Bhikari, The Beggar

He had no home. Nor did he have a family. He did not remember having a mother or father. The footpath was his home. The sky under which he slept was the roof. Sometimes the roof leaked with rain. He did not remember anything of his past. Since the time he could remember he was on the pavement. There were others like him. All living on the pavement. People called him and others like him as Bhikari. He and others had clothes on their bodies that were oversized and torn. Every day they used to sit by the side of the road and beg. He kept his open palm facing upwards and ask for money from the people walking down the road. He had no emotions. Because he had no past no future only the present. Getting a full meal was a luxury. Rarely he ate with his stomach full.

Every day he saw people walking down the road with beautiful clothes on themselves. The clothes were neat and clean and not like him. He used to see beautiful cars and motorbikes. There were big buses carrying many people. Everyone seemed in a hurry and very busy. Unlike him who had a lot of time and no work. Sometimes people were kind and gave him good things to eat. One day an ice cream fell off the hand of a little boy. The boy started crying until his mother bought him another one. Bhikari picked up the ice cream and enjoyed licking it. It tasted very good. Nice, sweet and cold. This was the second ice cream of his life. The first ice cream was gifted to him by a tall, fair-skinned gentleman some time ago.

Some days used to be really good. If there was a Puja in his locality then surely he would get his share of 'prasad' of fruits and sweet.

One day a car came and stopped in front of him. An old lady got down and came towards him. The driver of the car followed her with a big tray in his hand. The lady took the packets from the tray and gave it to Bhikari. She opened a box of sweets for him. The other packet had clothes for him. This was the first time someone was giving him gifts. He never felt like this before. He was overjoyed. He decided to go to the nearby temple, where sometimes he used to sit near the steps, begging. But this time he would go inside and pray to the deity and thank him for the gifts. Bhikari became emotional for the first time in his life. Never had he felt so happy. Was this feeling real? If it was someone else in place of Bhikari he would think about his insecurity. He had no place of his own. No place to store his belongings. But it was Bhikari, who lived only for today. For him tomorrow did not exist. One who doesn't get two square meals a day, for him thought for tomorrow is a luxury.

The next day the lady returned with more gifts for Bhikari. But Bhikari became worried now for real. Because where would he keep all that he was receiving. Then the lady told her of how a tragedy had befallen her. She had lost a son recently and she was very remorseful and heartbroken. Then her family Guru had told her to give expensive gifts to one beggar. She was suffering from her past karma. To overcome this she must help at least one beggar to improve his life and come out of this cycle of poverty.

So Bhikari had taken her fancy and it was him that she had targeted for her objective. But Bhikari had other ideas. He thought that he along with some of his fellow beggars became the beneficiaries then his mind would be at peace.

So he opened up with his idea to his benefactor. The old lady was taken by surprise. She thought about how this person was unlike other human beings and not selfish. His thoughts were for his fellow beings instead of thinking about himself. What good karma this bhikari had.