Wicked people mock the Lord’s bhaktas, and yet the latter do not retaliate. Uddhava wants to know how the Lord’s bhaktas put up with such abuse, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. They bear taunts patiently, and such tolerance seems to come easily to them. They do not seem to make any special effort to keep their temper under check. It just happens automatically. How does such tolerance come to them? Why are others unable to achieve such self-control? Even one unkind word is enough to upset most people. How can a man become a mahaan, asks Uddhava. Lord Krishna tells him the story of the Avanti Brahmin.
There was a Brahmin in Avanti who was a rich, but miserly merchant. The more money he made, the more miserly he became. His miserliness made him ill tempered. He kept all his relatives at arm’s distance. He was unfriendly. He did not speak much with anyone, for he felt none was fit to talk to him. He was arrogant even with his immediate family. He never donated for good causes. If someone is so much in love with wealth, it is certain that he will lose all his wealth, and that is what happened in the case of the merchant. As he became old, it became difficult for him to safeguard his wealth. His relatives were able to dupe him and make away with a portion of his riches. Thieves stole a portion of his wealth. He had buried some money, and that too was stolen. The king confiscated some of his wealth.
In course of time, he lost everything that he possessed. When he became impoverished, his relatives distanced themselves from him. Gradually, it dawned on him that protecting the money one had earned was even more difficult than earning it. The merchant realised his mistake and became a sanyasi, and attained control of his mind.
