The Seeker's Quest

 It is an old story. A seeker, after searching and searching, one day found Vishnu.

He clasped the Lord’s feet, feeling overjoyed and blissful. What he had sought was finally his. He thanked Vishnu profusely and said, "Just one more thing: please let me do some small task for you, some service. You have given me so much—this life, the ultimate celebration of life, and now this divine existence. Let me do a little service for you! I don't want to feel that I could do nothing for you when you have done so much for me! Please grant me this small honor. I know you do not need anyone or anything, but my heart will be heavy with the thought that I could not do anything for my Lord!"

Vishnu said, "Will you be able to do it? It will be very difficult."

But the devotee was insistent. So Vishnu said, "Alright, I am thirsty."

Vishnu floats in the Ocean of Milk—what thirst could he have there! But for this devotee, he said, "Fine, I am thirsty. Go and fetch me a cup of water."

The devotee ran. You might say, the Ocean of Milk was right there; he could have filled the cup from it. But what is near is often invisible to all.

He set off. He descended into the world and knocked on a door. A beautiful young woman opened it. The devotee said, "Devi, may I have a cup of cool water?"

The young woman said, "You have come, Brahmin! Please, come inside and grace my home! Do not turn away from the doorstep. My father is also out, and I am alone in the house. He will be very angry when he returns and learns that a Brahmin came and you sent him away from the door! No, no, you must come in!"

For a moment, the Brahmin was afraid. The woman was young, beautiful, exceedingly so—he had never seen such a beautiful woman. For an instant, even Vishnu seemed to pale in comparison. And how long does it take for Vishnu to seem pale? He began to feel like a distant dream. The devotee was scared, flustered. He was flustered precisely because, for a moment, he had begun to forget Vishnu. The Lord's voice seemed to grow more and more distant.

He said, "No, no." Sweat appeared on his forehead. But the young woman would not listen. She took the Brahmin’s hand—and as she held his hand, Vishnu vanished from his mind completely. She led him inside. She said, "You shall have your water, but first, you must have some refreshments yourself." So she served him snacks and gave him water to drink.

Solitude! The beauty of the young woman! The way she ran about, serving the Brahmin! Slowly, Vishnu faded from his memory. Once in a while, the thought would surface that the poor Lord must be thirsty, but then he would think, "It's alright, what thirst can God have! He only said it for my sake; otherwise, what thirst could He feel? He exists in ultimate contentment! So there is no hurry. I can stay for a few more moments."

And when the young woman invited him to meet her father, who she said would be returning shortly, he readily agreed. She continued to serve him, and her beauty and grace continued to captivate his mind. Evening fell, but the father did not return. The woman said, "You must have dinner. Where will you find food at this hour?"

A meal was prepared, and he ate. Night fell. The woman said, "Where will you go now in this darkness?"

The Brahmin was thinking the same thing: where could he possibly go now? He decided he would leave at the crack of dawn, in the auspicious early morning hours. He agreed to stay. After that, years passed. He never left that place.

The Brahmin who had stopped for a moment stayed forever. He had sons and daughters; his family grew large. Some fifty or sixty years passed. His sons had sons of their own. Then, a flood came to the village. A terrible flood! The Brahmin was now an old man. He was trying to escape the flood with his children and grandchildren. The whole village was drowning. It was a terrifying flood, the likes of which had never been seen or heard of. As they were trying to make their way through the rising waters, his wife was swept away. When he rushed to save her, the hand of the child he was holding slipped from his grasp. By the time he reached the other shore, his entire family had been lost to the flood.

The Brahmin stood on a rock on the far bank, and a great, towering wave rose before him. Riding upon that wave was Vishnu, who said, "I am still thirsty. You still have not brought the water? I told you from the very beginning, you would not be able to do it."

The story is very lovely. "Because you had run away from the world," Vishnu explained. "You had not awakened and risen above it. You had run away with your eyes closed. So even if you go into the world for the smallest of tasks, you will become entangled. You went to get water, and an entire world was created. You went for the Lord's devotion, but you began to gin cotton! And when someone starts ginning cotton, the work is such that it never ends."

The Moral of the Story

The true path to enlightenment is not in escaping or running away from the world and its temptations, because what we forcibly renounce continues to hold a powerful attraction over us. True liberation comes from understanding the world, rising above its attachments with open eyes and full awareness. If you run from something without understanding it, you are bound to get entangled in it again, even when on a divine mission.