Vedantic Tales: The Discipleship of
Sri Nag , The Cobra

'How else?'

'You should be ashamed,' the sannyasin replied sternly.

'Whatever your ancestors may have done before you does not justify your own actions. Must you do as they have done? Are you not your own master?'

'I am master of this field,' Sri Nag said and drew himself up a bit taller, again stiffening his, hood.

'I see,' the sadhu said.

'... to those trees on the west,' Sri Nag continued, 'to and including that pond on the east, to that rice paddy on the ... ' He became aware that the young monk was smiling at him as one might smile at a boastful but loveable child, as he himself had sometimes smiled at his youngsters. His words dwindled off.

'I see,' the sadhu said again.

Suddenly Sri Nag felt unutterably small and absurd. He was aware that the young sadhu possessed a strength far greater than his own. He collapsed his ridiculous hood. Overhead in the vast expanse of sky came the liquid notes of a lark. There was no other sound.

Then out of the blue Sri Nag said, 'Sir, how can I see God?'

In the land where Sri Nag had been born it was customary to put this sort of question, to holy men. But it was not because of custom that Sri Nag asked. There was a power, a luminosity about this particular holy man which made it seem likely that he would give a true reply, and Sri Nag felt the need for a true reply. A yearning, deeply buried, but present in his race ever since the remote days when his ancestors had lost their close and loving contact with Lord Shiva had welled up in him.

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