The Story of Ramdas-Kalyan {Mango}

[Mehera Meher School Of Awakening-Bangalore.]

"The faith of the disciple must be grounded on his experience of the
divinity of the master. The story of Kalyan brings out the meaning of
this. Kalyan was a disciple of Swami Ramdas who was a perfect master
at the time of Shivaji. The master loves all disciples alike; but some
are particularly dear to him. Swami Ramdas had many disciples; but the
favourite was Kalyan. Other disciples did not understand why kalyan
should be so dear to the Master. Once Swami Ramdas made a test of the
devotion of his disciples when he carefully pretended to be so sick as
to be on the point of death. He had placed a mango on the joint of his
knee and covered it by a bandage so that it looked like a huge
swelling. Swami ramdas pointed to this swelling, said that it was a
malignant tumour, and that there was no chance of his living unless
some one sucked out the poison. At the same time he made it clear that
whoever sucked out the poison would die. Then he asked whether any
disciple was prepared to do this. All the disciples hesitated except
kalyan who arose immediately and began to suck from the swelling. He
found that what he sucked was mango juice not poison. To be willing to
die for the beloved is true love. Such faith, love and loyalty as that
of kalyan comes to the disciple only through the grace of the master. "