Once in a moderate sized village in India there lived a very successful smarta Brahmin. He had been trained from the time of his youth in the various mechanical aspects of Vedic ritual and was thus practically flawless in their execution. Similarly he had been specially schooled in the perfect intonations for the chanting of a seemingly endless stream of mantras and was expert at knowing when and where the appropriate chanting of such mantras should take place. He was always impeccably dressed and even inconsequential movements of his body were choreographed so that even his picking up a piece of paper appeared to the casual observer to have a ballet like quality. Yet despite so much training and apparent sukrti he was internally simply a showman and an arrogant and even occasionally mean spirited one at that.

He would carry on a running internal dialogue with himself during his waking hours, silently condemning the pathetic fault ridden positions of nearly ever person he met. He quite fancied that he was most magnanimous to regularly intermix with the "ordinary" populace as they undoubtedly gained tremendous karmic benefit by even a brief encounter with him, thus was his personal estimation of superiority.

One afternoon he went to a private spot near the river to take care of the necessary functions of the body and to take his afternoon bath. After doing the needful for the first time ever, quite contrary to his smarta training he turned and glanced at the mound of waste he had just excreted. He quickly turned away, a sneer of revulsion bending the contours of his face when he heard a little voice calling from behind.

"Excuse me but could you kindly explain the justification for your immense sense of pride?!" The small voice queried. The Smarta Brahmin turned and saw, to his utter amazement that the voice had emanated from the pile of stool. His befuddlement was just sinking in when the voice continued,

"Of course you sneer at my repulsive and disgusting condition but I'll be pleased to remind you that but a few hours ago I was a beautiful thali of wonderful, finely prepared Prasadam and now after only a few hours of association with you, behold the wretched condition I find myself in!"

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