IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD

[Guest guest]

shivaya namaha,

 

KADUVELI SIDDHAR WAS famed as a very austere hermit.

He lived on the dry leaves fallen from trees. The king of the

country heard of him and offered a reward to one who would

prove this manfs worth. A rich dasi agreed to do it. She began to

live near the recluse and pretended to attend on him. She gently

left pieces of pappadam along with the dry leaves picked by

him. When he had eaten them she began to leave other kinds

of tasty food along with the dry leaves. Eventually he took good

tasty dishes supplied by her. They became intimate and a child

was born to them. She reported the matter to the king.

The king wanted to know if she could prove their mutual

relationship to the general public. She agreed and suggested

a plan of action. Accordingly the king announced a public

dancing performance by the dasi and invited the people to

it. The crowd gathered and she also appeared, but not before

she had given a dose of physic to the child and left it in

charge of the saint at home.

As the dance was at its height, the child was crying at home

for its mother. The father took the babe in his arms and went to

the dancing performance. As she was dancing hilariously he

could not approach her with the child. She noticed the man

and the babe, and contrived to kick her legs in the dance, so as

to unloose one of her anklets just as she approached the place

where the saint was. She gently lifted her foot and he tied the

anklet. The public shouted and laughed. But he remained

unaffected. Yet to prove his worth, he sang a Tamil song meaning:

 

gFor victory, let go my anger!

I release my mind when it rushes away.

If it is true that I sleep day and

night quite aware of my Self,

may this stone burst into twain

and become the wide expanse!h

Immediately the stone (idol) burst with a loud noise. The

people were astounded.

Thus he proved himself an unswerving jnani. One should

not be deceived by the external appearance of a jnani.

 

OM Arunachaleswaraya Namaha,

Ramya