Incidents in the life of Swami Dayananda Saraswati

There lived in the town of Tankara, in the erstwhile Morvi State in Kathiawar (Gujarat), a Brahmin named Karshan Laiji. A son was born to him in 1825 A.D. and was named Mul Sankar. The child was invested with the sacred thread, when he was in the eighth year. He learnt by rote the Gayatri Mantra. He had a sharp memory and committed to memory much of the Vedas by the time he was fourteen years. The family belonged to the Saiva sect and Mul Sankar’s father initiated him into its religious practices and the modes of worship of the stone image representing Siva. By the time Mul Sankar was about fourteen years old, his education on Siva was completed.

The day of Sivaratri dawned. The temple was duly lit and the devotees, including Mul Sankar’s father, had assembled there to perform Puja and keep the nightlong vigil. Although the grownups fell asleep, the child refrained from sleeping. When all was silence, he observed a rat removing sweets and other offerings from the emblem of Siva and polluting the image by playing over it. The scene surprised him beyond measure and thoughts crowded his mind. “This denizen of Kailash, who, according to all religious accounts, walks about, eats, sleeps, and drinks, and wields a trident in His hands, cannot protect Himself from disrespect shown by the tiny rodent!” When he questioned the elders, they could not give him a satisfactory answer. This incident proved to be turning point in his life. He could not reconcile himself to believe that the idol and Mahadev were one and the same thing.

On a memorable day, when he was sixteen and had gone to attend a nautch festival at the house of a friend, the news was brought to him that his sister was infected with cholera. She died within four hours of his return. He stood beside the corpse petrified. This was the first occasion he had seen a person dying. “Shall I also die one day?” he thought. When he was eighteen, his uncle also died. Both these sad events raised misgivings in his mind about the reality of human life. He began to muse, “What is death? Shall every person, who is born, die? Can men escape from it? What is the way out of the rounds of births and deaths?” He began to realise that the world is unstable, that there is nothing worth living for or caring for in worldly life. A feeling of detachment from the worldly affairs came upon him. He thought of means of escape from the cold hands of death. He had a longing for Moksha, viz. the soul’s realisation of the Supreme Being.

[Source- Stories for Children – II]

Published by- Sri Sathya Sai Books & Publications Trust, Prashanti Nilayam