கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம்

Here is one story about Krishna as narrated to Acharya Vinoba by his mother:

It is a funny little story, but it contains a profound secret.

There was a girl who was resolved that everything she did should go to Krishna. After cleaning the oven in the kitchen with a mixture of clay and cow-dung, she made what was left into a ball and threw it out, saying, "Krishnaarpanamastu". (May Krishna accept it).

What happened was that the ball of cow-dung used to rise into the air and, flying into the temple, stick on the face of the image of the Lord Krishna. The priest, poor fellow, got tired cleaning up the image. He did not know what to do. 

At last he discovered that this was all due to the girl. As long as the girl was alive, the image could not be kept clean. 

One day the girl fell sick, She was about to die. She dedicated her death also to Krishna. 

The image in the temple fell to pieces. The heavenly chariot came to fetch her - but this too she dedicated to Krishna. The chariot dashed against the temple and was smashed up. Even heaven is reduced to nothing before the thought of Krishna.

The meaning of it all is that whatever actions we do, whether good or bad, a new dimension of power enters into them the moment we surrender them to the Lord. 

The grains of maize are reddish yellow in colour, but when maize is parched in sand, what good popcorn it becomes! What a difference between the dainty popcorn, white and soft, and the hard grain!

But there is no doubt that the one has become the other, and the change is due to the fire.

Likewise, if you grind this hard grain in a mill, it becomes soft flour. As contact with fire make it flower-like, and grinding in the mill makes it into soft flour, so even the smallest actions are transformed when they are passed through the process of dedication of God.

(An excerpt from the book of "Hinduism in a Nutshell" by K.Ramachandra, Editor of Religious Digest.)

**