HE IS EVERYTHING
Years ago, I happened to cross a village. I entered a dilapidated hut. An old, blind woman sat on the floor. She was an invalid and lived in the midst of abject poverty.
Finding her in that miserable state and with no one near her, I said to her, “Mother, you must be feeling very lonely.”
“Not at all!” she answered in a voice which still rings in my ears. “The neighbours love me and do all that is necessary for me.”
“But, at night, mother, how do you live all alone with the storm shrieking and the rain pouring through the leaky roof?” I asked in wonder.
Again she said, “I do not feel lonely. My heart feels happy, alike in sunshine and rain. The good neighbours give me all I want: and my wants are so few.”
There was something in her words which made me feel that this poor, blind woman was in possession of some hidden secret of happiness. I sat at her feet: I gazed at her radiant face. I put to her question after question in the hope that she would share with me her secret. At last, she said, “I do not feel lonely, for the Beloved is ever by me. In the dark of the night, when others are asleep, I call Him and He comes to me. With noiseless footfalls He comes, He comes, He ever comes. I speak to Him: He speaks to me. Having Him, I need nothing. He is everything: He is All in all! Indeed He is the One in all!”
As I listened to her words of wisdom, I bowed to pick up the dust of her feet. My eyes were touched with tears. My voice was choked with emotion. I knew that here was one to whom God was the Reality of Life.
“Whatever is for my good,” she said, “God sends me: and whatever comes to me, comes from God for my good!”
“There can be no true happiness without God,” she added. “In His Will is our peace, and the more we are attuned to His Will, the more will spiritual joy saturate our souls!”
The poor, old, blind woman was a true lover of God. She lived and moved in the presence of God – her Beloved. “He never leaves me,” she said. “He never forsakes me. I trust Him as a child trusts its mother!” So was she freed from the fever and fret of life. Freed from fear, lust and anger, freed from all sense of I-ness. She had found her Home in the Beloved.
Years ago, I happened to cross a village. I entered a dilapidated hut. An old, blind woman sat on the floor. She was an invalid and lived in the midst of abject poverty.
Finding her in that miserable state and with no one near her, I said to her, “Mother, you must be feeling very lonely.”
“Not at all!” she answered in a voice which still rings in my ears. “The neighbours love me and do all that is necessary for me.”
“But, at night, mother, how do you live all alone with the storm shrieking and the rain pouring through the leaky roof?” I asked in wonder.
Again she said, “I do not feel lonely. My heart feels happy, alike in sunshine and rain. The good neighbours give me all I want: and my wants are so few.”
There was something in her words which made me feel that this poor, blind woman was in possession of some hidden secret of happiness. I sat at her feet: I gazed at her radiant face. I put to her question after question in the hope that she would share with me her secret. At last, she said, “I do not feel lonely, for the Beloved is ever by me. In the dark of the night, when others are asleep, I call Him and He comes to me. With noiseless footfalls He comes, He comes, He ever comes. I speak to Him: He speaks to me. Having Him, I need nothing. He is everything: He is All in all! Indeed He is the One in all!”
As I listened to her words of wisdom, I bowed to pick up the dust of her feet. My eyes were touched with tears. My voice was choked with emotion. I knew that here was one to whom God was the Reality of Life.
“Whatever is for my good,” she said, “God sends me: and whatever comes to me, comes from God for my good!”
“There can be no true happiness without God,” she added. “In His Will is our peace, and the more we are attuned to His Will, the more will spiritual joy saturate our souls!”
The poor, old, blind woman was a true lover of God. She lived and moved in the presence of God – her Beloved. “He never leaves me,” she said. “He never forsakes me. I trust Him as a child trusts its mother!” So was she freed from the fever and fret of life. Freed from fear, lust and anger, freed from all sense of I-ness. She had found her Home in the Beloved.
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