One man was offended by his wife. He was a religious man, but his wife was not religious at all. Usually it happens the other way around - the wife is religious, but the husband is not - but anything can happen! And every day her husband tried to make her religious. There is one fundamental weakness in a religious man: he wants to make everyone else like him. But the wife did not listen to her husband. In desperation, the husband went to his guru and persuaded him to come to his home and convince his wife.
Early in the morning, around five, the guru arrived. The husband was already in the worship room. My wife was sweeping the yard. The Guru stopped her right there and said:
— I heard from your husband that you are not a religious person. You never worship God, you never pray, you never go to the temple that your husband made right in the house. Look at your husband - it’s only five o’clock and he’s already in the temple.
“I don’t remember my husband ever going to church,” the wife answered.
The husband, sitting in the temple, heard what his wife said and turned purple with rage. He was completely furious. He heard his wife's words in the middle of prayer. He couldn't believe his ears: it was complete nonsense. Here he is sitting in the temple, and she tells the guru that she doesn’t know that he goes there! He hurried to finish the prayer in order to go out and deal with such lies.
The Guru began to scold his wife:
- What are you saying? Your husband goes to temple regularly.
Hearing this, the husband began to read prayers even louder. Guru said:
- Look how zealously he prays!
Laughing, the wife replied:
“It’s hard to believe that you too succumbed to these loud prayers!” Of course, he is chanting the name of God, but, as far as I can see, he is not actually in the temple, but in the shoemaker's shop, arguing with him about the price!
It was too much! The husband could no longer hold back. He abandoned worship and ran out of the temple.
-What kind of lie is this? Didn't you see that I was praying in the temple? - he shouted.
“Look inside yourself a little more closely,” said the wife. -Did you really pray? Didn't you bargain with the shoemaker? Didn't you quarrel with him?
The husband was puzzled because the wife was telling the truth.
- But how did you know?
“Last night, before you went to bed, you told me that first thing in the morning you would go to the shoemaker and buy a pair of shoes that you really needed.” You also said that you think the shoemaker asked too much for the shoes. I know from experience that the last thought you have when you fall asleep is the first thought the next morning. So I just assumed that you were in the shoemaker’s shop,” the wife replied.
“I have nothing left to say,” answered the stunned husband, “because you’re right.” I was actually in a shoemaker's shop and we were quarreling over the price. And the heated the argument became, the louder I repeated the name of God. Perhaps on the outside I was repeating the name of God, but on the inside I was quarreling with the shoemaker. You're right; maybe I have never really been to the temple.
Entering the temple is not so easy - it is not a matter of entering any place and saying that you have entered the temple. Your body can enter the temple, but what about your mind? Can you say with certainty where your mind will be in the next moment? And if your mind has entered the temple, is it worth caring whether your body is in the temple? The mind, having found the entrance to the temple, suddenly discovers that it is surrounded on all sides by the temple, and now it is impossible to leave the temple.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru