SURE IT IS 'ANANDO BRAHMA' BUT NOT AT MY LEVEL!

A young man at a certain point of time in his life got very much influenced by Spiritual Practices and Spiritual Living. He soon started spending some of his time daily in

• Practicing certain austerities, 
• Reading sacred books, 
• Visiting places of worship and 
• Following stringent measures of self denial through a strict personal discipline

and beyond some how used to discharge his family/social responsibilities in the available time.

Many well-wishers advised him on the importance of discharging the family and social responsibilities with full dedication and not to dilute that by seeking Spirituality. But the young man straight away ignored their advice saying that the worldly involvement would hold him, he would never be able to progress spiritually unless he did something in the right time and he equally never neglected his responsibilities in the process.

The relatives and family members could not say more there and were thus helpless for a while.. At length they requested the Head of an Ashram to do something and set right the thinking of the young man.

One fine day, the Head called the young man to His Ashram and enquired on what all he was doing. The youth proudly narrated all his doings and progress in that direction to the Head. The Head smiled and narrated a small story in that context..

"A Saint was going with His disciples in the forest explaining the basic aspects spiritual life. By evening, they came across a Tribal Chief who invited them to his Hamlet, offered mouth watering delicious food and unlimited wine simultaneously providing lots of entertainment / enjoyment in the process and resting for the night.

The Master just saying, "Anando Brahma!" ate a small portion the food, drank a small quantity of the wine, witnessed the entertainment for a short period and soon retired to bed.

The disciples too involved in the process but the consumption / gratifications were to their full self satisfaction and ease. 

In the process, a few of them crossed the limits, involved in a wrong way beyond and in no time were forced to fall off from the path of Philosophy.

In the early morning hrs, the Saint blessed the Chief, took leave and continued His journey along with the remaining disciples.

• 'Spirituality is just controlling oneself.. Poor thing, some of our friends have fallen off here losing that control!'

the remaining disciples remarked beaming within.

That evening by bad luck, they were corned by another Tribal Chief who happened to be a cruel man. He ordered his men to take them to a remote area, beat them black and blue by tying up and leave them hungry throughout the night by just offering a single bitter drink as the night food. The men soon did all that and left the Saint and the disciples to their fate.

In the process, a few of the disciples somehow freed themselves from the tribal men, escaped in the darkness and soon were back in their homes.

Rest of them with great pain bore all that attack, never could take a sip of the bitter drink offered, starved all the night all along living with a great fear.

The Saint alone bore the brutal attack patiently, remained unfed all the night, drank the bitter liquid saying "Anando Brahma!" and blessing the Chief in the process and remained thus till morning another Chief passing that way freed them and took care of them..

The Saint said to the remaining..

• 'Spiritual Life is not just controlling and following the austerities but living totally a fearless life all along!'" 

The Head concluded,

• “The ordinary individuals are never free from the force of their own Nature in the world unless the Grace of Almighty descends on them.. Thus for normal personalities, the safe path of sailing in life is to take up the ordained responsibilities with all dedication and attention and start doing good to the people with them and to the society in general..

• In the process on a small scale, they can involve themselves in the Spiritual Path according to their own freedom and the urge within and thus feel full in life.. 

Leaving such a discipline, straight away taking up extreme activities in the path of Spirituality is always a threat to the ordinary men and women as all these doings end up sooner or later in their life, the moment limitless enjoyments and tough situations surface without a say!”

Keywords: Spirituality, Resposibilities