and logical approach, I was not able to do it, while my friends could do it. We come back to the same topic again ! Mind is powerful to accomplish anything, and we must learn to use it for good purposes. The greatest hurdles, of course, are our doubts , inconsistency , lack of faith and concentration. There are numerous incidents, all over the globe, which defy our scientific analysis ! I am an Aquarian and am naturally interested in knowing ' out of world' activities,which certainly does not include harmful things. I am very afraid of them, though I instinctively know that they exist ! All that I am interested is in sharing my view points with my friends visiting this blog, and invite their opinions over the same. I shall quote all my experiences and incidents and would be happy to know their experiences to strengthen the view point on this topic. Meet you again, |
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