The Devotee Ran Away

A clever villager rushed to enter the village temple in the early hours of the day and sit on, with eyes closed, in the hope that people will honour him as a great devotee. Since he did not get up and go about his business until about mid noon, the temple priest was always waiting for him to go so that he could close the doors and go home for his daily tasks there. So he struck upon a plan to stop the nuisance. He knew that the closed-eye session of dhyana (meditation) was all pretence. He hid himself behind the idol of a deity, and when the villager was well set in his pretence of deep meditation, he said, in an imposing sonorous voice, “Listen! Excellent devote! I am mightily pleased by your asceticism and your steadfastness. Come, I shall merge you into Myself.” At this, the fellow ran fast out from the temple, leaving no trace of where he had gone to!

The devotion and sense of surrender of man are similar to those of this imposter. Faith is weak, discipline is absent; earnestness is lacking.