Karma-Yoga : Ch-4. Part-13.

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Chapter-4.


What is Duty?


Part-13.



After a time he had to go to the town to beg his bread.

He went, stood at a door, and said, "Mother, give me food."

A voice came from inside the house, "Wait a little, my son."

The young man thought, "You wretched woman, how dare you make me wait! You do not know my power yet."

While he was thinking thus the voice came again: "Boy, don't be thinking too much of yourself. Here is neither crow nor crane."

 He was astonished; still he had to wait.

At last the woman came, and he fell at her feet and said, "Mother, how did you know that?"

She said, "My boy, I do not know your Yoga or your practices. I am a common everyday woman. I made you wait because my husband is ill, and I was nursing him. All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the Yoga I practice. But by doing my duty I have become illumined; thus I could read your thoughts and know what you had done in the forest. If you want to know something higher than this, go to the market of such and such a town where you will find a Vyadha (The lowest class of people in India who used to live as hunters and butchers.) who will tell you something that you will be very glad to learn."

Swami Vivekananda

To be continued  ...


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