Sant Eknath

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Sant Eknath - Height of Compassion

 

In the village where Sant Eknath lived, a few vagabonds(gamblers) teased

Sant Eknath and one day one of them wanted to test his patience and make Sant

Eknath lose his temper.

The next morning, Sant Ekanathar, in line with Bhagavatha Dharma - went to

bathe in the Holy Godavari river early in the morning. While he was retuning,

the one who threw down the gauntlet, was waiting for Sant Ekanathar on a rooftop

with mouthful of Paan (Betel leaves and Betel nuts, usually taken after meals).

While walking back home, Ekanathar suddenly felt something wet falling on him,

without any signs of surprise, and without losing his composure, walked back to

the river for a holy dip. The defiler was surprised, but when Sri Ekanathar

returned from his second dip he again spat on this great saint. Sri Ekanathar

again went back to the river for a dip without losing his calm. But the vagabond

was persistent in his efforts to make this saint angry, and he kept on spitting

at Saint Ekanathar. Each time he spat on the saint, he could not even detect a

faintest frown in Ekanathar's face. As the twilight of the dawn started to

bounce off from the glittering waters of Godavari, the vagabond got tired of

spitting at Ekanathar. He was totally bewildered on seeing the patience and

forbearance of Ekanath. While his mouth was aching stiff due to repeated

spitting, Ekanathar was looking as composed and as fresh as he was early in the

morning!

 

The vagabond feeling guilty and ashamed, rushed down to fall at the feet

of Saint Ekanathar. Saint Ekanathar, with eyes brimming with compassion and love

even for this offender, blessed him. Now the vagabond was totally perplexed,

"Swamiji, how is it possible for you to be like this?" Saint Ekanath replied,

"Brother, if you can stick so stubbornly to this vice of harrassing sadhus, it

isn't the least surprising that I should, on my part, should stick to my virtue

of not losing my temper.I am on the way to offer my morning worship to my

Lord. The dirt on my body can be easily cleansed by a dip in the river, but if I

let anger enter my mind it defiles the mind and no amount of bathing in any

river can cleanse me of this impurity. Worshipping with an impure mind would not

bear fruits. So, can I ever afford to lose my temper?" Such a great soul was

Sant Ekanathar. Remembering Sant Ekanathar when we get angry, would help us to

regain our composure without much difficulty.

 

 

>From http://www.vittalvihar.org/eknath.shtml