The Fleeing Faith

By Staff

Monday, August 11, 2008, 12:58

A clever villager used to enter the village temple in the early hours of the day and sit on, with eyes closed, in the hope that people will honor him as a great devotee. Since he did not get up and go about his business until about midnoon, the temple priest was hard put to it to close the doors and go home for his daily tasks there. So he struck upon a plan to stop the nuisance. He knew that the closed-eye session of dhyana was all a pretence. He hid himself behind the idol of the deity, and when the villager was well set in his pretence of deep meditation, he said, in an imposing sonorous voice, "Listen! Excellent Devotee !.

I am mightily pleased by your asceticism and your steadfastness. Come I shall merge you into Myself." At this, the fellow ran fast out from the temple, leaving no trace of where he had gone to!.

The devotion and sense of surrender of men are similar to those of this impostor. Faith is weak, discipline is absent; earnestness is lacking.