Do you believe it!

This I heard from a Swami while I was in Kochi

This is an interesting one

There are two people. One was a captain in the army and the other was a journalist.

One wanted to become a sadhu and the other wrote articles against the sadhus.

Krishnan, the first one wanted to go to spirituality. He fed up with his life in the army. He was so interested to become a monk. Oneday, he left for the Himalaya to take sanyasa from a guru.

The other Balakrishna, a journalist, wrote articles in the newspapers severely criticizing the sadhus sitting in meditation in the Himalayas. He wrote during the Indo-China war and quote”These useless creatures who do nothing for the country and hiding in the Himalayan caves. These people must be dragged out from the caves.

He also left for the Himalayas with a mission that was exactly against the first one

Both of them met on their way. They reached Himalayas and met Swami Sivananda at Rishikesh. After few days with Swamiji, both of them became two different persons

Swamiji told the first one who really wanted to become a monk, look u can’t become a monk but I see a potential of a businessman in you “GO AND START HOTEL BUSINEESS”. That guy came to Mumbai and started a small Hotel. Rest is History. Today the hotel is known as The Leela Group of Hotels”( http://www.theleela.com/)

Swamiji told Balkrishna that you have a potential of a monk and I will make you a Sanyasi

That guy became one of the the most revered spiritual gurus Hinduism has even seen. Swami Chimayanada.( http://www.chinmayamission.org/)