Story

[Guest guest]

Hare Krsna!

 

>Does anyone know the source of the story below. Did Srila Prabhupada ever

>tell it? I remember hearing it on classes in the temples.

 

I don't know whether Srila Prabhupada ever told this story, but it's not

impossible, as a very similar story is found in one of the hagiographies of

Ramakrishna, who was a well-known personality in India. The story is

included by a hagiographer, Ram Chandra Datta, after a passage dealing with

Ramakrishna's "Christian period". The scholars studying this hagiography

believe the story is a transformation of the Biblical story of Jesus and

Peter on the sea.

 

Below the relevant passage (from Kali's Child, by Jeffrey J. Kripal):

 

 

"Sitting in his own room back at the temple, Ramakrishna began to see huge

Christian churches. He could even hear the teachings of the priests inside

(JV[5], 55). Datta ends his account of this Jesus state with the story of an

"old man" (probably a reference to Peter) drowning in the sea. "Lord! How do

I attain God?" the old man asks. Jesus says nothing but takes his hand and

leads him straight into the waves of the sea, where he begins to sink. "Now

how do you feel?" Jesus asks the drowning man. "I'm dying!" he screams back

as he gasps for air. "When separated from him, if your heart feels like

this, THEN you will attain Him" (JV[5], 56). In most Christian

interpretations of Peter on the sea, the story is said to be about the

necessity of faith. For Datta, it is a lesson in anxious desire. Given the

centrality of such a drowning desire in Ramakrishna's life and teachings,

Datta's transformation seems an appropriate one, but once again we see how a

preeminently Hindu lesson is drawn from an allegedly non-Hindu event."

(Kripal, pp 168-69)

 

JV[5] is Kripal's abbreviation for Srisriramakrsna Paramahamsadever

Jivanavrttanta, 5th edition.

 

Ys Dhkdd

 

 

> A hermit was meditating by a river when a young man interrupted him.

> "Master, I wish to become your disciple," said the man. "Why?" replied the

> hermit. The young man thought for a moment. "Because I want to find God."

> The master jumped up, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, dragged him

> into the river, and plunged his head under water. After holding him there

> for a minute, with him kicking and struggling to free himself, the master

> finally pulled him up out of the river. The young man coughed up water and

> gasped to get his breath. When he eventually quieted down, the master

> spoke. "Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were under water."

> "Air!" answered the man. "Very well," said the master. "Go home and come

> back to me when you want God as much as you just wanted air."