God dwells in all beings
There lived in a forest a holy man who had many disciples.
One day he taught them to see
Narayana(God) in all beings and hence have a reverential attitude towards
everyone.
The disciples once went onto the forest to gather wood for the
sacrificial fire.
Suddenly they heard a loud voice
warning them, “Get out of the way, a mad elephant is coming”.
All of them except one disciple ran
away and took shelter in a safe place.
The disciple reasoned that since the
Guru had taught them to see Narayana i.e. God, in every being, the elephant is
also God in another form and if so why should he run away from it.
He stood still bowed before the
elephant and began to sing its praises.
The mahout of the elephant shouted,
“Run away! Run away!” but the disciple didn’t move.
The animal having seized him with his
trunk, forcefully threw him on the ground.
Coming to know what had happened, his teacher (Guru) and
brother-disciples came to the spot where he was lying and carried him to the
hermitage.
After some first-aid, he soon gained
consciousness.
Then the teacher asked him, “You saw
the animal coming and also heard the warning, then why didn’t you run away?”
The disciple replied, “Sir you taught
us to see God in every being, hence I thought that the animal is also God in
another form and hence I didn’t run away.”
Then the teacher corrected him saying,
“Yes my child, it is true that the elephant was God in another form but the
mahout who was driving the elephant was also God and he instructed you to run
away. Since all are manifestations of God, why didn’t you trust the mahout’s
words? You should have heeded the words of the mahout God.”
No doubt God dwells in all beings but
we should be intimate with all good people and must keep away from evil minded.
For instance, God is also in the
tiger, but surely you cannot embrace the tiger on that account.
So always remember to keep safe
distance from unholy, unrighteous, wicked and evil persons though God dwells in
them as well.
