Narada Muni traveled all over the universe singing the glories of Lord Krishna. On one such journey to earth, he met a brahmin priest.
The brahmin was a proud man. He had just finished his daily rituals when Narada Muni met him.
“Namaste, Oh Naradaji,” said the brahmin.
“May your life be successful.” “Oh Brahmin,” replied Narada Muni,
“Since you travel all over the universe, will you be visiting Vaikuntha soon? If so will you please ask Lord Narayana when I will join Him there? I am sure it will be soon. But I just want to make sure,” asked the arrogant priest.
“All right,” Narada agreed. “I shall ask Him.”
As Narada proceeded, he met a cobbler who was sitting under a tree mending shoes, and the cobbler similarly asked Narada, “Oh! Are you going to see God? Will you please inquire from Him when I’m going to meet Him?”
When Narada went to Vaikuntha planets he fulfilled their request and asked Narayana about the request of the Brahmin and the cobbler.
Narayana replied, “After leaving this body the cobbler shall come here to Me.”
“What about Brahmin?” Narada asked.
“He will have to remain there for number of births. I do not know when he is coming.”
Narada Muni was astonished, and he finally said, “I cannot understand the mystery of this.” “That you will see,” Narayana said. “When they ask you what I am doing in My abode, tell them I am passing an elephant from the hole of the needle.”
When Narada Muni returned to earth and approached the Brahmin, the Brahmin said, “Oh! You have seen the Lord? What was He doing?” “ He was passing an elephant from the hole of the needle,” Narada answered. “I don’t believe such nonsense,” the Brahmin replied.
Narada could immediately understand that the man had no faith and that he was simply a reader of books. Narada then left and went on to the cobbler, who asked him, “Oh! You have seen the Lord? Tell me, what was He doing?” “He was passing an elephant from the hole of the needle,” Narada replied.
The cobbler began to weep. “Oh! My Lord is so wonderful, He can do anything.”
“Do you really believe that the Lord can push an elephant through the eye of a needle?” Narada asked.
“Why not?” the cobbler said.
“How is that?” Narada asked.
“I am sitting under this banyan tree,” The cobbler answered, “and you can see that so many fruits are falling daily, each fruit have seeds in it and in each seed there is a banyan tree like this one. If within a small seed there can be a big tree like this, why it is difficult to accept that the Lord is passing an elephant from the hole of the needle?”
param gato ’pi vedanam sarva-sastrartha-vedy-api
yo na sarvesvare bhaktas tam vidyat purusadhamam.
“Even though one may have gone to the other side of all the Vedas, and even though one is well versed in all the revealed scriptures, if one is not a devotee of the Supreme Lord, he must be considered the lowest of mankind.” (Garuda Purana)
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