There are many types of devotees in this world who adopt many different methods to show their devotion towards God..
Quite surprisingly, most of these devotees strongly believe and also propagate to others in this world saying “only the method we are adopting in our life, to show our devotion towards God, is the most righteous one among all the methods that others are adopting today”..
How funny..??..
While some of these devotees spend hours in offering ritualistic prayers to God without even bothering much about their responsibilities towards their society; some spend time in visiting Temples and other sacred places without even understanding the priorities of their family.
While some of them spend hours in meditation without even properly discharging their duties towards the world ; some spend their time in attending religious discourses without even learning the essence of life.
Now tell me.. Are they really devotees.. And is that really devotion.. Does God really appreciate these devotees for the ways they have chosen to show their devotion to Him..??..
Please Go Through..
The Following Incident Will Clearly Explain You Who A True Devotee Is..
A holy saint – who with his strict Tapas had attained great powers to see God whenever he so desires – approached God one day and asked Him,
“Swamy.. In today’s sinful world of Kali Yuga, everyone is turning a devotee and everyone is telling about God.. Innocent people are unable to understand whom to trust and whom not to trust.. Please tell me who is a true devotee, Swamy, and who is not.. Please also tell me what are the qualities of true devotion.”
God smiled and said,”Currently, there are ten different types of devotees in your Ashram suffering from ten incurable diseases.. You are doing a selfless service to them to help them recover from their disease.. Your assistants are also doing great service to them to make them feel comfortable in your Ashram..
However, neither your ‘Tapo Sakthi’ nor your assistants generous service to these devotees is sufficient enough to cure their disease.. Therefore, I will come to your Ashram tomorrow, in my original form, and cure their disease.. Then see what is going to happen..”..
As said, God visited the Ashram of the holy Saint the next morning.. At that time the Saint was in ‘Dhyanam’ and his assistants were offering various types of services to the devotees in the Ashram.
Seeing God, the Saint quickly got up from his Dhyana Mudra and went running to Him.. Later, introducing his devotees to God, the Saint said,
“Swamy, all these poor patients are my ardent followers and are your true devotees as well.. They are showing their devotion to you in many different ways.. But today they are suffering from many incurable diseases.. Now, it is for you to cure them and bless them all with good health.. Please forgive their sins and help them, Swamy..”.
God gently smiled.. Then, He looked at each one of those patients for a few seconds..
At that time, all those patients were looking at God with all the eagerness in the world.. With folded hands they were also silently offering their prayers to God requesting Him to shower some mercy upon them.
Continuing His smile, God told them, “Okay.. I accept your prayers and requests.. Now go to your rooms.. In about a week’s time all your diseases will be cured and all of you can then go home and live happily thereafter..”..
Joyously nodding their heads, all the so called devotees prostrated before the holy Lotus feet of God and left for their rooms..
As said by God, all the incurable diseases of all these devotees, in the holy Saint’s Ashram, were completely cured within a week.. However, only one of them immediately went to the Saint; prostrated before his feet; and with tears in his eyes said,
“Swamy, am not a great devotee like all others here nor offer any big prayers to God.. However, I strongly believe that what ever is coming and going from my life; whatever is happening or not happening in my life; and whatever am gaining or losing in my life are due to His divine grace..
Therefore, with immense faith in Him, I was always confident that He who had given me the disease will also give me the cure.. And toady am cured completely from my disease, which everyone thought is incurable, and attained absolute normalcy.. This wouldn’t have been possible without your grace and guidance Swamy..
Today, you have not only helped me but also my poor family that is surviving solely on my earnings.. I don’t know how to offer my thanks to you.. Please bless me Swamy.. And please permit me to visit your Ashram once again with my family..”..
Saying so, that follower of the holy Saint took leave from him.. The Saint blessed him and felt immensely happy with the humility he had spoken..
However, the Saint was surprised and thought,
“Why is that only this follower of mine had come to me and offered me thanks and why is that others have not come and offered their thanks to me when I did so much selfless service to them and helped them get their disease cured by God..”
