Devotion

During the tour of North-East England, Swamishri spent a night at a devotee's house in Leeds, Yorkshire.

In the morning, a few devotees had come to have darshan of Swami performing puja. The room in which sadhus had arranged for Swamishri to perform puja was a dining room. The room wasn't very large and with only the sadhus and a few devotees inside, the rest had to sit outdoors in the garden. With a view to keep the cold out, a sadhu had shut the sliding patio door through which the devotees were going to have darshan of Swamishri. When Swamishri came to perform his puja, his eyes fell on the devotees sitting outside and he instructed the sadhu, "Open the patio door slightly."
"But it is cold out there," said the sadhu.
"It doesn't matter," replied Swamishri.
"At least they can hear the bhajans (devotional songs) if the door is kept open."
The sadhu did as he was told and slid the patio door just enough as to enable the devotees to hear the bhajans. With this, he sat down beside the door.
As Swamishri's puja progressed, the sadhu began to feel the effects of the chilly wind. He became increasingly worried that Swamishri, too, must be feeling the cold so he shut the patio door.
Towards the end of the puja Swamishri asked the sadhu why he had closed the patio door?"
"I was feeling cold," replied the sadhu, "and I thought you must be feeling the cold too."
"But we are sitting in the warmth of the room," said Swamishri. "It is the devotees out there who are suffering the cold. We should always think about the difficulties of the devotees."
Swamishri willingly suffered the chilly wind to keep his devotees happy. Swamishri's greatness lies in the way in which he looks after the needs of the smallest of devotees.