CHINNA KATHA FROM BHAGAVANâ€™S DISCOURSE. No. 8

September 20, 2008

8 - Remember, He is Omnipresent!

Thiruppandar was a great devotee of lord Shiva. Once he happened to visit a famous pilgrim center dedicated to his favorite Lord. After the darshan of Siva, he felt that he was too exhausted and weak to walk further and therefore rested for the night in the temple itself.

Early in the morning, the priest entered the temple with a potful of water to perform abhishek to the Lingam. To his utter consternation, he found an aged man sleeping right in front of the shrine with legs stretched towards the sanctum sanctorum. He got wild at the sight and, in indignation, he sprinkled some water on the face of the old man. But, there was no sign of any movement. So, he bent down and tried to lift the old man's legs. Immediately the old man opened his eyes and said in an appealing tone, "My dear Son! Why are you pulling my legs?" The priest shouted "Oh! For your age, is it not shameful on your part to indulge in such a sacrilegious act of stretching your legs towards God?" The old man said calmly, "My dear son, I feel a cramp in my legs and cannot get up. Will you place my two feet in a direction you like, where God is not?

I shall certainly get up after a while." The priest did not want to waste time in arguing with the man. So, he held the two feet of the man, lifted them up and placed them in the opposite direction. Suddenly, there sprang out a lingam from underneath the feet! The priest tried to place the old man's feet in another position, but there again sprang up another lingam! In a minute, the place was full of lingams! The priest fell at the feet of the old man and said "Oh revered one! You must be a realised soul. Pardon me for my insulting words and actions." The old man got up and said "My dear son, have you not read in the scriptures that God is omnipresent? Can you limit God to a place and to an image or a picture or in a frame? Of course we have temples with idols and pictures of worship; but they only help devotees to direct their faith and devotion to God as embodiments of the various Divine shaktis in this vast boundless universe. The Supreme Creator,

the Almighty God is only one, and remember, HE is Omnipresent."