What Lord Shiva teaches Saint Namdev ?

                       

                          Lord Shiva and Saint Namdev

  Once Lord Shiva came in Saint Namdev's dream and said, "You are my very good devotee but still youhave to learn something before you can be with me all the time. He said him to visit the temple and meet another one of  his devotees. His name is Vithoba. After that, tell me what you have learned from him." Then Lord Shiva disappeared. Saint Namdev woke up in the morning and set out to visit the temple.

When Namdev reached temple, he searched forthe devotee Vithoba. Suddenly while waiting, Namdev saw an old man, sitting with his feet on the statue of Lord Shiva. Namdev could not believe that a man could disrespect Lord Shiva like that. At the same time, the temple priest introduced Namdev to the old man, saying that the old man was Vithoba.

 Namdev got confused! He thought that what could he learn from someone who was so disrespectful towards God! Just then Vithoba said, 'O Namdev, I am so old that it is very difficult for me  to even move my limbs. Please help me to move my feet to a place where there is no God." Namdev began to move the old man's legs here and there, but wherever he put the old man's legs, Lord Shiva appeared !

Repentant, Namdev fell to the feet of the devotee Vithoba and begged for his forgiveness. Thus, Saint Namdev learned from the devotee Vithoba that God or Lord Shiva is present everywhere in this Universe, in all living and non-living things. With this learning he soon experienced God's presence everywhere and remained with God wherever he went.

Moral : From this story we learnt that God is present in everything. The God principle is present in the people around us, animals, birds, wind, fire and even our schoolbooks, pencils, toys and so on. Hence, to experience God's joyful presence, we should treat everyone and everything around us with respect. Also, we can pray to all the things we use, before starting an activity. For example, if we are about to eat, we can pray to the God principle in the food, Maata Annapurna, to make us strong and to be able to remember God (chant) with every bite.