One day Troilanga Swami was with his disciples when a nicely-dressed middle-aged Bengali gentleman wearing a new dhoti and perfumed with oil came to him. To the disciples’ wide surprise, Troilanga Swami embraced the gentleman.

Everybody said: “How can you embrace someone who is so sophisticated and unspiritual? There is no spirituality in him.”

Troilanga Swami said to them, “You fools, you don’t recognise him. You people would have to give up everything in life, renounce everything, in order to come to his spiritual state of consciousness. In your highest state of consciousness you cannot equal him. For him to wear clean, new, ironed clothes or to use perfume is nothing. He has reached such a spiritual height that he will not be affected no matter what he wears or what he does. You can’t judge people by their outer appearance. He is really a great seeker, an extraordinary soul.”

Troilanga Swami’s words proved true. The man’s name was Shyama Charan Lahiri and he was later known to be a great spiritual Master.

Commentary:

If one knows how to sing the world-renunciation song well, then one can never be tempted by the world-possession song, not to speak of the world-temptation dance. His divine realisation is not affected in the inner world, his human performance is not affected in the outer world. He is like a boat that is in the water and, at the same time, is not affected by the water.

Sri Chinmoy