“Ah, it doesn't matter if I don't do ghar sabha today!”
“I'm too tired to go to the mandir!”
Sometimes we convince ourselves that it's ok to break a niyam once in a while. However, Dungar Bhakta (Shastriji Maharaj's name as a child) did not care what the occasion was or whom he was with. Following his niyams came first.
Ever since Dungar Bhakta was young, he always stood out amongst a crowd of kids. His behaviour and his talks were so unique; it even amazed many adults!
Other children would call Dungar Bhakta to play hide and seek with them. However, Dungar Bhakta would be busy building mandirs out of sand. He even used to make murtis out of mud and offered thal to these murtis.
When he was six years old, Dungar Bhakta traveled to Karamsad with his family to attend a wedding. On reaching Karamsad, everyone, including his father was busy enjoying the wedding. Can you guess what Dungar Bhakta did? He found the village mandir and started his daily routine of seva and bhajan. He was gone for a long while, however, because of the festivities of the wedding, nobody realised he was not around. It was at lunchtime when everyone started looking for him. His father was sure that they would find Dungar Bhakta at the village mandir! And he was right! They all invited him to have lunch with the rest of the family. Dungar Bhakta flatly refused to eat, since it was Ekadashi. |
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Over 400 people attended the wedding. They all pleaded with Dungar Bhakta to come and join them for lunch. Finally, Dungar Bhakta explained, " From all the discourses I have heard, I understand that to eat regular food on Ekadashi is like eating meat"! Everybody was stunned to hear such a young boy talk about Ekadashi. They realised how right he was and then immediately arranged for farali food (foods which can be eaten on Ekadashi).
It is easy to see why adults and youngsters alike were impressed with Dungar Bhakta's faithfulness in following Shriji Maharaj's agna.
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