“A man was trying his best to get a boon from Shiva, so every morning he would pour water, milk, all kinds of offerings, on the Shiva deity, and sit and chant ‘Namah Shivaya’, and literally nag Shiva to give him a boon!
But Shiva was not responding.
Finally one day he became angry. When the greed is not fulfilled, it turns into anger. So the man became angry and decided to tease Shiva.
He brought a Vishnu deity and started performing all the worship only for Vishnu.
He lit an incense stick for Vishnu, but because of a breeze, the incense smoke started going towards Shiva.
The man could not tolerate that! The incense he lit for Vishnu was going to Shiva!
He jumped up and caught hold of the nose of the Shiva deity and said, ‘You should NOT smell the incense I lit for Vishnu!’
Suddenly, he felt that he was holding somebody’s real nose, real flesh! Then he saw – Shiva was sitting there!
The moment he saw Shiva, his pseudo anger went away.
He fell at Shiva’s feet and asked, ‘Lord, please forgive me!’
Shiva asked, ‘What do you want, my son?’
The man asked for the boon, and Shiva gave it to him.
Suddenly the man had a doubt. He asked, ‘Lord, I was doing so much puja, repetition of your name, everything for you. Why did you not appear then, and why did you appear now, when I was angry with you?’
Then Shiva said beautifully, Even in your greed, you did not have a strong trust that I am actually present in that deity. You were only imagining that Shiva is there, but one corner of your mind was always doubting your actions. There was never 100% doubtless trust.
But in your anger, when you held my nose strongly, you did not have a doubt for even one second that I was there! Your mind was not saying, “Who knows if Shiva is really there?” you just know Shiva is there and you want to take revenge on him! That strong authentic doubtless trust is the key. That is what makes me appear.
When you have that trust, I have no other way! I have to appear!” -vrindavana.net
No comments:
Post a Comment