There is an ancient Roman story of a great sage. The fragrance of his being and the rays of his wisdom spread so much that they reached up to the gods in heaven. They came to him and said, ”Ask a favor. We are prepared to grant you anything you wish.”
The saint replied, ”What was to happen has happened; there is nothing more to desire. Please do not put me into a difficulty by asking me to desire something. Do not embarrass me with your offer.
It would be bad manners if I did not ask, but the fact is that there is nothing left for me to ask for. Everything has happened to me, even that which I have never thought of.” The gods were impressed even more by his words, because his fragrance became stronger with the fact that he was beyond desire. ”You must ask something,” the gods insisted. ”We will not leave without conferring a favor upon you.”
The saint was in a fix. ”What shall I ask for? I cannot think of anything,” he told the gods. ”You give me whatever you like; I will take it.” ”We will give you a power. Just your touch will bring the dead to life and the sick back to health,” they told him.
”This is good, a great help,” he said, ”but what about me? I will be in a great trouble, because I may have an idea that I am healing the sick, that I am bringing the dead back to life. If my ego comes back from the back door, then I am finished, then I am lost in darkness.
Please save me; have compassion on me; do something so that I do not know of these miracles.” So the gods agreed. They said, ”Wherever your shadow falls it will bring back the dead to life.”
”That is good,” said the sage. ”Now do me a last favor. Please grant that my neck becomes stiff so that I cannot look back to see the effect of my shadow.”
The favor was granted. The sage’s neck became stiff. He went about from town to town. When his shadow fell on withered flowers they began to bloom, but by then he would have gone ahead; his neck did not allow him to look back. He never came to know. When he died he asked the gods whether their gift was fruitful or not, because he never came to know about it.
