Fond memories of bliss – Part 7
It must have been a decade ago. It was a typically sultry Chennai evening. Sri Swamiji and a couple of devotees visited the famous Vadapalani Muruga temple. The beauty of Sri Swamiji lies in His simplicity. He would totally be Himself while talking, walking, interacting etc with absolutely no air of formality. In fact, He would try His level best to stay unnoticed in a crowd. But how could anyone miss that lustrous countenance and those penetrating eyes?
It was one such day and Sri Swamiji was casually visiting the temple for darshan. He was following the queue with the two devotees.
Sri Swamiji’s mind was gradually flying higher in that spiritually vibrant environment. His gait was staggering and His gaze was fixed. Slowly He was nudging ahead towards the sanctum. A priest was standing there giving vibhuthi prasad to all. When it was Sri Swamiji’s turn in front, He totally went into a trance and was still as a statue.
The priest was trying to give the prasad but Sri Swamiji was in no position to move. He just stood there frozen in time lost in a blissful state.
The priest said in a threatening and a rather disrespectful tone ‘ Hey you! What are you staring at? Won’t you put your hand out to receive the vibhuthi?’
Slowly Sri Swamiji came out of the trance and received the prasad unassumingly. The devotees who were with Sri Swamiji were agitated by the disrespectful tone of the priest who was totally insensitive to Sri Swamiji’s state. Sri Swamiji ordered them to remain calm and walked away slowly.
Weeks later, Sri Swamiji happened to visit a nearby town for a lecture. Thousands had gathered to have Sri Swamiji’s darshan. Do you know who was one of the thousands gathered there? The same priest from Vadapalani temple who had spoken disrespectfully the other day. The same devotees who had accompanied Sri Swamiji that day were with Sri Swamiji here too and they recognized our priest friend immediately. The priest though had no clue that this was the same Swamiji who had visited the Vadapalani temple some time back. He was holding a huge garland and a bag of fruits. As Sri Swamiji neared him, he prostrated and offered the garland/fruits in all reverence. The devotees eagerly looked Sri Swamiji’s face to see his reaction.
To their amazement there was none! He wore the usual pleasant smile even when the priest prostrated.
It is said in the scriptures that the Jnani is never touched by the duality. The cool breeze and the fierce summer, luxurious palace and fearsome jungle, praise and insult – these all mean one and the same to the one who has surpassed duality. That was exactly what was witnessed by those devotees through these two contrasting anecdotes.
