All for the Gooroo's Books

There was once a holy man who dwelt with his
disciple in a little hut at the edge of a small vil-
lage. Each day, at sundown, the villagers gath-
ered about this little hut to hear the words of
wisdom which this holy man spoke and to gain
therefrom the strength to sustain their souls and
live their lives in peace and love.

One day deep commotion reigned in the hearts
of these simple people for the holy man had pro-
claimed to them that he would, on the following
morning, start on a long pilgrimage to the holy
places of the land It would be four years before
he would return to them. He blessed them all
and begged them to be kind to his young disciple
whom he would leave in their care, and told them
to come each day at sunset as usual and listen
to the words of wisdom that his disciple would
read to them from the Scriptures. With loving
hearts the villagers promised to do his bidding.

Next morning the Gooroo entrusted his be-
loved Holy Books to his beloved disciple admon-
ishing him to take great care of them, and, above
all, to guard them against the mice who oftimes
played the mischief among them. Heavy-hearted
and sad the young disciple heard all his injunc-
tions, vowing within himself to guard his master's
beloved books even with his life if need be.

So the holy one started forth on his holy
journey and the disciple arranged the books in
order and sat up all night in readiness to ward off
the malicious danger of the mice, beating about
the books with a stick to scare them away. And
thus he passed the first night sleepless but alert
for the coming of the enemy.

The next evening the' villagers assembled to
hear the disciple read the words of wisdom from
the master's books, but the young man seemed
tired and lifeless. Questioning him as to the cause
of it, they learned that he had not slept because of
his promise to his Gooroo to guard his precious
Scriptures.

''Well," said the villagers among themselves,
''bring the boy a cat to drive away the mice, so
he can rest knowing the books are safe.''

The cat was therefore brought, but with the
coming of the cat, the disciple again became
troubled because of the lack of milk to feed the
cat. The villagers again put their heads together
to remove this trouble of the disciple who had
been entrusted to their keeping. They decided to
give him a cow to supply the milk for the cat who
was to guard the precious books of the master
who had gone on a pilgrimage to visit all the holy
places of the land.

Now the holy one had taught his disciple the
worth of a cow, that the cow was the most sacred
animal, the second mother of humanity, the nour-
isher of every human life in infancy, for is not
every babe sustained by cow's milk, and above
all, was not the cow the most loved animal of
their Lord God? Krishna, Himself, when he
walked on earth as a youth, had, on His own
choice, become even a cowherd.

All this the young disciple remembered and re-
membering it, he worshipped the cow as a mother
and served her with great care and fondness, and
because of it he was not always ready to read to
the villagers the wisdom they came to hear from
the Gooroo's books.

''Now," said the villagers, ''this boy, in his
conscientiousness, is overly busy with serving the
cow. Let us send to him the little Brahman maid-
en, who hath neither mother nor father to take
from him the work of serving the cow, so he may
be ready to read to us from the Book of Wisdom
when we come every evening at sundown as the
master bade us to do."

So it was that Brinda, the little Brahman or-
phan, first came to serve the Brahman disciple,
and lo, at her coming, the house was filled with
sunshine and tasks vanished from beneath her
little brown fingers as if by magic! The hut
echoed with her soft songs and the cow pricked up
her ears and bellowed at her coming. So as time
went on, the poor Brahman lad sat by the hour
and gazed into the moon knowing not what the
sweet pain was that filled his heart even more
than tbe greatest truths that his Oooroo had
given him, and oft, in the midst of his readings
from the sacred Scriptures at sundown, he halted
and sought in the crowd of peering dark eyes, the
dancing ones with the downcast lids of the little
Brahman maiden who came each mom to serve
him and left him each eve taking with her the sun-
shine of his heart and hut.

And so time passed and soon the villagers noted
that the disciple was in love with the little maid,
and, because of it, he pined in the hopelessness of
his position, for was he not an ascetic disciple of
the holy man, and was it not expected, therefore,
that he must never wed?

And so the villagers again put together their
many and wise heads and took counsel among
themselves.

*'It is best'* they decided in whispers. *'The
little Brinda is alone in the world. He is of her
own caste. The holy man has made us guardians
over him and since he pines for the maid and the
maid for him, we shall have them wedded and that
will be the best from all sides. ' '

And thus the little Brinda became the wife of
the disciple who lived in the hut and served the
cow that fed the cat that killed the mice that
threatened the books that belonged to the holy
man who was on his pilgrimage to all the holy
places of the land.

And the years passed and with the fourth there
came again to the village the holy man who had
traveled into many places to view the sacred spots
on his pilgrimage. And he hurried to the edge of
the village to find his hut and clasp again to his
breast his disciple, the dear boy whom he bad left
in charge of his home and the books. But he
could not find his but. In its place stood a newly
built house and around it all a wall that pro-
claimed it the home of a householder.

Wonderingly he called aloud to the custodian
of the house and the disciple appeared wearing no
more in his face the look of the ascetic but bearing
in his left arm a year old baby and his right hand
clasping the little hand of a three-year-old boy,
who had the dancing eyes of Brinda and the look
of the young disciple in their sweet faces.

On seeing the holy man before him, all the accu-
mulated fears of his broken vows of the past years
rushed upon his mind. He saw himself again in
the little hut with his Master listening to the
slokas that were to make of him also a holy man.
He saw himself performing the holy austerities
that were to lead to renunciation, he saw himself
living a life at one with God in the wilderness.
Then startled by this sudden rousing of old mem-
ories, he threw himself at the feet of his Master,
rolled in the dust made wet by his rushing tears
and cried:

"It all came about to save your books, Goo-
roo ! To keep away the mice a cat was brought.
To feed the cat a cow was brought. To serve the
cow the maid Brinda came. To save myself I
married her, and these babies are the fruits there-
of. All for the sake of your books, Gooroo, all
for the sake of your books!''