Sri Sathya Sai Baba Stories and Parables - Two minutes

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Source: Chinna Katha

http://www.saibaba.ws/stories/storiesparables.htm

 

Two minutes

 

There was a famous dacoit once who advised his son while initiating

him into the ancestral profession, never for a moment to listen to

stories of the Lord. " Do not stay to listen to any Purana or any

reading of the Bhagavatha, " he exhorted the young aspirant. The son

scrupulously observed this injunction for years and amassed a good

fortune.

 

One night, however, while running with his loot on his shoulder

through a side lane of the city to avoid the police, a piece of

glass cut his sole. He sat for a while to pull it off and stop the

flow of blood. He was then behind a house, where some one was

reading and explaining the Bhagavatha to a small group of listeners;

he listened perforce for a short two minutes. The spark fell on the

heap of cotton. During that short period, he heard the pundit

explaining the nature of God. He has no ears, no eyes, no limbs: he

has a thousand forms; He is without form. " Sarvathah paani-paadam, "

as the Gita says. That description got fixed in his heart. He could

not shake it off.

 

A few days later the police came to know of the depredations made by

him as well as his associates and kinsmen. In order to know more

about their activities they entered the area incognito, one

constable as Kali and some others as the worshippers and priests.

They shouted and yelled, cursed and terrified the dacoits and called

upon them to come out of their homes and fall at the feet of Kali.

Many did so, but the son who had heard the Bhagavatha, albeit for

two minutes, knew just enough to save his skin. He was not terrified

at all. He challenged the constable who was acting the role of Kali

and tore off his make-up and exposed the plot and instilled courage

into the hearts of the gang. Then, when the police left discomfited

he argued within himself thus: " If two minutes of the forbidden

fruit could help me so much, what can I not gain, if I devote myself

entirely to the stories of the glories of God? " He left off the evil

path and became a Sadhaka.