The Purusha No Larger Than a Thumb

Although Latu Maharaj could not read the scriptures himself, he showed great interest in hearing them and would ask others to read to him. Swami Shuddhananda recalled: “I remember an occasion when I slept in the same room with Latu Maharaj. At midnight he got up and said, ‘Sudhir, Sudhir, read the Gita.’ So I read the Gita to him that night.” On another occasion, Latu Maharaj went with Shuddhananda to listen to a class by Pandit Shashadhar on the Katha Upanishad. The pandit read the verse: “The Purusha, no larger than a thumb, the inner Self, always dwells in the hearts of men. Let a man separate Him from the body with perseverance, as one separates the tender stalk from a blade of grass” (2.3.17). As Latu Maharaj heard this passage, he cried out repeatedly, “Sudhir, the pandit said right.” He must have reached that state himself, otherwise he could not have understood that abstruse Sanskrit passage.^[1]