Pleasant Stories & Anecdotes — Page 62
62 arrived again at the house of the divine at two in the morning. He awoke him from sleep, gave him the same ten thousand rupees, and submitted that the money was donated for the sake of God and not to seek any praise from you. ‘You openly praised me and deprived me of the reward on the Day of Judgment. It was not my intention. I resolved to shun temptations of the devil and made an excuse. This money is yours, but my name should not be men- tioned to anyone. Now I ask you to swear that you will not men- tion this donation till death’. On hearing this, the religious man started weeping. The donor asked, ‘Why did you weep’. He replied, ‘I wept because of your keeping the matter secret, you will be criticized as long as these people are around. Everyone knows what happened yesterday, but no one knows that you returned it to me. They are unaware of the reality which you have asked not to disclose’, the divine said. The donor replied, ‘I am happy to accept these curses as I want to avoid hypocrisy’, and left. Eventually, God disclosed the entire story to the public. God gives respect to those who secretly develop a friendship with Him. A righteous person fights with his inciting self and tries to hide his [good] deeds. He keeps his good deeds secret but God always discloses such secrets. A wicked person wants to hide his evil deeds after commit- ting them, similarly, a righteous man worships in secret, and fears that no one sees him. A truly righteous desires a kind of secrecy. Righteousness has many degrees and it requires inconvenience, and the righteous are always in a state of war, but a pious has