TEACHING STORY NO. 11 Saint Eknath and his patience Saint Eknath lived in a village in Maharashtra. He was particularly famous in his village for his patience; nobody ever saw him angry. Almost all his fellow villagers paid respects to Eknath for his great virtues. In the same village, there were a few vagabonds who used to regularly meet to gamble. One day one of them began to praise Saint Eknath’s virtues. “Sri Eknath never loses his temper under any circumstance. Isnt this trait remarkable?” he said. One of them, called Ram, challenged, “I shall make Saint Eknath lose his temper, and prove that he is no different from others.” The next morning, Eknath went to bathe in the Holy Godavari river. Ram stood waiting for Saint Eknath on a rooftop with a mouthful of paan. The moment he saw Eknath emerge from the river, he spat paan at him. Without losing his composure, Eknath walked back to the river for a holy dip. The defiler was surprised, but when Eknath returned from his second dip, he again spat at the great saint. Saint Eknath again went back to the river for a dip without losing his calm. But the vagabond was persistent in his efforts to anger the saint, and he kept on spitting at him the whole day. As twilight began to gather over the glittering waters of the Godavari, the vagabond got tired of spitting at Eknath. He was bewildered by Eknath’s patience and forbearance. While his mouth was aching with the repeated spitting, Eknath was as composed and fresh as he had been when he came to the river that morning! Feeling guilty and ashamed, Ram rushed down and fell at the feet of Saint Eknath. The saint blessed him. He asked, “Swamiji, how is it possible for you to be like this?” Saint Eknath replied, “I am on the way to offer my morning worship to my Lord. The dirt on my body can be easily cleansed by a dip in the river, but if I let anger enter my mind, it defiles the mind, and no amount of bathing in any river can cleanse me of this impurity.”
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:01:31 +0000
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