Stories for the Soul Christopher Hansard-A daily Inspiration

There was once a in India some time ago a great Guru who had many thousands of followers , he was regarded as a saint and a miracle worker.

Everyday at the same time he would come to a shady tree in his Ashram and chant and sing Holy songs to the many people who came. One day a dog turned up, stay just outside the Ashram’s gate.

The dog was a pitiful and writhing mess of parasites and pustules. However , whenever the Guru would chant and sing, the dog would join in howling with great vigour.

After weeks of this people began to complain about the dog to the Ashram’s official’s and then to the Guru himself. One man in a rage told the Guru, ‘whenever I come here to join in and pray and sing with you, that damn mongrel starts howling and disturbs my peace. I think it should be killed!’

At that the Guru asked the man to calm down . ‘Come,’ said the Guru, ‘let us all go go the gate and see what must be done.’ When the crowd and the Guru arrived they looked at the dog and the dog wagged his tail with delight when he saw the Guru.

The Guru began to sing, the dog began to howl. The crowd became enraged.

‘Don’t you know who this dog is?’ asked the Guru looking at the crowd.

‘No,’ said one, ‘its just a dog.’

‘No,’ said the Guru, ‘ that dog is my Guru, a great saint, he howls with far more devotion that I ever could, than all of you, he is completely focused on that.’ The Guru sung, the dog howled.

‘Yes, ‘ said the Guru ,’this dog has more devotion than any of us.’

Many months went by and the dog howled its sacred howl in the afternoons, and then one day the Guru died, and everyone was sad, but the dog howled in the afternoon praising the divine.

Then one day the dog went, it was believed that he met another dog and they had many children , all equally connected to the divine and that when they grew up they travelled this world far and wide on the path of devotion.