Spoken by the Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Hsihu Center, Formosa. Jan. 5, 1995
(Originally in English)
At the foot of a mountain in India, there lived an old women. This woman, she loved "seclusion." Most of people when they love seclusion, it means they want to be one with God, they want to be alone so that they can think of God, they can meditate on God, they can remember God, they can love God, they can see God, they can hear God, they can talk to God, etc.... That is a true seclusion.
But this woman is not this case, she was the worst of all the misers in the country, means she is very stingy. She lived alone in seclusion, just because she don't like to share her possession, her food with other people. Charity was unknown to her. She knows nothing about charity. She did not part with even one grain of rice for the Cambodian people. (Laughter) During her lifetime, never ever she give anything at all, not even her cleaning mop. When it's worn out, she would repair it, keep it somewhere in case and never give it to anyone.
Now there is a God, called Lord Vishnu, you know Vishnu, second world God and he watched with interest the life and action of this famous old lady. He found that she was to die soon, after New Year (laughter). After she eats the first rice cake, she's probably going to be choked to death. Actually, there are many Japanese old people choked on rice cakes during New Year festival. Make sure you don't eat too much rice cakes, you know, the sticky rice cake? I don't know how they can choke on it, but actually someone did. Maybe this lady will choke on sticky rice cakes on New Year and she'll die soon.
And the Lord saw that she has only three more days of her life on earth. (How good! So that people can share some of her possession after she's gone.) The Lord therefore called Busandi Maharaja to his side and say to him, "My very dear beloved Busandi, snatch something from her at least today, because tomorrow she has to die. When she dies, she will have some merit to her credit in that case, if you stole something from her, at least some chocolate or something (laughter), or maybe popcorns." (Laughter) Busandi nodded okay, in the modern language, okay.
And he took the form of a crow and sat on the tree near the house of Kachani; Kachani is an old woman's name. It was the time when she was washing a handful of black gram, soak in water for cooking her food. Now, Busandi decided to snatch away a beakful of it, and suddenly, at one leap, he flew near the vessel and took a beakful, a mouthful of grain with lightning speed, "chi!" (Laughter) But, the alert old woman grab him with the greater speed still, grab him in the neck like this. She wrung his neck, yuck! (Laughter) And kept it twisted, so that the grain would not slip down in his stomach. (Audience, in sympathy say, "Oh!") My goodness. Meanwhile, with her other hand, she parted the beak of the bird and squeezed out, took out the grains, to the last grain, from the throat of the struggling crow. Oh!
This really... she deserves the award from us (Laughter), "the most miserly woman in history". I don't know if there is such a story, there must be. I don't know, could be huh? Some people are so stingy and stupid, cruel, cold blooded. Busandi struggled for his life, gulp, gulp, gulp.... (Laughter) At last, he was let free after she thought all the grain have been poked out by her.
He flew to Lord Vishnu and fell at his feet, half dead. Lord Vishnu questioned him as to what had happened after he left him. Busandi gasp out the whole story, pantingly and said, "Oh Lord, I was almost strangled to death. I could not succeed in my mission. I'm very sorry. But I could not get even a grain of food from that wretched old woman. Then the Lord said, "Oh, Busandi, do not say so. Come, let me examine in your mouth. (Laughter). Open your mouth, let me have a look."
So, Busandi opened his beak, and the Lord Vishnu used his wisdom eye with the magnifying glass look into his throat, and find, "Ah, there is something there. (Laughter) What is it? Let me see what is it, let's see what is it, must be something." He saw a little bit of husk, the outer skin, shell of the grain, sticking to his palate. (Laughter) Thanks God! At least he has not wasted his time and struggled for nothing. And say, "Look, Busandi, there's a small bit of husk sticking to your palate. I am satisfied," the Lord says. (Oh! The Lord is easy to satisfy.)
So now, the old lady has earned some merit. Oh! Bless be the Lord, so compassionate and loving and merciful! Now he said, "Busandi, when she goes back to the world after her death, let her be fed on the husk of the particular grain which is found sticking to your palate. So the old woman will be eating that all her life long." And then, the Lord so saying, disappeared. Great and marvelous are the benefits of charity and righteousness, even involuntarily. Infinite and overwhelming is a love and compassion of the Lord, such is the mysterious potency of even the least act of kindness and charity. Probably she didn't want to take it out because she knows it is useless. Ah, it's not much there as you know. (Laughter)
The Lord Himself in His great love creates opportunities for the
redemption and deification of the sinning human. When the old woman who did
no meritorious act was ordained to get bread made of husk, even if she just
left a little bit of husk sticking there. And if we give people a lot of
things more, how much would we have? That is the conclusion, huh, that's
the meaning of it.