The Sadhu under the Tree

A realised man, a sadhu, was walking in the forest. Because it was sunny, he wanted to find somewhere to have a rest. He sat down under a tree, leaned back against the trunk and had a short nap. When he woke up, he was ready to continue his travels. 

As he was picking up his stick and his begging bowl, he saw many people sitting near him. Much to his surprise, they all stood up and thanked him for his satsang.

He told them, “But I was sleeping. I didn’t speak a word to you.”

They answered, “This is a type of satsang we have never had anywhere else. Everywhere else people are barking and bleating, ‘You must do this, you must not do that! You must sit like this and look like that!’ Your satsang is different. We have not found anything like it anywhere else. We are all gods from different heavens, from different heavenly worlds. We found out that there was a mahatma, a realised person, sitting under this tree. We all thought, ‘Why not go and have satsang with him?’ 

So, we all came down to this world to be with you.

“We are all gods, but we still find ourselves engaged in many activities. We never have time to sit or meditate and we still have many unfulfilled desires. Our lives are long and we will not get old, even after a thousand years. So, we have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.”

People who are due to be rewarded for their meritorious actions can, after their deaths, be reborn in one of these heavenly worlds so that they can enjoy themselves endlessly. But they will have to be reborn again because these pleasures will not give ultimate satisfaction.

The gods, tired of their endless enjoyments, came down to the sadhu to have his satsang. The gods showered the sadhu, who had been silently sleeping during his satsang, with flowers. The nearby trees, which had no leaves, flowered out of season, and also shed their flowers onto this silent man. 

This is the force of satsang.