75. A story about satsang
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A very similar incident has been related in the life of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Bhagavan used to say to his disciples, 'Don't touch a single tree here. Don't disturb a single animal here'. Still, one day an unfortunate incident happened. Bhagavan had a pet dog. Every day it would come when he was eating, and he would give it a handful of food from his own leaf, and the dog would eat that and leave.
One day an orthodox devotee saw this and he was very angry, and started shouting at the dog, 'How dare you put your mouth in Bhagavan's leaf and eat his food! It is such disrespect! Get out of here!' He drove the dog away from there. The dog was so depressed about this, that it just went and jumped into the ashram well and committed suicide!
When Bhagavan was informed about this, his eyes became watery, and he called that devotee and said, 'You don't know what you did. He was a siddha purusha who was living around me, just for my presence.' Then he said, 'Do not touch a single tree, do not touch a single animal living in this area. They are all here for my satsang.'
There are beings called yogabhrashthas,
people who were on the verge of
enlightenment, but lost the body through
an accident or in some other way.
These kinds of souls come down to earth
again as animals and plants, live in the presence of the master and get liberated in a very short span of time, without wasting time by taking a human birth. When you take a human birth, the human mind comes with it. With the human mind, there is always the possibility of taking a diversion, the possibility of being distracted by the outer world. Even if you have been with the master for a long time, till the ultimate enlightenment happens, there is always the danger of dropping out, taking a diversion, or even a U-turn! So these yogabhrashthas, siddhas, yoga purushas, ishvarakotis, they do not want to miss satsang. They assume an animal body or plant body and land on the planet earth and live around the masters and get liberated just through satsang. That is the power of satsang!