A son's devotion¹

One day an old man walked a long distance to see how the rice was growing in his paddies. When he came home, he was dead tired. His son, who was very, very spiritual, began to devotedly massage his father’s feet while the old man was resting. The father was relaxing with his eyes closed, appreciating his son’s devotedness and the good massage. After about half an hour, the father fell fast asleep.

All of a sudden the son saw Lord Krishna standing right before him, watching his devotedness with appreciation and admiration. For a few seconds the son folded his hands and then he continued massaging his father’s feet.

He said to Krishna, “O Lord, I am so happy that you have come to see me. I pray to you every day most soulfully, but now you have come at a time when I am massaging my father’s feet. Look, there is a chair over there. Would you kindly get the chair and sit down? At this moment I cannot bring it to you.”

Krishna said, “No, I have been sitting for a long time. I can’t sit anymore. And you are massaging your father’s feet, so you are unable to come over here to me.” The son said, “Krishna, I see your presence inside my father. Since I have already started massaging him, will you not forgive me?”

“What is there to forgive?” asked Krishna. “Nothing pleases me more than to see someone do his duty. You have received illumination. In your father you see my presence, so you don’t have to come to me.”

While this conversation was going on the father woke up. “What are you doing?” he asked his son. “With whom were you speaking?”

“I was speaking with Lord Krishna,” replied the son.

“Lord Krishna! Where is he?” said the father.

The son said, “He appeared here. And I did not go to him because I was massaging you.”

The father said, “You fool! I have been crying to see Lord Krishna and you have actually talked to him without even offering him something to sit on.”

The son explained, “I did ask him, but he said he was not tired, and he appreciated my devotedness to you.”

“What kind of son do I have?” lamented the father. “I am only a mortal, an ordinary human being. The Lord Himself came, but you could not go and see him. O Lord Krishna, forgive my son and forgive me for having such an idiot in the family.”

The son said, “Say what you want. But you know that in you I always feel the presence of my Lord Krishna. So when I didn’t go to him, he did not mind. On the contrary, he was very proud of me because I was doing my duty. Krishna said that nothing pleased him more than to see someone doing his duty.”

The father said, “If what you are saying is all true, then I am really blessed that I have such a nice, wise, soulful and devoted son who can bring Krishna to us. But blind I shall always be. It seems I shall never see him. Even if my eyes had not been closed, perhaps I would not have seen him with my naked, human eyes. You were able to see Krishna because he opened your third eye, the eye that sees. I am so proud that at least my son has seen him. But how I wish I could know for sure that this is all true.”

At that moment Krishna appeared and said, “It is all true, all true. It is because of your son’s faithfulness and one-pointed devotedness to you that today you are seeing me. In you your son saw me, and that is the supreme realisation. Now you, the father, try to see me also in your son. Then you will also be blessed with the supreme realisation that I am in all, with all and for all. I am the creation, I am the Creator; I am the life of the creation and the Light of the Creator. Again, I am the one who is all light, all life, all compassion, all oneness, all satisfaction and all perfection. See this and feel this in all, and then grow into this realisation.”

Both father and son fell down at Krishna’s feet and said, “Krishna; O infinity’s Lord, you have come to us with a finite form so we can touch you, feel you and become like you. Infinite is your greatness, eternal is your goodness.”