Page 262 - Kailaspati: Paramhans Hansdevji Avadhoot

sin can hardly touch us. But scarcely do we return home than the lust for life and things petty returns to us.
Baba one day told us, “Until and unless you have seen or heard something, do not jump to a conclusion.” he also said to us, “Be gentle to one and all. Behave well even with your enemy.” To make this point clear to us, he narrated a tale to us:
Once a King was lying on his bed at night. When he was about to sleep, he heard a cry and the cry seemed to be that of a woman. he sent his guard to look for it. and he himself took special care to know it. This was because he was advised by a sage, ‘Until and unless you see with your eyes and hear with your ears, never take any decision.” Without the knowledge of his guard, the King followed them. after having walked a little while, the King could see a handsome woman sitting on a piece of stone by the river and crying. The King, from behind a big tree, saw this. The guard said to the woman, “What makes you cry? Who are you? Our king is feeling disturbed by your cry. if you are really hungry, please wait for the day to dawn and then i will arrange some food for you.”
The woman said, “i am not hungry. i am not praying for any mercy from your end.”
“Then why are you crying?” he asked her.
“Within only seven days our King is going to die of a snake bite and i am crying for that reason,” she replied.
“Who are you then?” the guard asked.
“i am the Rajlakshmi. The moment the King will breathe his last, i will go to the other side of this river.”
Failing to follow these words of the woman, the guard said, “i will fetch you a boat in the morrow and you will be able to go to the other side of the river. But i request you to keep quiet now.”
although the guard could not follow the words of the woman, the King could follow it clearly. Worried, he returned home and lay on his bed. Within a short while, the guard returned to him and said, “a poor woman was crying in misery. Lest the sleep of the King should get disturbed, i forbade her from doing it. she would cry no longer.”
had the King not seen everything with his own eyes, he could
232 Kailashpati