THE DEVOTEE AND THE SMOKE

A great swami tells a story about sharing that I would like to tell you.

One time a devout Hindu loved to go to a special temple of goddesses, many different aspects of the Mother. Every day he brought to the Mother a lot of incense and camphor. He would burn it before Her.

He realized that the smoke was going to the other forms of the Mother and he got angry. “Why should they get my money for incense, when I want my own murti to have it all?”

He fixed a portable cage where he went to worship and was happy to see all the smoke go into his form of the Mother.

Mother Dhumavati got mad because she did not get the offering of smoke. She is known as the Mother who receives smoke from the offerings; when she did not get any smoke, she cursed the devotee.

He also noticed how dull his murti had become because of all the smoke and how clean the others were. This caused him to understand that his non-sharing was wrong, and the Mother Dhumavati lifted the curse.

Be generous. Be kind. Be good to each other.

Ma Jaya
Morning Pujas and Prayers, June 7, 1999

Ma Jaya's sacred art