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Compiled  by London swaminathan

Date: 28  September 2015

Post No: 2196

Time uploaded in London :– 18-15

(Thanks  for the pictures) 

There is a Sufi story which illustrates how familiarity breeds contempt. Some devotees, therefore, do not wish to meet God but would prefer to thirst and pine for Him all their life. They find a particular joy and ecstasy in merely crying and wailing for Him all their life.  The story is this:

On a hot day a herd of sheep was grazing on a hill. When the sun had ion of gone down meridian, the sheep felt inordinately thirsty. With raised heads they looked for water in all directions in great expectation of seeing a water course or a stream some distance from there.

Fortunately for them, they saw down on the slope, about half a mile away, a stream of crystal water flowing. The sight enchanted them because their thirst was great, so also their love for water. All the sheep now rushed in a body towards the stream in tremendous haste. Soon they reached the stream and, going in it knee deep, drank the water to their fill. Then they stood for a while in the water and turned it dirty by passing into it urine, etc. they lost the long eagerness to see and drink the water. On the other hand, they made the water dirty.

Too near association of your Beloved gradually wears away your high veneration and love for Him or Her who was held by you at one time in high esteem as you all in all.

–Story told by Swami Ramdas of Anandashramam

Many Tamil Vaishnavite saints, known as Alvars, also enjoy Lord Vishnu this way. They are ready to be born as steps made of stones in the Balaji temple. What they want is to enjoy God from a distance, but for ever. This gives them more joy than going closer to him. Kulasekara Alvar, one of the 12 Alvars, praises the Lord of the Venkata Hills and prays to him that he should be born as a crane or a fish or a stream or a tree in the holy Venkata hills. Both Saivite and Vaishnavite saints look at the Lord as husband and himself or herself as a woman longing for Him. This gives them immense joy. This is known as Nayaki- Nayaka Bhava.

–Subham–