All World
Gayatri Pariwar

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.