20 Spiritual Stories For The Worldly

This is a story of Shivaji Maharaj and his Preceptor Swami Samarth Ramdas and how he came about ruling His Guru's kingdom.

Shivaji had heard about the great Saint and had wanted to visit Him, so one day he set about having His darshan.

Shivaji came for a satsang and sat there listening intently what was being said.

The Saint was preaching about how to go about doing mundane activities and still keep the mind on God.

The King was very impressed and at the end of the satsang he approached the Saint to ask for His blessings.

As a token of gratitude the King removed his Crown and placed it at the feet of the Saint.

He relinquished his kingdom at the feet of the Saint.

The Saint being all knowing accepted the gift and asked the King to become a mendicant like Him.

The next day he took the King for asking bhiksha(alms and food offerings) from the houses in the area.

They received some amount of food which they both partook off.

Later Shivaji asked his Preceptor why does He have to ask for alms and food when He had been offered the whole kingdom which now rightfully belonged to Samarth Ramdas.

The saint said that His swadharma demands that He ask for food and live like a mendicant but the Kings swadharma demands that he live like a king but He having joined the Guru had to go and beg for food.

This was a wrong way of doing things but since he had offered the Kingdom to the saint, it became a universal property. Shivaji wondered how the whole issue could be solved. He asked the Preceptor how he would unravel this issue wherein Shivaji would do his swadharma and not fall into sin and still remain Spiritual?

The Swamiji offered a simple explanation. He said since the King had offered his kingdom as an offering to the Saint, He would now ask Shivaji to rule that on His behalf as a regent and a vassal of the Saint. He would have to rule the kingdom as a caretaker of the Saint and be just and true to the edicts of the saint and the Dharma.

The Saint then offered the King His orange flag of a mendicant as the flag to be hoisted atop the kingdom marking the reign of the Saint in whose care the King would rule.

Here the moral of the story is to give up ownership of everything and consider ourselves as a humble caretaker of the Lord God and perform the duties as prescribed by Him. We have to partake what He offers to us and be happy, knowing fully well that nothing belongs to me and I am here only to do His bidding and follow His commands. Then the ownership goes to the Lord and we become His humble executor of commands and edicts in life. This is the swadharma, following which will give us the Lords Grace.