You
know how important discipline and orders are in the army. To prove this
to his men, one commanding officer assembled them on the top of a
mountain, which was so slippery with moss that one false step meant
falling thousands of feet below. So this officer blindfolded a soldier
and told him to start marching. The soldier did so and just as he
reached the slippery part, his officer called out "Halt!" He stopped
right there. If he had not obeyed immediately but had taken just one
more step, he would have fallen. The rest of the battalion saw this and
then they understood the importance of obeying orders. When the
soldier's blindfold was removed and he saw where he was, he thought, `If
I hadn't obeyed I would have fallen to my death.' It was just a matter
of one more step. Similarly,
agya is extremely important for premies. If a devotee disobeys and
takes a single wrong step it can lead to his ruin. Whatever merit he has
accumulated from his devotion will be lost. On the other hand, if he
follows agya, not a hair on his head will be harmed. Prahlad's father,
King Hiranyakashyap, intended to tie him to a red-hot pillar, but the
Lord appeared as a man-lion to save him. He had to take this shape
because the king was protected by the boon that neither man nor beast
would kill him. To save his devotee and kill the king, the Lord had to
come in that form. So obeying agya is the prime duty of the disciple.
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