An Ashrama And A Cat

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Priya

By Priya Devi

Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 12:05

Once upon a time, long long ego, deep in the forests of Western Aryavarta, variously known later as India and Bharata, there lived in a hamlet known as Powai, a sage by name Swami Chinmayananda in his Ashrama named Sandeepany, so named in the memory of that great sage "Sandeepany, the Guru of Lord Krishna". He used to impart knowledge of Brahmavidya to those young boys 'Samit paani' who approached him "shrotriyam brahmanishtham' in the tradition of 'Guru Shisya Paramapara'. One of his senior disciples was the Acharya in charge while the sage used to trot around the globe on demand for teaching Vedanta philosophy.These young boys were Brahmacharis living in separate rooms, in that Ashrama which was also the abode of various kinds of reptiles, birds and animals including cats and dogs.

A foreigner visiting the Ashrama once is said to have remarked to that sage that there were more cats in the Ashrama than the Brahmacharis. One such cat was adopted by one of the Brahmacharis, Yeshwant Kumar who used to feed her with the quota of milk, he got from the kitchen. As time passed, the cat being a female sought the company of the mate in proper season and the expected incident started unfolding itself. The cat started running about in search of a place for safe delivery.

Another enthusiastic and benevolent Brahmachari Abhayakumar took mercy on the cat, carried it to his room and gave it the shelter. In due course of time the cat gave birth to two kittens. So now the number of cats in the room rose to three and the little ones slowly started learning to go up and down the steps of the stair case.

In such a background, an interesting incident took place which pulled the whole lot of Brahmacharis out of their slumber and tamas overnight, and all of them became very active and Rajasik. How did this transformation come about? It is a breath taking story.

To be continued