Be alert in choosing your companion

 

Once there was a young man named Ramu of 35 years old in a remote village. He was good for nothing. In this age he was workless & even had no intention or urge to work to support his livelihood. He lived there single & had no relative of his blood connection. All villagers knew him as a lazy useless person.

Ramu did not like hard work to earn food, rather the burglary seemed very easy for him. In day time he would loiter here & there in his village & took notice of the belongings of the villagers. At night when the whole village was asleep, he would come out of his hut & stole rice grain from the barn or household pet animals like ducks, hens etc. In the very early  morning he earned money by selling those things. Sometime he would dare to rob the household brass utensils when the house owner was out of station.

This malpractice went on day by day & increased in volume also. Nobody could catch the burglar. This caused a pride feeling on the burglary skill in Ramu’s mind. But fate does not always comply with our expectation. On day while stealing a cow from a villager’s farm house he was caught red handed & beaten black & blue. From that day Ramu resolved not to dare to commit burglary further in his village.

One day he visited to a far –away village which was known for its wealthy inhabitants. His motive was to rob a rich household. He walked all day long on foot to reach that village & when he reached there he was totally exhausted & thirsty. Seeing a pond nearby he went down there to quench his thirst. When he came back on the road he could see a monk in saffron robes sitting with closed eyes under an old banyan tree. The ladies who came to take bath there in the pond, when the bathing was done, were placing fruits or other dry foods before the monk & returning home after bowing head. This sight moved Ramu, he was astonished. He thought, “What a magic! That man is not doing nothing & getting all he wants. Very interesting! If I put on saffron then I will need no more to take my life in risk to earn my food.”

He did what he thought. Next day he came back early in the same spot wearing a saffron cloth all around his body & sat still in some distance of that monk. Hours passed, then he saw the village women coming to take bath in the pond, he closed his eyes as if he was in deep meditation. The same thing happened like the previous day, seeing another monk those women also placed fruits, dry food, milk, sweets etc before Ramu while returning their homes. After the crowd was over, Ramu opened his eyes cautiously.  What a surprise! He couldn’t believe his eyes seeing the delicious foods before him. It was a long time he had had such kind of valuable foods.

He thought, “I am not a real monk, I am a monk in disguise. Though my fake identity has won the respect which I have got never before. If I were a real monk then surely I can have more than this.” That afternoon the real monk was about to leave the place to visit another spot. Ramu thought this moment was the golden opportunity to get his company to have his spiritual teachings to become a real monk. So he followed the monk to start a spiritual journey. Afterwards it was heard that he really became a monk living a solitude life in the Himalayas.

So friends, see how a thief became a spiritual person with the companionship of a sage. It was the honest & pious company which worked as the touchstone in his life. Only a true ally can elevate our life to eternal happiness. So choose a pure company to be happy in your life.