To his utter disappointment, the Saint didn’t find any answer.. In a way he was deeply hurt too by the behavior of those patients.. Since he is a “Maha Gnani” he could easily overcome his pain within a short time.
After About Two Days,
God suddenly appeared in front of the Ashram and walked straight into the room where the Saint was sitting all alone.. Seeing God, the Saint quickly got up from his place and cordially invited God into his room.
After a few minutes, God inquired about the health condition of the devotees.
The Saint explained everything to God in detail and finally expressed his unhappiness saying, “Swamy, although I did everything that I can do to help these devotees overcome their illnesses, I have in the end expected a small thanks from them as a mark of gratitude for praying for their cure.
Surprisingly, only one of the ten patients had come to me and offered me his thanks but the rest of the nine did not even inform me and left the Ashram.. I really felt sad Swamy.. Am a human too.. They are all great devotees and were very devoted to me when in Ashram.. How can they do this to me Swamy..??..”
God smiled not gently but loudly this time and told the Saint,”Where are you Muneeswaraa.. This is Kali Yuga.. Devotion towards God is like a strong facial mask that people wear in this Yuga to protect themselves from the evils of this world..
Once they feel they are protected they remove that mask and show their true face to the world.. Hating those who helped them is the order of life today and not being thankful to those who favored them is a way of living now.. By the way, all is not over yet for you Muneeswaraa.. There’s a lot more to come.
Very shortly you are going to hear about some bad stories circulating all over the world about you.. These nine people who used you in the Ashram are now going to tell the world some cooked up stories about you in defence of what they have done to you and why they have done that to you..
They don’t want you in their life any more.. Because, if you are there they would feel insecure with your presence around them.. So the best thing for them is to just discard you and move away in their life.
Of course, they still wear that facial mask whenever needed and try to give a projection to the world that they are real great devotees.. And to prove that, they will also follow many elaborate rituals and visit many Temples.. That’s a different game they altogether play..
However, what is more surprising here is, the world too believes only in their unscrupulous loudness than in your noble silence.. This is Kali Yuga, Muneeswaraa and that is how most of the people belonging to this sinful world behave..
But you should always be like a lamp and be doing your best to give light to the world without worrying about what people are doing in the darkness behind you..”
Saying so, the God finally explained the Saint what exactly all those ten devotees thought after they are completely cured from the disease by His divine intervention on the request of the Saint.
This Is What God Had Told The Holy Saint
After getting completely cured from his disease, the first of the ten devotees thought “Is this cure to my disease true or false because Doctors told me there’s no cure to my disease.. So let me check up with them once and get back to this Saint again”..
(For sure this devotee would get checked up again by his Doctors but will never find time nor any necessity to come back to the Saint again and offer him his thanks.. He just doesn’t need the Saint any more because his devotion towards the Saint is need based.)
The second devotee thought, “Is this cure really complete..??.. Or is this just temporary.. Let me be fully assured and then come back to this Saint and thank him for what he had done to me..”
(This devotee also will never come to the Saint again because he has a doubting mind and it would be impossible for anyone to convince him.. Rather he doesn’t want to be convinced at all.. God appeared before him and gave him the assurance and still this devotee believes his doubts are correct and hesitates to completely trust God.. Then who can convince such a person).
The third devotee thought, “I think I never had any disease.. This Saint and his assistants have forcibly made me feel sick just for their benefit and kept me here.. May be they have some expectation from me in future.. This is all drama.. So there’s no need for me to thank the Saint.. In fact I should never allow him into my life again..”
(What is there to tell about such a devotee and his devotion.. In fact, it is this devotee who had actually spread many false stories about the Saint in defence of his stupid claims.. So there’s no way he would visit the Saint again)
The fourth devotee thought, “Yeah.. The Saint had certainly helped me cure my disease.. But it’s okay.. I can come to him again some other time and thank him.. Where’s the need to do that immediately.. Even otherwise where will the Saint go from here..Heh”
(This devotee didn’t had time to go and see the Saint staying in the next cottage but plans to meet him in future.. Do you think he is going to do that.. ??.. May be he will but only when another such need arises)
The fifth devotee thought, “Yes.. I had a disease.. But that doesn’t mean I should come this far to get it cured.. It would have on it’s own got cured in course of time any way.. I have unnecessarily wasted my time by coming to this Saint and staying in his Ashram for so long..”
