Again, I was in the train, going back to my home Jalgaon. I was reading ‘Panchatantra (secret of leadership)’. Just before Nasik (the city of holy spirits), a beggar came in our compartment. He was physically handicapped with the only hand he had he was asking for money by a gesture of spreading hand in front of people. One of my co passengers, a simple lower middle class man offered him some money. I was observing the beggar since some time now and I found a subtle smile fixed on his face as a default expression. He turned to me now with that smile and his eyes spoke to me. I too as usual refused to give him a single penny and diverted my eyes to the passage I was reading.
To my surprise he again spread his hands before me but this time for the book I was reading. I sort of recognised him by that action but something inside me was still not ready to believe it. Anyway I decided to act and started surfing thought the pages with his single hand. Finally deciding to read the last story he started, after finishing the page he faced the difficulty in turning it. I helped him turn it. He smiled again. I hesitated. I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing but decided against it. After reading the story he still sort of had time to surf through other pages while I observed him critically. I noticed him reading only the morals at the end of the story. Now I was sure and he was done. He closed the book with due respect, handed it over to me. He closed the book with due respect, handed it over to me. He stood for few seconds right in front of me, thanking with his eyes he made a gesture of receiving (Bhiksha) by clicking his breast pocket and winked.
He was a partial God. A real Brahmin, whoes karma is gaining knowledge and collects Bhiksha to survive.
