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Ramana Maharshi story
of Saint Namdev Enlightenment:
Ramana Maharshi :
“Vithoba found Nam Dev had not yet realised the Supreme
Truth and wanted to teach him. When Jnaneswar and Nam
Dev returned from their pilgrimage, Gora Kumbhar gave a
feast to all the saints in his place and among them were
Jnaneswar and Nam Dev. At the feast, Jnaneswar in
collusion with Gora, told Gora publicly, ‘You are a
potter, daily engaged in making pots and testing them to
see which are properly baked and which are not. These
pots before you (i.e., the saints) are the pots of
Brahma. See which of these are sound and which not.’
Thereupon Gora said, ‘Yes Swami, I shall do so’, and
took up the stick with which he used to tap his pots to
test their soundness; and holding it aloft in his hand
he went to each of his guests and tapped each on the
head as he usually did to his pots. Each guest humbly
submitted to such tapping. But when Gora approached Nam
Dev, the latter indignantly called out: ‘You potter,
what do you mean by coming to tap me with that stick?’
Gora thereupon told Jnaneswar, ‘Swami, all the other
pots have been properly baked. This one, (i.e., Nam Dev)
alone is not yet properly baked.’ All the assembled
guests burst into laughter. Nam Dev felt greatly
humiliated and ran up to Vitthal with whom he was on the
most intimate terms, playing with him, eating with him,
sleeping with him, and so on. Nam Dev complained of this
humiliation which had happened to him, the closest
friend and companion of Vitthal.
Vitthal (who of course knew all this) pretended to
sympathise with him, asked for all the details of the
happenings at Gora’s house and after hearing everything
said, ‘Why should you not have kept quiet and submitted
to the tapping, as all the others did? That is why all
this trouble has come.’ Thereupon Nam Dev cried all the
more and said, ‘You also want to join the others and
humiliate me. Why should I have submitted like the
others? Am I not
your closest friend, your child?’ Vitthal said, ‘You
have not yet properly understood the truth.
And you won’t understand if I tell you. But go to the
saint who is in a ruined temple in such and such a
forest. He will be able to give you enlightenment.’
Nam Dev accordingly went there and found an old,
unassuming man sleeping in a corner of the temple with
his feet on a Siva lingam. Nam Dev could hardly believe
this was the man from whom he — the companion of Vitthal
— was to gain enlightenment. However, as there was none
else there, Nam Dev went near the man and clapped his
hands.
The old man woke up with a start and, seeing Nam Dev,
said, ‘Oh, you are Nam Dev whom Vitthal has sent here.
Come!’ Nam Dev was dumb-founded and began to think,
‘This must be a great man.’
Still he thought it was revolting that any man, however
great, should be resting his feet on a lingam. He asked
the old man, ‘You seem to be a great personage. But is
it proper for you to have your feet on a lingam?’
The old man replied, ‘Oh, are my feet on a lingam? Where
is it? Please remove my feet elsewhere.’
Nam Dev removed the feet and put them in various places.
Wherever they were put, there was a Siva lingam.
Finally, he took them on his lap and he himself became a
Siva lingam.
Then he realised the truth and the old gentleman said,
‘Now you can go back’.” Bhagavan added, “It is to be
noted
that only when he surrendered himself, and touched the
feet of his guru, enlightenment came. After this final
enlightenment Nam Dev returned to his house and for some
days did not go to Vitthal at the temple, though it had
been his habit not only to visit Vitthal every day, but
to spend most of his time with Vitthal at the temple.
So after a few days, Vitthal went to Nam Dev’s house and
like a guileless soul enquired how it was that Nam Dev
has forgotten him and never visited him. Nam Dev
replied, ‘No more of your fooling me. I know now. Where
is the place where you are not! To be with you, should I
go to the temple? Do I exist apart from you?’ Then
Vitthal said, ‘So you now understand the truth. That is
why you had to be sent for this final lesson’.”
Source: from book "Day by day with Raman Maharshi"
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