(What is that state of mind..??.. How thankless some people can be..??.. This man too had spread false stories about the Saint and prevented many from going to the Saint for cure..)
The sixth devotee thought.”What is that the Saint had done to me except giving lengthy discourses every morning and evening.. Whatever little that was done to me was done by his assistants.. Good..
However, that doesn’t mean I should be thankful to them all for what they have done to me.. They have just done their duty.. So there’s no need for me to either thank the Saint or his devotees.. In fact the Saint should be thankful to me for giving him a chance to serve a great devotee like me.. ”
(This is height of thanklessness.. Such devotees are all around us today but it is difficult for us to identify them because they always talk sweet until they get their things done from us and later quite thanklessly disappear from our lives..
I have a very strong recent experience from one such devotee.. Will share my experience with you all in future.. Just waiting for the right time).
The seventh devotee thought, “Any small Doctor in my town would have cured my disease.. This Saint had unnecessarily said that it is an incurable disease and wasted my time here in this Ashram.. I should never be thankful to him in my life..”
(The most selfish among all the devotees.. There’s nothing much to say about him).
The eighth devotee thought,”My disease is half cured and would have any how cured in another week.. So what is that either the God or the saint had done to me to be thankful to them.. Not necessary..”
(No words to describe the ingratitude nature of this devotee)
The ninth devotee thought, “What is that the Saint had specially done to me.. Am destined to have the darsan of God and get my disease cured by Him.. So got it cured now.. The saint had just played his role in the whole drama.. So the question of thanking him doesn’t arise at all..”
(He is the most hypocritical of all the devotees.. He is using the philosophy he had learned in books to support every nonsensical thing he’s doing in his life.. This is also what he preaches to all his family members and all around him and always leads the most happy life cheating himself).
Finally, the tenth devotee thought, “How many efforts the holy Saint had really put to get us cured from our disease.. He’s really God in human form.. He had also on our behalf prayed to God and requested Him to cure our disease..
What is that we have paid him for all that he had done to us.. In fact, he had spent his own money on us and served us without expecting anything in return from us.. What is that we can in return offer him to show our gratitude..
I have done some thing good in my past life therefore I had the good fortune of meeting such noble Saints in this life.. All this had happened entirely due to the grace of God.. As along as we all are alive, me and my my family should be thankful to this great noble saint..
God, please give me an opportunity in future to do something in return to show my gratitude to this holy Saint.. My sincere thanks to you both for being so merciful towards this poor soul..”
After Explaining The Saint
What all those ten devotees have thought after they are completely cured by their disease, God concluded saying,
“Muneeswaraa.. You once asked me who is a true devotee and what are the qualities of true devotion.. I could have given you an elaborate explanation but wanted to give you a real life experience so that you will be able to understand the world and people around you in a better way..
I think you now know who is a true devotee and what are the qualities of true devotion.. Remember Muneeswaaraa.. Only one out of every ten devotees in this sin filled human world is a true devotee and rest of all are fake devotees using the name of God for their selfish motives.. Always stay away from them.. ”
Saying so, the God disappeared……………
Conclusion
It is always my effort to share with you all a few good spiritual lessons that I have learned in this life from my parents and also from my association with great spiritual masters like Sriram Sir..
Through this story, which is not a true story but a fictitious story that is inspired by a small but an amazing one page story that I have recently read in a Telugu book, I not only wanted to tell you all who a true devotee is and what are the qualities of true devotion but also wanted to remind you to be thankful to all those who have at one time or the other helped you in your life..
“THANKS” is a small six lettered word but goes a long way in keeping you connected with all those who matter to you the most..
Now,
For eleven amazingly
Spell binding true stories that are based on real life miraculous incidents that occurred in the lives of some ordinary people and some extraordinary personalities and also to know about one powerful New Sri Venkateswara Maha Mantra Pooja that is changing thousands of lives across the world,
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Narrenaditya Komaragiri
narrenaditya@tirumalesa.com
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