Story 07 The Brahmana and the Cobbler
PRABHUPĀDA: So, for a devotee these informations of Kṛṣṇa, oh, become so…
“My Kṛṣṇa is so God; oh, my God is so powerful.”
And, I think, sometimes I recited one story.
This is for very instructive,
that Nārada Muni… He used to visit Nārāyaṇa every day.
So when he was passing on the road,
so one very learned brāhmaṇa and taking thrice bath and everything very nicely,
he asked Nārada Muni,
“Oh, you are going to Lord.
Will you inquire when I shall get my salvation?”
“All right, I shall ask.”
And then another cobbler, he was under the tree, sewing the shoes, old shoes.
He also saw Nārada Muni.
He also inquired, “Will you kindly inquire from God when my salvation is…?”
And when he inquired Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa…
Nārada Muni goes generally to Nārāyaṇa, in another planet.
So, “Yes, two, one brāhmaṇa and one cobbler,” they inquired like this.
“So may I know what is their destination?”
So Nārāyaṇa said, “Well, yes, the cobbler, this after giving up this body,
he’s coming here at Vaikuṇṭha.”
“And what about that brāhmaṇa?”
“Oh, he has to remain there still so many births,
or I do not know when he’s coming.”
So Nārada Muni was astonished, that
“I saw that he’s very nice brāhmaṇa, and he’s a cobbler.
How is that?”
So he inquired that “I could not, cannot understand the mystery.
Why You say that cobbler is coming this,
after this body, and why not this brāhmaṇa?”
“Oh, that will, you’ll understand.
If they inquire that ‘What Kṛṣṇa, or Nārāyaṇa, was doing in the, in His abode,’
so just explain that He was taking one elephant from the holes of a…”
What is called…? “Needle,” yes.
“Through the hole of a needle,
He’s pulling an elephant this side and this side.”
All right; so when he again approached the brāhmaṇa,
the brāhmaṇa said, “Oh, you have seen Lord?”
“Yes.”
“So what was [He] doing?”
“He was doing this:
through the point of a needle
He was pushing one elephant this way and that way.”
“Oh, therefore I have no faith in your…
I have got all respect for your garb, but we don’t believe all this nonsense.”
Then Nārada could understand, “Oh, this man has no faith.
He simply reads books.
That’s all.”
And when he went to the cobbler, he also asked, “Oh, you have seen?
What Nārāyaṇa was doing?”
He also said that “He was doing like this…”
Oh, he began to cry, “Oh, my Lord is wonderful.
Oh he can do anything.”
Śrī Nārada inquired,
“So do you believe that Lord can push one elephant through the [hole] of a needle?”
“Oh, why not?
I must believe.”
“Then what is your reason?”
“Oh, my reason?
I am sitting under this banyan tree, and so many fruits are falling daily,
and in each fruit there are thousands of seeds, and each seed there is a tree.
If in a small seed there can be big tree like that,
is it very impossible to accept that Kṛṣṇa is putting one elephant through the,
I mean, the [hole] of a needle?
He has kept such a nice tree in the seed.”
So this is called belief.
So unbelievers and believer means the believers, they are not blind believers.
They have reason.
If by Kṛṣṇa’s process, by God’s process, or nature’s process,
such a big tree can be put within the small seed,
is it very impossible for Kṛṣṇa to keep all these planets floating in His energy?
So, we have to believe; we have no other explanation.
But we have to understand in this way.
Our reasoning, our argument, our logic should go in this way.
So those who are devotee… Just like the cobbler.
He may be a cobbler.
They believe everything.
And those who are not devotee, they’ll say, “Oh, these are all bluffs.”
It is all bluff.
But they are not bluff.
It is simply meant for the devotees; they can understand.
The nondevotees, they cannot understand.
Subtitles by Pratyatoṣa Dāsa, Causelessmercy.com