Peace for the Soul

A common space for harmonic peacemakers

Chapter  9,  Verse  23

 

Those students, endowed with faith,

Who worship other gods,

Using methods not prescribed in the scriptures,

Nevertheless are worshiping Me, Arjuna.

 

Satchidananda:

 

One day a young boy named Tinnapur went hunting with two friends.  They chased a wild boar up and over a hill.  They came upon a small shed.  The animal seemed to have led them there.  Tinnapur opened the shed and saw a Shivalingam there.  His friends continued on the hunt, but Tinnapur felt a powerful connection to the Shivalingam and bowed down, saying, “My Lord, You are all alone.  Who takes care of You?  Nobody has bathed You.  I’ll give You a bath and some nice food.”

 

He ran all the way to the bottom of the hill, killed a pig and barbecued it.  He put the choicest parts on a banana leaf and started back up the hill.  He remembered he should first bathe the deity before offering food.  He had no vessel for carrying water.  Then an idea came to him.  he ran to a stream, carefully rinsed his mouth, then took a great mouthful of water, held it inside and began running back up the hill with pork in hand and water in mouth.

 

He poured the water from his mouth over the deity.  In that way he gave a nice bath and then placed the pork on the altar.  He was very, very happy.  He had fed God.  He danced around and around in ecstasy.  “You won’t be alone in the future,” he promised.  “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

 

Tinnapur did not know that on the other side of the hill there was a village.  In the village lived a  devoted Brahmin priest who worshiped at this hidden altar every day.  The next morning, when he arrived, the priest saw the pork there and was at first stunned and then outraged.  “What devil is coming here and desecrating the temple like this?” he wondered.  Disgusted and repulsed, he carefully cleaned everything.  He did a special Puja as prescribed in the scriptures.

 

That night he couldn’t get to sleep.  Finally, he fell into a restless sleep.  Then God appeared to him in a dream.  “Don’t worry, Shivagocharya,” said the Lord.  “You are a great devotee, but there is an even greater devotee worshiping Me.  He’s a hunter.  He doesn’t know anything about fresh fruits and vegetables.  All he knows is to give pork.  He knows no rituals, either, but I love his worship.  I admire his faith and devotion.  Today, after your own worship, hide there and you will see true devotion.

 

Later that day, after his own worship, Shivagochar hid and kept watch.  He saw the hunter arrive, pour water from his mouth, and put the roast pork down before the altar.  Then Tinnapur began to dance in ecstasy.  As he danced, Tinnapur noticed something.  His devotion was so strong he no longer was seeing the Shivalingam as a stone.  Instead, he saw God in human form.  And as he looked, he suddenly could see that one of the eyes of God was bleeding.  Tinnapur stopped dancing.  Tinnapur stopped dancing and exclaimed, “God, what has happened?  You’re bleeding.  Wait, please!  I’ll gather some herbs and be right back.”

 

He ran down the hill, plucked some healing herbs, ran back, squeezed them and applied them on the bleeding eye.  But the bleeding would not stop.  He was completely out of his mind by now.  He didn’t know what to do.  Then, suddenly, he knew.  “An eye for an eye.  That will take care of it.”  From his quiver, he took a sharp arrow.  He applied the point of the arrow to the outside corner of his own eye, quickly pushed it in, and popped his own eye out of the socket into his hand.

 

Immediately, he put it on the Lord’s bleeding eye.  The moment he took his hand away, the bleeding stopped.  He became so happy that he didn’t think for a moment about his own bleeding or the loss of his own eye.  “Oh, Lord, oh my Lord!  I’m so pleased that this eye has helped You to see,” he cried happily.

 

All the while Shivagocharya had been watching.  When Tinnapur plucked out his eye, the priest began to shake uncontrollably, saying to himself, “My God, what devotion,” and fell into a faint.  At the same moment, God appeared to the hunter in more grandeur than ever before, and called him Kannappar, which means the eye-fixer.  “Kannappar,” said the Lord, “I’m completely satisfied with your devotion.  I wouldn’t have allowed you to go through this pain if not for this poor man who is also a devotee.  You come daily to worship Me with true devotion.  Certainly you will reach Me.”  With that, Kannapur’s eye was given back to him and his sight was restored, clearer than ever.

 

This is not just a story.  Kannapur was a living person.  He didn’t know the correct procedures prescribed by the scriptures, but with such pure devotion, there’s no such thing as a wrong method.

 

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A wonderful story. Om Santi.

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"PEACE
NOT WAR
GENEROSITY
NOT GREED
EMPATHY
NOT HATE
CREATIVITY
NOT DESTRUCTION
EVERYBODY
NOT JUST US"

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