I love reading some of these true experiences of the saints and enlightened beings as they are so inspiring! Here are 3 beautiful accounts of how one’s sincerity can literally move God!
Story of Ramanuja and his Lord Vishnu deity.
This is an interesting happening in Ramanuja acharya’s life, a south Indian philosopher who helped to consolidate the Visistadvaita Vedanta (qualified non-dualism) School of Hindu philosophy and is renowned as a saint by the Sri Vaisnava branch of Hinduism. According to Hindu legend, his parents prayed for a son, and it is said that the Hindu god, Lord Vishnu incarnated himself as Ramanuja. As a child, Ramanuja demonstrated an aptitude for philosophy.
One day, one of the Mughal Kings had come to Ramanuja’s small village and had completely pillaged everything in it, including Ramanuja’s favourite deity of Lord Vishnu. Ramanuja went to the Mughal King and managed to convince him to give it back to his deity. The Mughal King agreed and took him to a vast storage area where hundreds and hundreds of deities were stored. Ramanuja just called out “Chellai Pillai” (meaning ‘Come back, My Beloved’ in Tamil) and immediately his beloved deity of Lord Vishnu came into his arms from the piles of deities in the storeroom.
Story of Ramdas and the golden buffalo.
This is a very beautiful story in the life of a saint called Ramdas.
Ramdas was a great sadhu (Vedic monk) who lived in Varanasi a few hundred years ago. He belonged to the suppressed class of society – the so-called ‘low caste’. He wanted to take deeksha (spiritual initiation) and practice spirituality. But the local Guru who was supposed to initiate him said, “No, I will not initiate you because then all the low-caste people will want the same initiation and it will make it impure.”
So Ramdas went to another Guru and asked him for deeksha. This Guru said ‘I am not qualified to initiate you, but I will tell you one trick. ‘This Guru goes to the river Ganga every morning before dawn. If you lie down quietly on the riverbank steps before dawn, he will surely step on you by mistake in the dark. Being a pious man, when he steps on you, he will surely call out God’s name like Rama, Rama or Shiva, Shiva! Take that as your mantra and his touch on your body as the initiation!’
So Ramdas went and the whole thing was executed as planned. But the Guru was not filled with God’s name. See, to chant God’s name at the moment of crisis, you should be filled with God’s name. So, the moment he slipped and saw Ramdas, he shouted, ‘You buffalo! You are here!’
But Ramdas was very sincere, he thought ‘Whatever word that came from my Guru’s lips is my mantra!’ So, he took the word ‘buffalo’ as his mantra! He sat in one corner and started meditating on ‘Buffalo’.
One day, there was a festival in the local Shiva temple. The deity of Shiva was being brought out of the temple door for a procession. Suddenly, the deity was tuck at the door and not able to come out. The priests who were carrying the deity didn’t know what to do. They couldn’t understand why the deity was not moving past the door, even though the doors were wide open.
Ramdas was sitting outside the temple and watching the whole scene. To him, the deity appeared in the form of a huge golden buffalo! He saw that it was stuck at the door because its big horns were getting in the way. So, he shouted to the priests, ‘Just bend the deity, it will come out!’. They didn’t understand why he was saying that, but they bent the deity anyway and it came out. Then Lord Shiva appeared and gave darshan (divine sight) to all the people. Lord Shiva wanted to show the whole world that he had accepted Ramdas’s devotion.
Story of Krishna devotees and Bhagawan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam (fondly known as Swamiji).
Once Swamiji was driving through Salem, Tamil Nadu with a full entourage of his ashramites (people who live in monastery). Suddenly He felt a strong pull and told the driver to stop the car.
He told: “I saw on the roadside, a young man and an old man selling Bhagavad Gita books. I couldn’t help but bought the book and told the ashramite to pay them. When I touched his fingers, I felt so much sincerity! I actually bowed down to him with my heart. I started talking to them, the sincerity they expressed and both of them are devotees of Krishna. All the copies were sold out as a crowd started to gather around them. I asked them since both of them were educated, why not set up a shop?”
They said “Yes, we have plan to do so. But we don’t want to sit around till the shop infrastructure is ready”. When you experience something immediately act on it within 21 hrs, then you are doing the ‘Yanjna’ – meaning do sacrifice or giving the feeling connection with others. By not doing the action, you are a thief and simply the energy will leave you after 21 hrs. I told them today they were having Krishna’s presence directly. I saw whenever the action was performed, their sincerity just flourished. It was such a joy. If you are standing there in sincerity, God will stop for you! What a disciple to have! I felt a little jealous of Krishna! Still he is able to inspire people in the zone of sincerity. After two years, I saw a beautiful store and temple and they are still standing in the platform selling the books. Only with the kind of hard work, the sincerity will be established. Not doing the action, you are inviting the demon in you.”
From the three beautiful divine experiences, we understand that in whatever form you approach the Divine, He is there for you. Understand this one truth – fundamentally, it is our sincerity that matters which has the power to move even God Himself. Namaste 😀