SPIRITUAL CALCULATION – STORY
(From Srila Prabhupada’s Lecture)
One poor boy, he was student in a school and the teacher’s father’s annual ceremony would be held. So he requested all his students to give some contribution for the ceremony.
Formerly the teacher was not taking any salary. But whatever he wanted, the students will bring either from parents’ house or by begging. That was the system. The teacher would not charge anything for teaching.
A brahmana cannot charge anything. Generally, the brahmanas were teachers. That is one of the profession of the brahmana.
The teacher asked the students and one student said “I will contribute cloth,” other one said, “I’ll bring rice,”.
Like that different students offered to bring different things.
The poor student, he had no means. He was very poor. So when he was asked, he replied that
“I cannot say anything without asking my mother.”
The teacher said “All right, you ask your mother and tell me tomorrow.”
So he asked, “My dear mother, all my class friends have promised the teacher to contribute something for the ceremony, What shall I promise?”
The mother said, “My dear son, we are so poor, we cannot give anything. But if Krsna gives, He is dina-bandhu, the friend of the poor. So if He gives something to you, you can promise.”
The boy asked “Oh, where is Krsna? How can I find him?”
The mother replied “His name is Krsna, He is Dinabandhu, friend of the poor.I understand that He is in the forest.”
So the boy went to the forest and called, “Dinabandhu brother, Dinabandhu brother, where You?”
He began to cry.
So Krsna came. When a devotee is very much eager to see Him, Krsna comes. He is very kind.
Krsna asked “Why are you crying and what do you want?”
The boy explained the whole situation and asked “What can I promise?”
Krsna said that “You promise that you will supply yogurt, dahi.”
So the boy was very much satisfied. He came to the teacher and said that “My Dinabandhu brother, dada, He will supply yogurt, dahi.”
So on the day of ceremony, so the boy went to the forest again and called Dinabandhu dada, and He gave him a small pot of dahi, yogurt, a small pot. Oh, he was a child.
He did not know that he has brought only a small quantity of yogurt.
The teacher was supposed to feed hundreds and thousands of people and this yogurt is very little. He became very angry and did not keep the pot properly and the pot fell down & the yogurt also fell down. But after some time, when the teacher came, he saw that although the yogurt has fallen down, the pot is still full.
Then he again dropped it; again it is full. He dropped it; again it is full.
Then he could understand it is spiritual. Purnasya purnam adaya purnam eva avasisyate [Isopanishad Invocation]. You take the whole thing; still, the whole thing is there. That is Krsna. Not that because you have taken something, one minus one equal to zero.
No. In the spiritual world, one minus one equal to one. And one plus one equal to one. That is called advaya-jnana. There is no duality. Plus and minus, they are two things. But in the spiritual world, either plus or minus, the same. That is to be understood.
That is called Absolute, advaya-jnana.