What is Duty?

- A certain young sanyasi went to a forest and there he meditated and worshipped and practised yoga for a long time. After twelve years of hard work and practice, he was sitting one day under a tree, when some dry leaves fell upon his head. He looked up and saw a crow and a crane fighting on the top of the tree and they made him very angry. He said, "What! You dare throw those dry leaves upon my head!" and as he looked upon them with anger, a flash of fire burst from his head - the yogi's power - and burnt the birds to ashes. He was very glad; He was almost over-joyed at this development of power; He could burn at a glance, the crow and the crane.

- After a time he had go into the town to beg for his bread. He came and stood at the door and said: "Mother, give me food." A voice came from inside the house: "Wait a little, my son." The young man thought: "You wretched woman, dare you make me wait! You do not know my power yet." While he was thinking thus, the voice came again: "Boy, dont be thinking too much of yourself. Here is neither crow nor crane." He was astonished; still he had to wait. At last a woman came and he fell at her feet and said: "Mother, how did you know that?". She said: "My boy, I do not know your yoga or your practices. I am a common, everyday woman, but i made you wait because my husband is ill and I am nursing him and that was my duty. As a daughter when I was unmarried, I did my duty; and now when I am married, I still do my duty, that is all the yoga i practise, and by doing my duty I have become illumined; Thus, i could read your thoughts, and what you had done in the forest. But if want to know something higher than this, go to such and such a town and to the market, and there you will find a butcher and he will tell you something that you will be very glad to learn." The Sanyasi thought: "Why go to that town and to a butcher." (Butchers are the lowest class in that society; they are chandalas; they are not touched because they are butchers; they do also the duty of scavengers and so forth).

- But after what he had seen, his mind was opened a little. So he went, and when he came near the city he found the market and there saw, at a distance a big, fat butcher slashing away at animals, with big knives, fighting and bargaining with different people. The young man said, "Lord, help me. Is this the man from whom I am going to learn? He is the incarnation of a demon, if he is anything." In the meantime, this man looked up and said, "Swami, did that lady send you here? Take a seat until I have done my business." The sanyasi thought, "What comes to me here?" But he took a seat and the man went on, and after he had finished all his selling and buying, took his money and said to the sanyasi "Come here, sir; come to my home."

- So they went there and the butcher gave him a seat and said "Wait there." Then he went into the house and there were his father and mother. He washed them and fed them and did all he could to please them, and then came and took a seat before the sanyasi and said: "Now, sir, you have come here to see me; what can i do for you?" Then this great sanyasi asked him a few questions about soul and god; and this butcher gave him a lecture which is a celebrated book in India, the "Vyadha-Gita." It is one of the highest flights in Vedanta, the highest flight of metaphysics. You have heard about the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna's sermon. When you have finished that, you should read the Vyadha-Gita. It is the extreme of Vedanta philosophy. When the butcher has finished, the sanyasi was astonished. He said, "Why are you in that body, with such knowledge of yours? Why are you in a butcher's body and doing such filthy, ugly work?" "My son;" replied the Chandala, "No duty is ugly, and duty is impure. My birth, circumstances and environments were there. In my boyhood, I learned the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty well. I try to do my duty as a house-holder, and I try to do all I can to make my father and mother happy. I neither know your yoga, nor have I become a sanyasi; never went out of the world, nor into a forest, but all this has come to me through doing my duty in my position."

- Let us do that duty which is ours by birth, and when we have done that, do the duty which is ours by position. Each man is placed in some position in life, and must do the duties of that position first. There is one great danger in human nature, that man never looks at himself. he thinks he is quite as fit to be on the throne as a king. Even if he is, he must first show that he has done the duty of his own position, and when he has done that, higher duty will come to him.