Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a famous sage of his time. People came from far and wide to offer their respects to him. His every wish was their command and devotees worked hard to fulfill their guru’s smallest desires. So how does such a sage who was used to people placing him on a pedestal and worshiping him as God, respond, when someone (perhaps out of ignorance) arrogantly ordered him about? Here is the story:
Once, a slender and obviously poor man entered Sri Ramakrishna’s room. His feet were dirty. He addressed the sage, saying, “Hello, Ramakrishna,” then sat on his bed.
He patted the sage’s shoulder and said, “Brother, prepare a smoke for me. Sri Ramakrishna immediately rushed to prepare tobacco, but his devotees stopped him. They took the tobacco bowl from his hands and prepared the smoke for the man.
The man silently smoked for a while, then left, saying, “Brother, I am Ram.”
When he left, the devotees asked: “Master, why did you try to prepare tobacco for him? You could easily have asked us to do it.”
Sri Ramakrishna replied, “What is wrong with serving others?”
The devotees were amazed! Such was Sri Ramakrishna’s humility and utter lack of ego, which made him see God in the soul of even this arrogant poor man, and serve him. Had an ordinary person been in Sri Ramakrishna’s place, he would have gotten puffed up with pride and ego and rebuked the man for his daring arrogance.
“How foolish to speak of compassion! Man is an insignificant worm crawling on the earth — and he is to show compassion to others! This is absurd. It must not be compassion, but service to all. Recognize them as God’s manifestations and serve them.”
– Sri Ramakrishna
The above post has been excerpted from the article Shri Ramakrishna And The Common Person by Swami Tathagatananda of the Vedanta Society, New York.
