Once a Guru and his disciple were walking to their ashram. After covering a long distance, the disciple was tired and said, “Guru, I cannot even walk a step further. I am exhausted. You please continue, I will rest for a while and come later.” No matter how much the Guru insisted, the disciple was stubborn. So, the Guru walked away.
A while later, the Guru saw a little girl waiting with food, standing next to a field where farmers were harvesting wheat.
The Guru picked up the little girl and left her near the disciple who was resting. When the farmers came for lunch, they could not find the little girl with food.
They feared that she had been kidnapped and ran in different directions, searching for her. Some of them saw her sitting next to the disciple, and shouted, “Hey, we have found her; this man took her”.
They started yelling at the disciple accusing him of kidnapping the child. The angry farmers picked up sticks to thrash the disciple and surrounded him.
The young man was frightened, and got up and ran for his life and reached the ashram before the Guru.
The Guru reached an hour later and seeing the disciple, he asked: “How did you manage to reach before me? Weren’t you taking rest, as you were so exhausted that you couldn’t take a single step further.” The disciple said, “Guru, you shouldn’t have done this to me.”
The Guru then said, “So, you had the strength to carry on, which proves that you could have continued but you refused. Now how did you get the strength to reach before me?” This shows that the strength is within us; if we apply effort, we can definitely move forward.
In Kali Yug (present times), only devotion due to fear (Kamsa Bhakti) bears fruit. Kamsa, Lord Krishna’s uncle, was so scared of Krishna that he saw Krishna in water, every pillar and post, in everything. So, people pray due to the fear of consequences—“Oh, I should not get punished, good things should happen to me” etc.
Fear drives people towards faith and not the understanding of spiritual principles or fundamental truths. It is said that in Kali Yug, only Kamsa Bhakti is beneficial, due to fear. No one seeks knowledge for Liberation. Taste is most important for the tongue, eyes seek beauty, ears seek melody and the mind is awestruck with external attributes.Those who have knowledge have no fear and they do not waste time. They are practical and know we cannot regain lost time. As far as others are concerned, only fear brings out their talents and wakes them up.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader and humanitarian.