Once Buddha took the road to Cravasti. As he was approaching Jeta’s park, he met a young girl. She was the servant of a wealthy inhabitant of the city who happened to be working in the fields that day. She was taking him a bowl of rice for his meal. At the sight of the Buddha, she felt strangely happy.
“It is the Master, the Blessed One,” she thought. “My eyes behold him; my hands could almost touch him, he is so near. Oh, what a holy joy it would be to give him alms! But I have nothing of my own.”
She sighed. Her glance fell on the bowl of rice.
“This rice . . . My master’s meal . . . No master can reduce to slavery one who is already a slave. Mine could strike me, but what of that! He could put me in chains, but I would bear them lightly. I shall give the rice to the Blessed One.”
She presented the bowl to the Buddha. He accepted it and continued on his way to Jeta’s park. The young girl, her eyes shining with happiness, went to look for her master.
“Where is my rice?” he asked, as soon as he saw her.
“I gave it to the Buddha as an alms. Punish me if you will, I shall not weep; I am too happy for what I have done.”
He did not punish her. He bowed’ his head and said:
“No, I shall not punish you. I am asleep and your eyes are open. Go; you are no longer a slave.”
The young girl made a deep obeisance.
“With your permission then,” said she, “I shall go to Jeta’s park, and I shall ask the Blessed One to instruct me in the law.”
“Go,” said the man.
She went to Jeta’s park; she sat at the Buddha’s feet, and she became one of the most saintly women in the community
Purification
Yoga is definite and scientific. Yoga means union of soul and God, through step-by-step methods with specific and known results. It raises the practice of religion above the differences of dogma. My guru, Sri Yukteswar, extolled Yoga; he did not, however, indicate that realization of God thereby would be immediate. “You have to work hard for it,” he told me. I did, and when the promised results came, I saw that Yoga was marvelous.
—Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, “Man’s Eternal Quest”
