Just Absent-Mindedness

Ramashastr’s religious discourses were very popular and attracted large crowds. He had a unique gift for explaining profound spiritual ideas in simple language that his audience easily understood. Other speakers struggled to convey such concepts in an equally straightforward manner. However, his one weakness was forgetfulness.

He traveled from place to place to conduct his religious discourses. At one location, an unusually large crowd was present. He began his speech, saying, “Today is a very auspicious day, where we celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna. He is known as the author of the Gita. Whenever lawlessness prevailed, the Lord took an incarnation to set things right, to remove adharma and establish dharma. This is the dominant theme in the Bhagavad-Gita.”

He paused for a moment and looked around, noticing the giggles and muffled laughter from the audience. Confused, he wondered what had gone wrong. Wanting to clarify, he turned to his old friend Krishnashastri, who was seated in the front row. “Why are they laughing, Krishna?” he asked.

“Nothing important, my friend,” Krishnashastri replied with a smile. “Today is Ram Navami, so they expected to hear about the avatar of Lord Rama. You probably mistook it for Krishna Jayanti. It’s just absent-mindedness, that’s all!”

Ramashastr joined in the laughter, and as the amusement subsided, he was finally able to begin his speech once again.