SPIRITUAL PROGRESS DEPENDS ON MIND

The spiritual gain of a person depends upon his mental condition and thought—life. It proceeds from his heart, and not from any of his external actions. Two friends, while strolling about, happened to pass by a place where the Bhagavata was being expounded. One of them said, " Well, let us go there for a while and hear the holy scripture.' The other replied, " No, my dear friend, what is the use of hearing the Bhagavata ? Let us spend the^ time in yonder brothel in amusement and pleasure." The first one did not consent to this proposal. He went to the place where the Bhagavata was being read and sat down to hear it The other went to the brothel but did not find the pleasure which he had anticipated there. So he was thinking within himself, " Ah me ! Why have I come here? How happy must my friend be to be hearing all the while an account of the sacred deeds of Lord Hari." Thus he meditated on Hari even though he was in an unholy place. The other man also, who was hearing the exposition of the Bhagavata, did not find pleasure in it. Sitting there he began to blame himself, saying, Ah! What a fool I was to have not accompanied my friend to the brothel! What great pleasure he must be having at this time there !' The result was that he was merely sitting where the Bhagavata was being read, while all the time his mind was dreaming of the pleasures he might have enjoyed in the bawdy-house. Now as his mind was blackened with these thoughts, he got all the sin of visiting the brothel, although he did not go there in person. And the man who had gone to the brothel acquired all the merit of hearing the Bhagavata, because his mind was meditating on the sacred book even though he was in that bad place.

A Sannyasin dwelt by the side of a temple. There was the house of a harlot in front. Seeing the constant concourse of men in the prostitute s house, the Sannyasin one day called her and censured her saying, " You are a great sinner. You sin day and night. Oh, how miserable will be your lot hereafter! ' The poor prostitute became extremely sorry for her misdeeds, and with genuine inward repentance she prayed to God beseeching forgiveness. But as prostitution was her profession, she could not easily adopt any other means of gaining her livelihood. And so, whenever her flesh sinned, she always reproached herself with greater contrition of heart and prayed to God more and more for forgiveness. The Sannyasin saw that his advice had apparently produced no effect upon her, and thought, M Let me see how many persons will visit this woman in the course of her life. And from that day forward, whenever any person entered the house of the prostitute, the Sannyasin counted him by putting a pebble for him, and so in course of time there arose a big heap of pebbles. One day the Sannyasin said to the prostitute, pointing to the heap, "Woman, don t you see this heap? Each pebble in it stands for every commission of the deadly sin you have been indulging in since I advised you last to desist from the evil course. Even now I tell you, Beware of your evil deeds ! ' The poor wretch began to tremble at the sight of the accumulation of her sins, and she prayed to God shedding tears of utter helplessness, and inwardly repeating: " Lord wilt Thou not free me from the miserable life that 1 am leading? The prayer was heard, and on that very day the angel of death passed by her house, and she ceased to exist in this world. By the strange will of God, the Sannyasin also died on the same day. The messengers of Vishnu came down from Heaven and carried the spirit body of the contrite prostitute to the heavenly regions, while the messengers of Yama bound the spirit of the Sannyasin and carried him down to the nether world. The Sannyasin, seeing the good luck of the prostitute, cried aloud, Is this the subtle justice of God ? I passed all my life in asceticism and poverty, and I am carried to hell, while that prostitute, whose life was a whole record of sin, is going to Heaven! ' Hearing this, the messengers of Vishnu said, ' The decrees of God are always just; as you think, so you reap. You passed your life in external show and vanity, trying to get honour and fame; and God has given you this. Your heart never sincerely yearned after Him. This prostitute earnestly prayed to God day and night, though her body sinned all the while. Look at the treatment which your body and her body are receiving from those below. As you never sinned with your body, they have decorated it with flowers and garlands, and are carrying it with music in a procession to consign it to the sacred river. But this prostitute s body, which had sinned, is being torn to pieces at this moment by vultures and jackals. Nevertheless, she was pure in heart and is therefore going to the regions of the pure. Your heart was always absorbed in contemplating her sins and thus became impure. You are therefore going to the regions of the impure. You were the real prostitute, and not she."