Sathya Upanishad - Pt. 23 (Contd.)

 

Youth
Q23: Swami!  What is your advice to youth?

A:  Once there was a death in a family of Suradas' relations and he went to console the bereaved.  Taking this opportunity his wife left a note in the house and went to her parents.  Tulasidas returned home at midnight in pouring rain, saw the locked house and the note and rushed to his in-law's place where his wife was.  When his mother-in-law was about to open the door for Tulasidas, his wife prevailed on her not to trouble herself and said that she would do the needful.  She opened the door and saw her husband completely drenched in the rain and smeared with mud.  She entreated him that instead of spending all the time only in lustful activities with infatuation for wife, children, relatives and with worldly desires, he should spend at least a few minutes concentrating on the sacred feet of the Almighty.  This transformed him irrevocably.

He withdrew himself into the woods for penance to become a Maharshi, he authored a great work on Ramayana.  In course of time, several persons went to see the Maharshi and Ratnavali, his wife also was in that gathering.  On seeing her, Maharshi prostrated before and she tried to prevent him from that act.  But he replied that the person who preached duty and instilled a sense of propriety occupied the pedestal of a preceptor and was worthy of veneration irrespective of age and social status.  After this incident, Ratnavali also took to 'Sanyasa" renouncing worldly pursuits.

(From the book "Divine Directions" by Prof. K. Anil Kumar)