Page 192 - Kailaspati: Paramhans Hansdevji Avadhoot

Baba added another Doha to explain:
मिपक्षी तब लग ऊडे तवषयवासिामांय; ज्ञािबाजकी झपट में जब लग आवत िांय।
manapakṣī taba laga ūḍe viṣayavāsanāmāṃya; jñānabājakī jhapaṭa meṃ jaba laga āvata nāṃya,
That means—The bird-like mind of a man wanders in the forest of earthly things as long as it is not caught by gyana-hawk of knowledge.
in course of a deliberation, Baba once said, the foremost duty of human life is to attain divinity. Little can a man attain divinity if he remains engrossed in things mundane. and once one is guided along the path of divinity, he attains things both earthly and heavenly. if the main object is realized, things petty start coming.
a family man is generally given to temptation. and it ends in nothing. That too much of temptation proves disastrous is explained by means of a tale told by Baba.
Once a merchant, while returning home with his ship, laden with riches of crores of rupees, met with a deadly storm. he doubted that he was going to have a shipwreck and once the ship sank, he would suffer a huge loss. Frightened, he prayed to Lord shiva that if he could escape the fury of the storm, he on return home would have a temple erected in the name of Lord shiva at the cost of twenty lakhs of rupees and do the needful for the daily worship there. By the grace of God, the storm got quietened, and the ship began heading toward the harbour safely. The more the ship neared the shore, the more his mind changed. he then thought that it would be a sheer waste of twenty lakh of rupees for such a petty event and that it would be better to spend ten lakh of rupees in place of twenty lakh for the said purpose. soon after he thought that only two lakhs of rupees would be enough for it, and gradually from twenty lakh to fifty thousand, to twenty thousand and to ten thousand. and as the ship reached the shore, he decided that it would be worthwhile to send puja-offerings to a temple with only rupees fifty. What is the use of spending so huge an amount for shankarji?—he thought to himself.
162 Kailashpati