This was yet another of Shri Nathji’s favourite parables, in which Shri Nathji would make his audiences laugh and also laugh himself. Shri Nathji’s personality was ever exuding joy. All his efforts were aimed at lessening the misery of mankind.
There were many who discussed spiritual matters with their astute reasoning abilities, trying to understand God with only their minds and not their hearts.
The futility of intellectual reasoning in the spiritual realm was illustrated by Shri Nathji by his following famous parable of the blind man and the kheer- rice pudding.
Someone asked a blind man whether he would like to eat kheer.
The blind man asked:What does kheer look like?
It is white.
And what is white?
The man spotted a stork nearby and instinctively said: “White is like a stork.
And what is a stork?
The other man bent his hand into the shape of a stork and asked the blind man to feel it. The blind man ran his fingers over the hand of the other person and said:
Good God! If this is what kheer is–I don’t want it. It will get stuck in my throat!
Those who seek God through the intellect alone are led astray by reason.
Shri Nathji often quoted the Vedas in which it was written:
Yato vaacho nirvartante
Apraapya mansaa sahaa.
He is that, who is beyond
Words, thoughts and intelligence.
How then can the intellect seek to grasp Him, or thoughts and words seek to describe Him!
Vo arzo samaa kahaan jo teri vus-at ko paa sake
Meraa hee dil hai vo ki jis men too samaa sake
The skies and the earth cannot contain Thee;
It is but my heart in which Thou canst reside.
Lock your intellects, Shri Nathji would say, “and bring your hearts before me.
Shri Nathji would also add in a light vein:
“There are two kinds of people who come to me. The first kind bring their hearts before me and I enter their hearts directly. The second kind bring their intellect before me. However I enter their brains and then dig a tunnel into their hearts!”