Hoping to behold the Goddess, a guru went into the forest and practiced shava-sadhana, meditating while seated on a corpse. He prayed to the Goddess day and night, but she still did not appear.
Then, without warning, a tiger attacked. It killed him and dragged his body away.
The guru's young disciple was shocked. He decided to perform shava-sadhana himself, and the Goddess appeared immediately in answer to his prayer.
"I don't understand," he said. "My master prayed much longer than I did."
"He prayed longer in this lifetime," she said, "but you have prayed to me for many lifetimes."
Inspired by: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Notes: This is story 57 in the book. In Ramakrishna's story, the two men are not connected; I decided to make them guru and master so that the story would work in this compressed format. The theme of merit earned in past lives is a recurring theme in Ramakrishna's stories. You can find out more about shava-sadhana at Wikipedia.
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