WHAT IS DUTY? - 4

The only way to rise is by doing the duty next to us, and thus gathering strength
go on until we reach the highest state. A young Sannyâsin went to a forest;
there he meditated, worshipped, and practiced Yoga for a long time. After
years of hard work and practice, he was one day sitting under a tree, when
some dry leaves fell upon his head. He looked up and saw a crow and a crane
fighting on the top of the tree, which made him very angry. He said, "What!
Dare you throw these dry leaves upon my head!" As with these words he
angrily glanced at them, a flash of fire went out of his head — such was the
Yogi's power — and burnt the birds to ashes. He was very glad, almost
overjoyed at this development of power — he could burn the crow and the
crane by a look. After a time he had to go to the town to beg his bread. He
went, stood at a door, and said, "Mother, give me food." A voice came from
inside the house, "Wait a little, my son." The young man thought, "You
wretched woman, how dare you make me wait! You do not know my power
yet." While he was thinking thus the voice came again: "Boy, don't be thinking
too much of yourself. Here is neither crow nor crane." He was astonished; still
he had to wait. At last the woman came, and he fell at her feet and said,
"Mother, how did you know that?" She said, "My boy, I do not know your
Yoga or your practices. I am a common everyday woman. I made you wait
because my husband is ill, and I was nursing him. All my life I have struggled
to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I
am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the Yoga I practice. But by
doing my duty I have become illumined; thus I could read your thoughts and
know what you had done in the forest. If you want to know something higher
than this, go to the market of such and such a town where you will find a
Vyâdha (The lowest class of people in India who used to live as hunters and butchers.) who
will tell you something that you will be very glad to learn." The Sannyasin
thought, "Why should I go to that town and to a Vyadha?" But after what he
had seen, his mind opened a little, so he went. When he came near the town, he
found the market and there saw, at a distance, a big fat Vyadha cutting meat
with big knives, talking and bargaining with different people. The young man
said, "Lord help me! Is this the man from whom I am going to learn? He is the
incarnation of a demon, if he is anything." In the meantime this man looked up
and said, "O Swami, did that lady send you here? Take a seat until I have done
my business." The Sannyasin thought, "What comes to me here?" He took his
seat; the man went on with his work, and after he had finished he took his
money and said to the Sannyasin, "Come sir, come to my home." On reaching
home the Vyadha gave him a seat, saying, "Wait here," and went into the
house. He then washed his old father and mother, fed them, and did all he could
to please them, after which he came to the Sannyasin and said, "Now, sir, you
have come here to see me; what can I do for you?" The Sannyasin asked him a
few questions about soul and about God, and the Vyadha gave him a lecture
which forms a part of the Mahâbhârata, called the Vyâdha-Gitâ. It contains one
of the highest flights of the Vedanta. When the Vyadha finished his teaching,
the Sannyasin felt astonished. He said, "Why are you in that body? With such
knowledge as yours why are you in a Vyadha's body, and doing such filthy,
ugly work?" "My son," replied the Vyadha, "no duty is ugly, no duty is impure.
My birth placed me in these circumstances and environments. In my boyhood I
learnt the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty well. I try to do my
duty as a householder, and I try to do all I can to make my father and mother
happy. I neither know your Yoga, nor have I become a Sannyasin, nor did I go
out of the world into a forest; nevertheless, all that you have heard and seen has
come to me through the unattached doing of the duty which belongs to my
position."