Shri Nathji also used to narrate the story of the woman who always went to listen to the learned discourses of a Pandit on the Ramayana. One day when she was returning home she found herself on the shore of a river she crossed daily. She saw that the Pandit was also there. The Pandit approached her and said to her: “Daughter, have you seen the boatman today? I can’t seem to find him. I have to go across the river.”
The woman looked at the Pandit with puzzlement and asked him: “Panditji, do you go across the river in a boat?”
“Yes, of course,” said the Pandit, “isn’t that how you also go across?”
“No,” said the woman, “I don’t go across in a boat!”
The Pandit was taken aback: “Then how do you go across?”
The woman said: “ I go across in the manner in which you told us that Hanumana had gone across the ocean in the Ramayana. I take the name of Rama and go across in a single leap!”
The Pandit was humbled and realized then that his was a life of mere preaching and philosophy, but here was a woman of true faith who believed in every word of the Ramayana and the power of God.