unsophisticated devotees.
Buddhuram was an unsophisticated farmer in a small village in Gujarat. He
doesn't know anything. He could not read or write. One day Buddhuram went
home after tendering the calves and his wife was just complaining and
shouting at him. Buddhuram's wife always regretted marrying him. She said,
"After all his name is Buddhuram and on top of that he has no buddhi. He is
a highly silly man and only knows how to take care of his cows. But my
other friends in my village, they always come back and tell me, "my husband
did this", "my husband achieved that", "my husband got a new bullock cart"
and I look at my dear husband, he is very satisfied in chanting the names
of Krishna, taking the cows around, coming back for kitchadi and waking up
in the morning, taking the cows out and doing chanting. No ambition." So
she decided to upgrade her husband. She told her husband that from next day
onwards there is no kitchadi for him. Buddhuram asked what he did. She told
him to learn Sanskrit and to learn how to compose a poem. Buddhuram said he
doesn't know what a poem is; he doesn't know what Sanskrit is. He told he
is becoming very afraid and there is no kitchadi on top of that!
She told, "Just last week our neighbour went to recite poetry in front of
the king and came back with 10 gold coins. What have you come back with?
Nothing."So Buddharam said, "Alright whatever you want me to do I will do."
So he tolerated his wife. The wife started to teach him Sanskrit in the
morning. But Buddhuram has no buddhi and after a while nothing goes inside.
He only knows to chant, to pray to Krishna and to take care of the cows.
Totally unsophisticated. Then the wife tells him, "No kitchadi until you
study. Put your head into it."
Now Buddhuram becomes very depressed. No kitchadi is there, wife is more
demanding, life is miserable. So he started walking along the banks of the
river. As he was walking up and down he thought, "Better I start learning
how to write Sanskrit so that I can compose poetry." So he writes and
writes and writes. Suddenly one learned scholar walked by. He looked at
Buddhuram and asked, "My dear friend what are you writing?" He said, "I am
learning Sanskrit so that I can compose poetry." The scholar laughed. He
said, "You are a fool. The truth is no matter how much you know Sanskrit,
you cannot write poetry." Buddhuram asked, "Why?" The scholar said, "If you
want to write poetry, you need inspiration." Buddhuram asked, "How will I
know when inspiration comes to me?" The scholar said, "It is very simple.
When you are inspired, the hairs on your hand stand straight. You will
start shaking and shivering. When you feel that sensation, then you are
inspired. At that point you compose poetry and then the poetry will be
perfect." Buddhuram thought that this is very amazing. He told, "I will
wait until the hair stands and I am shaking, then I will write poetry." So
the scholar walked away.
Again Buddhuram went back, tried to recite the poetry, tried to recite
Sanskrit, but the wife was not happy, sent him out and said 'no kitchadi'.
So Buddhuram went to the river. He decides, "Better I end my life, Krishna.
There is no point to go on like this." So he jumped into the river.
Unfortunately the river was too shallow to kill himself. It was only half.
The river is very cold. Buddhuram starts shivering and the hairs on his
body stands because of the cold water. He says, "The hairs on my body are
standing and I am feeling extremely shivering, that means I am inspired."
He looks around for a pen and some subject of his poetry and he sees a
crow. Its name is Kalia. He looks at the crow. What does the crow do? The
crow is dipping its beak into the water again and again and it is
sharpening the beak on the stone. So Buddhuram writes, "Oh Kalia, I can
read your mind, you sharpen it again and again and you dip it in water. Oh
Kalia I can read your mind." So Buddhuram runs back to his wife and says,
"I have composed poetry." She asked him to recite the poetry. He recited
the poetry. But she could not understand anything. She told, "It doesn't
sound like poetry, but my dear Lord, I leave it in your good hands. You
take the horse and go now and see the king."
Buddhuram rides and goes to see the king. When he reached the king, all the
great poets were reciting wonderful poems. Buddhuram has little faith in
Krishna. He is a simple man, he prays hard and says, "Krishna I don't know
what I have been inspired by, I don't know what poetry I have, but I am
just putting it forward now, You please help me." Now Buddharam's turn
came. He started reciting the poem. "Oh Kalia I can read your mind. You
sharpen it again and again and you dip it in water. Oh Kalia I can read
your mind." Everybody starts laughing. They all said it is a ridiculous
poem and it is not rhyming, there is no poetry and there is nothing in it.
But the king thinks, "Who will be so stupid to come and stand before me and
recite such nonsense. There must be some deep meaning to this poetry." Now
we don't know who is more foolish, Buddhuram or king. The king stops
everyone from laughing and said, "I want someone who can tell me the deeper
meaning of this poem." Buddhuram has no idea, what the poem meant. He is
only depending on the good Lord so that he can go home and have kitchadi.
Now everybody stops laughing and thinks if the king says that there is a
deep meaning, then there has to be a deep meaning. King said, "I am going
to put out the poem for the whole town to look at. The one who can decipher
it, he will get 50 gold coins." Everybody tries but nobody can decipher it
because there is no meaning to that poetry. The king is wondering who will
be able to decipher this great poet's poem which is so deep.
One day the king sits down and his barber is coming. The barber is
shapening his knife. Barber's name is Kalia. So king looks at Kalia in an
absent-minded way, he says, "Oh Kalia, I can read your mind. (Kalia starts
sweating). You sharpen it again and again and you dip it in water. Oh
Kalia, I can read your mind." Now Kalia drops everything and falls at the
feet of the king and said, "O King, I never knew that you knew everything.
King is completely bewildered. He says, "King I have betrayed you. Your
enemy state has paid me to slit your throat today and kill so that they
will take over the kingdom. But my dear king, I realised that you are so
great that you say Kalia I can read your mind. And you exactly said that I
am sharpening it again and again and I was dipping it again and again and
then you said I can read your mind. Now my dear king I have to surrender to
you." Immediately king thought that this Buddhuram is the greatest among
the poets and he can see the future also. "I must give much more rewards
because he has saved my life just by reciting the poem. His poem was
designed to save me at the right time." Buddhuram has no idea about his
poem. Buddhuram goes back to his village with money.
Buddhuram was a simple devotee of the Lord just like you and me. Buddhuram
was a simpleton. He did not know what he wanted. He did not know who was
exploiting him. But he always without fail executed his devotional service
very simply. So Krishna protected him in all his difficulties. Krishna gave
him inspiration, so that he will not forget Krishna. And even when
Buddhuram went back to his village, he went back with all the money, but he
left the money with his wife and continued his simple life of tendering to
the cows, chanting Krishna's names and taking kitchadi prasadam. If Krishna
can be kind to Buddhuram, He can be kind to us because we may have little
bit more buddhi than Buddhuram. So use your intelligence to be eager to
study Bhagavatam and be with Krishna. If you are with Krishna in any
program, anywhere, just by remembering Him, He will give you inspiration to
be always enthused. If you do not remember Him or do not try to remember
Him, then He will take away the inspiration and in the end what are you
left without Krishna? Life without Krishna is death. You don't have to die
now but you are as good as dead if you do not have brahma sparshanam.
Source: An extract of an email from HG Anuradha Mataji (disciple of HH Maha
Vishnu Goswami Maharaj) to Grantraj yahoo groups. The story was narrated by
HH Maha Vishnu Goswami Maharaj.
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