Sunday, September 25, 2016

Which is the vehicle?

Our brother’s children, Swarna and Vidya, wanted to see Adi Annamalai Temple, Durgamba Temple and others and so we set out yesterday morning after obtaining Bhagavan’s permission. As the summer had already set in, I was afraid these young children of ten and twelve years might not be able to walk in the hot sun and so engaged a bullock cart. the cart, other children of the same age and even younger ones, also started out with us. We went round the hill by way of pradakshina, saw all the places of interest and returned by about 11-30. As we came into the hall at 3 p.m., 

Bhagavan enquired of me, “At what time did you come back?”

When I said it was 11-30 a.m., 

Bhagavan asked, “Were these children able to walk the distance?” 

I told him we went round in a bullock cart. 

Bhagavan jocularly said, “Oh, I see. You went in a cart. Who gets the punya (religious merit), the cart or the bullock or these children?” I could not give a reply.

Bhagavan said: “This body itself is a cart. Another cart for this cart! A bullock to pull this cart! For a work done like this (going round the hill), people say, ‘We have done it.’ Everything is like that. People come by train from Madras and say, ‘We have come’. It is the same thing with the body. For the self, the body is a cart. The legs do the work of walking and people say, ‘I walked, I came.’ Where does the Self go? The Self does not do anything but appropriates to itself all these acts.” 

So saying, he enquired, “Did they walk at least some distance?” I said that they walked up to Gautama Ashram, doing bhajan, but could not walk further because of the hot sun. 

“That is something. They walked at least some distance,” said Bhagavan.

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