Karma Yoga:
Story from Mahabharat
A young
Sannyasin went to a forest; there he meditated, worshipped, and practised
Yoga for
a long time. After years of hard work and practice, he was one day sitting
under a tree, when some dry leaves
fell upon his head. He looked up and saw a crow and a crane fighting on the
top of the tree, which made him
very angry. He said, "What! Dare you throw these dry leaves upon my
head!" As with these words he angrily
glanced at them, a flash of fire went out of his head --such was the Yogi's
power--and burnt the birds to
ashes. He was very glad, almost overjoyed at this development of power--he
could burn the crow and the
crane by a look.
After a time
he had to go to the town to beg his bread. He went, stood at a door, and
said,
"Mother, give me food." A voice came from inside the house,
"Wait a little, my son." The young man thought,
"You wretched woman, how dare you make me wait! You do not know my
power yet." While he was thinking
thus the voice came again: "Boy, don't be thinking too much of
yourself. Here is neither crow nor crane."
He was astonished; still he had to wait. At last the woman came, and he fell
at her feet and said, "Mother,
how did you know that?" She said, "My boy, I do not know your Yoga
or your practices. I am a common everyday
woman. I made you wait because my husband is ill, and I was nursing him. All
my life I have struggled to do my
duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am
married, I do my duty to my husband; that
is all the Yoga I practise. But by doing my duty I have become illumined;
thus I could read your thoughts and
know what you had done in the forest. If you want to know something higher
than this, go to the market of
such and such a town where you will find a Vyadha who will tell you
something that you will be very
glad to learn."
The
Sannyasin thought, "Why should I go to that town and to a Vyadha?"
But after what he had seen, his mind opened a little, so he went.
When he came near the town, he found the market and there saw, at a
distance, a big fat Vyadha cutting
meat with big knives, talking and bargaining with different people. The
young man said, "Lord help me!
Is this the man from whom I am going to learn? He is the incarnation of a
demon, if he is anything." In
the meantime this man looked up and said, "O Swami, did that lady send
you here? Take a seat until I have
done my business."
The
Sannyasin thought, "What comes to me here?" He took his seat; the
man went on with
his work, and after he had finished he took his money and said to the
Sannyasin, "Come sir, come to my home."
On reaching home the Vyadha gave him a seat, saying, "Wait here,"
and went into the house. He then washed
his old father and mother, fed them, and did all he could to please them,
after which he came to the
Sannyasin and said, "Now, sir, you have come here to see me; what can I
do for you?" The Sannyasin asked
him a few questions about soul and about God, and the Vyadha gave him a
lecture which forms a part of the
Mahabharata, called the Vyadha Gita . It contains one of the highest flights
of the Vedanta. When the Vyadha
finished his teaching, the Sannyasin felt astonished. He said, "Why are
you in that body? With such knowledge
as yours why are you in a Vyadha's body, and doing such filthy, ugly
work?" "My son," replied the Vyadha, "no
duty is ugly, no duty is impure. My birth placed me in these circumstances
and environments. In my boyhood I
learnt the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty well. I try to do
my duty as a householder, and
I try to do all I can to make my father and mother happy. I neither know
your Yoga, nor have I become a
Sannyasin, nor did I go out of the world into a forest; nevertheless, all
that you have heard and seen has come
to me through the unattached doing of the duty which belongs to my
position."
