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Surrender and Faith

January 6, 2011 | Click here to print.

 

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From a talk by Shri Anandi Ma at a public program in Woodbury, Connecticut in September, 2009

Guruji was a seven year old when He ran away from home to find God. He began with surrendering, bringing nothing with Him, just the faith that He would be taken care of the rest of His days.  While He was on this journey just shortly after running away from home, He had walked for several miles and was very tired and  hungry. He was very shy by nature and would not easily ask for things. He reached a place of pilgrimage and He wanted to visit the temple there, but it was a couple of hours before the temple would open for the evening services. As He sat underneath a tree passing the time waiting for the temple to open, out of the blue a person came with a plate of food and offered it to Him. Naturally He was hungry and wanted to eat very badly but as He was about to start eating, He heard that the temple was now open and He could go in. He was sitting in an area that was infested with monkeys, so now He was in a dilemma. He thought, “Here’s the food, I am very hungry, and the temple is open, so if I go to the temple now, then the food will be gone as, naturally, the monkeys are not going to leave it alone.” He couldn’t carry it with Him, and yet He made this trip to visit this temple, so what should He do? Finally He said, “Well, I have come here with the intent of visiting this holy place and I had not asked for this food yet it was given to me. If the Lord wills, it will be preserved and protected no matter what.” So He left the plate of food underneath the tree and went inside the temple. More than an hour later, He decided to come back to the spot just to rest for the night. He knew by then, of course, that the food was gone; with hundreds of monkeys around there would be no trace of it left. But when He returned to the site, He was surprised to see that a few monkeys were sitting around the food protecting it, not allowing other monkeys to come. When He saw that, He started crying tears of joy, thanking the Lord for taking such care and protection. There were many such incidents in His life, but He always had that attitude of surrender in all situations, as God is always there to guide and to protect and to lead you to that final state of self realization.

[This was originally published in the January 2o10 issue of Shakti Journal.]


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