Spiritual story

This story is from the Vishnu Purana. Our ancient Indian literature is full of religious stories just as the Bible is full of parables. Don’t just enjoy the stories as entertainment. Rather, go into the deeper meaning and see how you can apply them in various areas of your life.

There was a very poor man who looked like a beggar but who was very evolved spiritually. Hence, he lived in divine ecstasy all his life. One day, walking through the bazaar, he realized that he hadn’t eaten for the last 2 days since he was busy singing God’s praise through his bhajans.

He sat down and begged for food and a kind lady gave him a fresh hot chapati and some coins. Immediately thereafter, apparently from nowhere, a dog appeared, watching him hungrily.

The old man said to himself… God has come to share my food in the form of this dog. He sat the dog on his lap and started feeding it lovingly, giving one morsel to the dog and eating one morsel himself as though he was feeding a child with love.

Soon a crowd gathered to watch him. Some people appreciated what he was doing while others made fun of him. Soon a holy man appeared and asked…
Why are you making fun of him?
Can’t you see a madman feeding a dog? Asked someone from the crowd… That’s why we’re laughing.
No.. Answered the Holy man. I can only see Vishnu feeding Vishnu!!

We all see things from our own subjective -consciousness. Some people could see a madman in the story while the Holy man saw divinity. Even when we read an article, hear a joke or see a movie… We all take away from that article, joke or movie only according to our spiritual -understanding. Hence, *live life at a heightened sense of perception… *

Try to see spirituality and divinity in everything and everyone. Another important take away from this story is….

Outward appearances. Today, we live in a highly materialistic world where outward appearances are given tremendous importance.
But please don’t let mere looks define a person. If you are beautiful inside, you’ll automatically be beautiful outside… Mother Teresa was beautiful as she had tons of inner beauty !!!!!

contributed by: Col. Prakash Tewari

Feature Image: Internet