March 8

The Final Straw

You cannot say exactly what will open your mind and when it will happen. The real knowledge or wisdom will not dawn slowly. Once you get it, you have it. If you don’t get it, you don’t have it. The realization doesn’t come little by little. Realization is instantaneous. When will it happen? Nobody can tell you. Even a small, trifling thing could do it.

I will tell you a story about a saint named Pattinatar. He was a very rich man who had made a lot of money from shipping and other businesses. He had seen many saints and sages and had studied a lot, but nothing had opened his mind to the Truth. He repeated his mantra regularly, performed religious rituals, did all the spiritual practices, but wisdom didn’t dawn in him.

Pattinathar and his wife had no children for a long time and prayed to Lord Siva for a son. In another part of the town, there was a poor temple priest and his wife, who spent whatever they had in doing anna dhanam for Sivanadiyars. By their charity they lost all their wealth, but they continued their service as best they could. Lord Siva appeared in their dream and told them that He Himself would be born as their child and that they should give that child to Pattinathar and his wife.

In due course a boy was born to the poor couple. As instructed by the Lord, they gave the child to Pattinathar, who adopted him, weighing him against gold. The boy was named Marudhavanan. He grew up in luxury, but with a quiet and inward nature.

One day Pattinathar asked his son to take his ship and go to buy merchandise. Marudhavanan went to a distant place and saw the poor people suffering there. He spent all the money, millions of dollars, in helping these people and doing service. He realized that he could not go home with an empty ship, so he filled the entire ship with cow-dung cakes, which were worth almost nothing compared to the fortune he had taken.

When the boat arrived, some of the boatmen ran to Pattinathar and told him, “Your son has gone crazy. He spent all of your money, and all he came back with is cow dung.” Pattinathar was so upset that he did not even want to see his son.

Marudhavanan went to the house, greeted his mother, and gave her a small wooden box. “Please give this to Father when he comes,” he said. Then he left the house and disappeared.

When Pattinathar came home, he asked, “Where is my son?” His wife told him that Marudhavanan had come and gone, and gave him the box.

When Pattinathar opened the box, he found a small needle without an eye and a palm leaf with a single line written on it: “Even this needle without an eye will not come with you on your final journey.”

As soon as he read those words, realization dawned in him. At once he removed his rich clothes, put on a simple loincloth, said goodbye to his house, his ships, and all his businesses, and walked out. All the scriptures he had studied, all the rituals he had done, had not opened his eyes. But those few words, and that tiny needle, became the last straw.

Realization can dawn with the smallest thing. It does not have to be a big blow. That trifling thing is what you call the final straw. At any moment, anything could be that last straw for you. Until then, you are simply preparing yourself. You are getting ready for that moment.