In olden times, it was common for rishis and yogis to do penance for days and months together. They would open their eyes only if some thought or action provoked them.
Once a rishi was doing tapasya, when suddenly he was prompted to open his eyes. He looked around to see a bemata. There was a boy and girl born in the neighborhood, she had come to visit them. Bemata visits each house on the sixth day of the birth of a child to write their destiny. The rishi waited for her return. When she came back, he asked what she had written. She replied “horse for the boy, vaishya for the girl” and left. Rishi went back into dhyan.
Many years passed. The rishi decided to visit the boy and girl.
The boy lived in a tattered house. There was a horse tied outside the gate. He took people across on horseback and earned a meagre salary. Rishi told the boy to sell the horse and keep a part of the money earned for his food and distribute the rest among poor.
The girl’s situation was no better. She was vaishya who charged Rs.5, she lived in great penury. Rishi told her to increase the rate to Rs.50 and use excess money to feed the poor. She was bewildered. Even a king would not pay so much, she thought! But…she heeded the rishi’s advice.
The next day, rishi revisited them. There was a horse still at the boy’s gate. Rishi asked the reason. The boy replied, “Guru ji, I did as you instructed. However, last night someone left this horse on my gate.” Rishi told him to sell that horse also and not to ever keep the horse with him. As for the vaishya, her customers had started paying Rs.50. He told her to increase the rate to Rs.500.
Few months later, rishi went to check on them. In place of boy’s tattered shack, stood a big beautiful house. The boy informed, “Every morning I sold the horse, but every night a horse would come and stand at my gate. I continued selling and distributing the food among the poor.” The vaishya too had built a luxurious house for herself. As she increased the price, her clients also increased.
It was destiny that brought the horse to the boy, and that made girl a vaishya. No matter what they did, they could not escape it. Guru does not change the destiny of the shishya, instead he puts him/her on the path to use destiny for growth in spiritual or physical, as per desire of the soul. For this to happen, shishya has to have faith and follow Guru vakya like a mantra. Had the boy and the girl doubted or disobeyed the rishi’s advice, they would not have achieved what they did in such a short time. Bemata did not say rich or poor, she just said vaishya and horse.
What has to happen, happens. The exit route is nishkam karma or vairagya. Whatever we have done we have to pay for it, that’s our karma. So stop cribbing and look for a Guru to find an exit route from the pains and barriers of life.
