Cheating a blacksmith with inferior steel

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CHEATING A BLACKSMITH

WITH INFERIOR STEEL

 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur

 

Chapter 86 of Upākhyāne Upadeśa

 

Upākhyāne Upadeśa is a collection of short

stories with explanations that were commonly

used by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

Compiled by Sri Sundarananda Prabhu, a prominent

disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, it was first

published in 1940.

 

There was once a tradesman who considered

himself very intelligent. He was very cunning

and adept at fooling others. Once by his trickery

he managed to get some coconuts. He then

wanted a sharp chopper to break them open.

Eventually he found a very old and rusty chopper

in the corner of his room. Taking it to a blacksmith,

he asked him to reshape it and make it

first class again. The blacksmith told him that he

could forge a very good chopper if good quality

steel was given to him. The clever tradesmen

decided to trick the blacksmith. He told him, “I

am a steel merchant and I have some excellent

quality steel in my stock. Could you forge a chopper

for me using that steel? After making the

chopper you can keep whatever extra steel is

left over for your labor charge. I assure you that

nowhere in India can you find such excellent

steel like I will send you. It is very costly.”

After speaking in such a flowery and deceitful

way, the tradesmen sent a condemned third-class

sheet of iron through his son to the blacksmith.

Just glancing at the piece of iron the blacksmith

realized that it was not steel but only a piece of

useless iron. The blacksmith made a chopper out

of it and then had it sent to the tradesmen.

Finding the chopper to be ineffective and

practically useless, the angry tradesman came

back to the blacksmith and started threatening

and shouting at him. The blacksmith only replied,

“By cheating a blacksmith with inferior steel one

will only obtain such a chopper.”

PURPORT

Those who make any attempt to deceive their

spiritual master and the vaisnavas in their rendering

of devotional service will certainly end

up with something spurious. Attempts at deception

in the field of devotional service are simply

self-deception. They pull one down into the

clutches of the illusory energy, without giving any

benefit. Persons with ulterior motives think that

those who have surrendered everything to the

Lord are only deceived, and that those who play

double roles of devotional service and simultaneous

self-gratification actually gain more.

Attempting such double roles is tantamount

to deceiving a blacksmith by supplying him

with an inferior quality of iron while asking him

to prepare a good quality steel chopper. No one

can ever deceive the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. It is never possible to conquer the

domain of the Lord by any sort of deception

and quackery. Only one who has candidly

surrendered everything unto the lotus feet of

the Lord is eligible for achieving all good.