Arishtanemi⁴

In the time of the Mahabharata there was a great sage named Arishtanemi. He had a beautiful young son who was conversant with the Vedas. The father was extremely proud of his son.

One day Arishtanemi’s son was playing in the forest. It happened that a prince was hunting in the forest at the same time. Alas, he mistook the boy for a deer and killed him.

When the prince found out that he had slain the son of Arishtanemi, he was smitten with sorrow. He went to see Arishtanemi and beg for forgiveness. He did not know where Arishtanemi’s home was, so he had to make inquiries. Finally, he came to the cottage of the boy’s father and said, “Forgive me, forgive me.”

“What have you done wrong that I have to forgive you?”

“Oh, your son!”

“My son? Do you need my son?”

“Arishtanemi, your son is no more.”

“Who says my son is no more? My son is resting in his room.”

The prince asked, “Are you sure your son is in his room?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Then…” said the prince, bewildered.

“Then, what?”

“That means I have killed somebody else’s son, not your son.”

“Do you want to see my son?”

“Yes, can I see him?”

Arishtanemi called out, “Son! Come out, my son!” The son came out of his room.

“Oh! This is the boy! This is the boy that I killed!” said the prince. “How can he be alive? I saw him lying in the forest!”

Arishtanemi smiled and said, “O prince, how can my son be dead? You thought he was a deer and you aimed your arrow at him by mistake. You thought you killed him, but the soul of my son came to me and asked me to revive him. For me, this is like drinking water. I have occult power. I have spiritual power. As soon as his soul came, I revived him.”

“But what about the wound? He was bleeding.”

“That is also nothing. You did not remove the arrow, but with my occult power I removed it.”

Oh, forgive me! I did not even remove the arrow!”

“I easily removed it and you cannot even see any wound.”

“No, I can’t,” marvelled the prince.

“When I revived him, my son came to his senses and ran home. He reached here long before you.”

“How can anyone do this?” asked the prince.

“You have to practice spirituality. God’s Power is infinitely stronger than man’s power. If you can kill someone, then God can give new life to that person. Again, if God wants someone to die, you cannot keep that person alive. My will has become one with God’s Will. God wanted my son to remain on earth. Therefore, I was able to revive him. But if God had wanted my son to die from your arrow, I would have accepted my fate cheerfully. When you have implicit oneness with God’s Will, you can do the miracle of miracles. But at that time, there is no such thing as a miracle. It is all perfectly natural. God’s Will is the only natural reality in God’s entire creation.”

“Will your son forgive me? You may forgive me, but will your young boy ever forgive me?”

The son said, “The question of forgiveness does not arise. I am so grateful to you.”

“How can you be grateful to me? I hurt you.”

“I am grateful to you because I always wanted people to know of my father’s spiritual power. Today you were the instrument which permitted my father to show his spiritual power. You are the prince. Everybody knows you. You will go to the palace and tell your father. Then the entire world will come to know who my father is. He has such tremendous occult and spiritual power. So you have done me a favour unconsciously. Therefore, I am most grateful to you.”

The prince said, “O God, good people do live on earth. I thought that there were no good human beings on earth, for I always see people around me of my own standard. Now I see that there is another standard, in which people can be as nice as you. We shall always walk in the footsteps of good people like you two. Forgiveness is your choice. Oneness is your choice. You forgive mankind because you are one with God’s Will. Again, because you are always one with God’s Will, God does everything in and through you in His own Way. How I wish I could accept spirituality. But, unfortunately, my life is full of desire.”

Arishtanemi said, “Prince, I am very pleased with you. There is an hour for everything. When your hour strikes, you will enter into spirituality. At that time I will be of real help to you. One day you will become as spiritually great as you are now physically great. The hour will definitely arrive for you to become spiritually great, too. Just wait! Have patience and I assure you that I will help you far, far beyond your imagination, for to help you at that time will be to fulfil once again my Beloved Supreme’s Will. In His own Way I shall fulfil Him at His chosen hour.

“There is nothing divine you cannot do when you become one with God’s Will. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent. He is omnipresent. He does not want to maintain His omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence only for Himself. He wants to give them away to all those who truly care for Him as their own, very own. Love Him, adore Him and fulfil Him in His own Way, for He is everything. Try to please Him in every way and do not hanker for your own fulfilment. At that time, whatever you will automatically becomes God’s Will too.

“Now we are crying to fulfil God in God’s own Way. A day will come when, by virtue of our own constant oneness with God’s Will, whatever we will shall automatically become God’s Will, for our will and God’s Will can never be separate. The drop knows what the Source wants and the Source always knows what the drop wants. In pleasing the Source continuously, the drop becomes fully aware of the Source’s Will. Again, if the drop does something spontaneously, even without being aware of God’s Will, the drop will carry the Will of the Source.”