OUTWARD APPEARANCES, INNER MOTIVES AND ALL THAT GREED

WAMI Vivekananda's birthday, by the English calendar, was on January 12, but his birth anniversary, or Jayanti, according to the panchang or Indian calendar, is on January 21 this year.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

SWAMI Vivekananda's birthday, by the English calendar, was on January 12, but his birth anniversary, or Jayanti, according to the panchang or Indian calendar, is on January 21 this year. We cannot think of him without thinking of his guru, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, so it might be apt to recall some of the guru's parables or teaching stories. Though quite brief, they contain profound, layered messages.

A popular parable goes that a crooked jeweller pretended to be very pious. His forehead was marked with sandalwood paste, he wore a tulsi mala and kept a jap mala on his wrist all the time. So, people tended to trust him and brought him their business, sure that such a pious man would never cheat them. Whenever a group of customers entered his shop, he would exclaim, "Keshava, Keshava!" After a while, one of his shop attendants would say, "Gopala, Gopala," and after another pause, a second attendant would say, "Hari, Hari". Soon after, a third attendant would say, "Hara, Hara". Since these were all names of God, the pleased customers considered the jeweller a genuine, God-loving person.