All That Glitters Is Not Gold

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
22 January 2016

In Bardhaman district, near Durgapur, there is a small town called Mankar. In that town, there was once a brahman called Jivan Chakravarti. This Jivan Chakravarti worshipped Lord Siva.

He had worshipped Lord Siva for a long time when one day Lord Siva appeared to him at night and asked him,

"Jivan, what do you want?"

"My daughter has grown up and I need money to get her married," replied Jivan Chakravarti.

"Where will I get money from? If you want wealth, go to Vrindavan."

"To Vrindavan? OK, I will go. Who should I see there?"

"You should see Sanatan Goswami."

So, Jivan Chakravarti came to Vrindavan. He started asking some local people there if they knew where Sanatan Goswami stayed, and somebody told him that there lived Madan-mohan at Dvadasaditya-tila and Sanatan Goswami stayed there. Jivan Chakravarti came there and saw a sadhu sitting and doing mala. He asked him,

"Do you know where Sanatan Goswami stays?"

"It is me."

"Really??"

"Why? Do you not believe me? Who sent you here?"

"Lord Siva!"

"What did Lord Siva send you here for?"

"He sent me here to get wealth."

"Where would I have wealth from?"

"I am also thinking about this... At my house I have some silverware, some brassware, but you do not have even that. You wear dirty clothes and have some dirty pots... I better go then, there must be some mistake..."

As he started walking away, Sanatan Goswami called him,

"Hey, listen! A while ago I was bathing in Yamuna and found a parasa-mani, touchstone. I threw it away somewhere at the bank of the Yamuna. You can go there and look for it."

Jivan Chakravarti went to the bank of the Yamuna but could not find it anywhere. Sanatan Goswami came there soon and said, "OK, let me see... Try looking for it over there." Jivan Chakravarti found the touchstone lying in the middle of some garbage. He was wearing an iron amulet on his arm and as soon as he touched the amulet with the stone, it turned into gold. He was excited at first, but then he thought, "This sadhu has got such a valuable thing, why did he throw it away at the Yamuna? He probably has something even bigger! People throw unimportant things away and keep the great things with them, so sure he must have something else then." He came back to Sanatan Goswami,

"Why have you come again?" Sanatan Goswami asked him. "You have got your treasure, take it. Now you will have everything—you can get your daughter married, you can get a car, a house, lots of money, anything you want. Go!"

"Prabhu, I have one question..."

"What question?"

"What kind of wealth do you have? If you do not consider a gem to be of any value, then I pray at your holy feet to get a piece of the kind of wealth that you have."

"Will you take that wealth?"

"Yes, I will."

"Throw this stone away." Jivan Chakravarti threw it away. Sanatan Goswami told him to stretch out his hands and placed a mala in his hands saying, "Stay here in Vrindavan."

Everything went well at his home and his daughter married well, there was no problem with money. Who arranged everything? The Lord did. The Lord is the Master, and the Lord says, "If you think about Me, I will think about you." So, if you always think about the Lord, then you will see the Lord provides everything...

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