Question: Why did God give me big feet?

Guru: God gave you big feet in order to match with your big nose! If you feel that God has given you big feet, then develop some sympathy in your heart and try to feel oneness with someone who has much larger feet than you have. If you find it very difficult, then you can try to identify yourself either with your sister-disciple Nandita in the Seattle Centre, or with your brother-disciple Adhiratha-the-Great. Adhiratha’s feet are exceptionally big…large…huge. His feet once upon a time have enjoyed intimate friendship with the feet of elephants. But that friendship was nothing but destruction. He killed many, many, many elephants. So the elephants blessed him with a curse. They wished him to have big feet. It was their dying wish: “Since you are killing us, you should have feet like ours. If you have huge feet, it will not be dignified. So let us curse you with our feet-consciousness.” In the Mahabharata, the elephants in the battle at Kurukshetra blessed him with elephant-feet in this 20th century.

Call it punishment or call it reward. If you take it as a reward, you will be happy. If you take it as a punishment, you will be unhappy. When you go to the store you may be unhappy, because they will not be able to give you shoes immediately. But you will be happy again if you can tell the world that you are the possessor of exceptional feet. Poor Adhiratha can’t get shoes in any store. He has to get a special order for his feet divine.