Story of Buffalo Maharaj and Ass Maharaj
Once two Sadhus (ascetics) came to a town from different directions. One settled down beneath the shade of a peepal tree and the other under a banyan tree. Hearing of their arrival a householder first went to the Sadhu of the peepal tree and prostrated before him.
“Maharaj”, said the devotee, “it appears another Mahatma (great man) has come to our town. Do you know him?”
“Yes”, returned the Sadhu contemptuously, “I know him, He is a buffalo”.
Soon after, the devotee arming himself with a bunch of hay visited the Sadhu of the banyan tree and placing the hay before him, prostrated.
“Well”, cried out the Sadhu. “What do you mean by this? Why this hay?”
“It is an offering Maharaj; deign to feed upon it and bless your devotee”, appealed the householder with folded hands.
“What? Are you mad?—eat hay!” flared up the Sadhu.
“Maharaj, a Sadhu under the peepal tree, at the other corner of the town, was good enough to inform me that you were a buffalo. So I thought I could bring you a fitting present”, coolly said the devotee.
“ How could you believe him? Have you no sense, asked the Sadhu reprovingly.
“ Maharaj, how could a poor and ignorant man like your slave dare to understand Sadhus? A Mahatma alone can know a Mahatma”, returned the devotee.
“Go and then tell him he is an ass”, said the Sadhu.
The devotee left the place, and directly going to the bazaar, purchased a kilo of cotton seeds and making a bundle of it proceeded to the first Sadhu of the peepal tree. Untying the bundle he poured out the contents in front of the Sadhu and prostrated before him.
“ How now”, asked the Sadhu with a surprise look, “What is this for?—it is cotton seed!”.
“Right, Maharaj, a stuff so dear to you. Do accept the humble present and making a full meal of it shower your grace upon your slave”, prayed the householder.
“Is anything wrong with you?”—what do you mean, eat cotton seeds”, uttered the Sadhu in consternation.
“Why not Maharaj, a Sadhu over there, under the banyan tree, told me that you are an ass. An ass has a great partiality for cotton seeds”—
“ You fool”, he roared in rage, “don’t you see I am not an ass?”
“ How should I know, Maharaj- a poor man like me caught in the meshes of Maya. It is said, A Mahatma alone can recognise a Mahatma” replied the devotee with a sly twitch at the corner of his thin lips.
The Sadhu was by this time thoroughly roused and rising to his feet, said in an impetuous voice:
“Bhakta (devotee), take me to the place where the other Mahatma is; I should like to teach him how to speak of his betters”
They went. It appears there was a terrible fight between the two Mahatmas, the householder devotee witnessing the fun from a distance. The affaire ended in the Sadhus going without for the day!
---From “Stories As Told by Swami Ramdas”.
Swami Ramdas of Kanhangd Anandashram attained Mahanirvana in 1963.
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