Friday, July 17, 2020

Parable of the Two Friends

'As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain.' 
Once two friends were going along the street, when they saw some people listening to a reading of the Bhagavata. 'Come, friend', said the one to the other. 'Let us hear the sacred book.' So saying he went in and sat down. The second man peeped in and went away. He entered a house of ill fame. 

But very soon he felt disgusted with the place. 'Shame on me!' he said to himself. 'My friend has been listening to the sacred word of Hari; and see where I am!' But the friend who had been listening to the Bhagavata also became disgusted. 'What a fool I am!' he said. 'I have been listening to this fellow's blah-blah, and my friend is having a grand time.' 

In course of time they both died. The messenger of Death came for the soul of the one who had listened to the Bhagavata and dragged it off to hell. The messenger  of  God  came  for  the  soul  of  the  one  who  had  been  to  the  house  of prostitution and led it up to heaven. 

Verily, the Lord looks into a man's heart and does not judge him by what he does or where he lives. 
'Krishna accepts a devotee's inner feeling of love.'  

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 204 
                      (8 April 1883)

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