The cut-nose Sadhu

There was a young man in a small town whose nose had been cut off because he had done something very wrong. People used to make fun of his cut nose and he was naturally humiliated by these insults. Everyone treated him with contempt. He pondered over the matter and soon found a way to make people honour and respect him.

The cut-nose man went to another town, put on the garb of a sadhu and sat in ‘meditation’ under a tree. Men and women gathered around him. At last he opened his eyes and the people asked him who he was and what he could do for them. ‘I can do a lot for you,’ he replied. ‘I can show you God, if only you agree to cut off your nose. I did the same and can see God very clearly.’ Three persons in the crowd agreed to get their noses cut off. He then took them to a tree some distance away, cut their noses off, applied some medicine to stop the bleeding and whispered into their ears, ‘Look, you must now go and tell the others that as soon as your nose was cut off, you began seeing God.’

They were so ashamed of their folly that they could not but accept the suggestion. They went to the crowd and said enthusiastically, ‘Of course we can see God---God is everywhere.’ And so everyone in the town got his nose cut off in order to achieve God-realization.

With such picturesque and compelling dramatization, Kabir effectively warns us against falling prey to charlatans trading on the name of spirituality.