77. Why Shiva became a golden buffalo🔗

There is a very beautiful story in the life of a saint called Ramdas. Ramdas was a great sadhu who lived in Varanasi a few hundred years ago. He belonged to the suppressed class of society - the so-called 'low caste'. He wanted to take deeksha (spiritual initiation) and practice spirituality. But the local Guru who was supposed to initiate him said, 'No, I will not initiate you, because then all the low-class people will want the initiation and will make it impure.' So Ramdas went to another guru and asked him for deeksha. This guru said, 'I am not qualified to initiate you, but I will tell you one trick. This Guru goes to the river Ganga every morning before dawn. If you lie down quietly on the riverbank steps before dawn, he will surely step on you by mistake in the dark. Being a pious man, when he steps on you, he will surely call out God's name - Rama, Rama or Shiva, Shiva! Take that as your mantra, and his touch on your body as the initiation!' So Ramdas went, and the whole thing was executed exactly as planned. But the Guru was not filled with God's name. To chant God's name at the moment of crisis, you should be filled with God's name. So the moment he slipped and saw Ramdas, he said, 'You buffalo! You are here!'

But Ramdas was very sincere. He thought, 'Whatever word came from my Guru's lips is my mantra!' So he took 'buffalo' as his mantra! He sat in one corner and started meditating on 'buffalo'! One day there was a festival in the local Shiva temple. The deity of Shiva was being brought out of the temple door for the procession. Suddenly, the deity was stuck at the door and not coming out! The priests who were carrying the deity didn't know what to do. They couldn't understand why the deity was not moving past the doors, even though they were wide open. Ramdas was sitting outside and watching the whole scene. To him the deity appeared in the form of a huge golden buffalo! He saw that it was stuck in the door because its big horns were coming in the way! So he shouted to the priests, 'Just bend the deity, it will come out.' They didn't understand why he was saying that, but they bent the deity, and it came out! Then Shiva appeared and gave darshan to all the people. Shiva wanted to show the whole world that he had accepted Ramdas' devotion.

In whatever form you approach God, He is there for you. Understand this one truth. God Himself says that in whatever way you approach him, He also approaches you in the same way to complete you.