A young sannyasi goes to a forest,
where he meditates and practices spiritual
austerities for a long time. After years of
practice, one day while sitting under a
tree, dry leaves fall on his head because of
a fight between a crow and a crane. The
angry sannyasi had developed yogic powers
and burnt the birds with his mere look.
This incident fills the sannyasi with
arrogance. Shortly thereafter, he goes to a
house, begging for food. Here the housewife
who was nursing her sick husband requests
the sannyasi to wait. To this, the sannyasi
thinks in his mind, “You wretched woman,
how dare you make me wait! You do
not know my power yet” to which the
housewife says that she is neither a crow
nor a crane, to be burnt. The sannyasi is
amazed and asks her how she came to
know about the bird. The housewife says
that she did not practice any austerities and
by doing her duty with cheerfulness and
wholeheartedness, she became illumined
and could read his thoughts.
She directs him to a dharma-vyadha
(meaning, the righteous butcher) in the
town of Mithila and says that the dharma-
vyadha would answer all his questions
on dharma. The sannyasi goes to see the
vyadha. However initially he hesitates to
talk to him as he was busy in his work (that
is cutting animal flesh). Vyadha understands
his hesitation and advises him, “No duty is
impure”; by dedicating all the work to God
and by sincere and unattached performance
of the allotted duty one can become
illumined.
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