In English
There is a small example for this. At one time a learned was explaining a particular description of Lord in our , to a group of people. Amongst the group was present an illiterate cowherd who had complete faith in God. He listened to the who described Lord as riding on a white and giving to devotees who pray earnestly, and answering their prayers. With implicit faith in what he had heard, he went to the forest as used along with his cattle and started praying to the Lord to come riding on a white and partake in the rice porridge which he had brought for himself. He also took a vow that he will not eat his food until the Lord appeared before him and partook the food brought by him. The Lord did not appear before him. Days went by and the devotee was starving and becoming thinner and thinner. The Lord was moved at this distress of the devotee and came in the guise of an old . The devotee saw the old and since his appearance did not match with the description of God which he had in his mind, namely a dark-complexioned individual riding on a white , he would not recognise Him and closed his eyes and started praying for His . After a little while, he opened his eyes and asked the who he was. The replied that he was the Lord come in that form; but the illiterate devotee would not believe it as the idea that the Lord would come riding on a white was so firmly imprinted in his mind. Thus, by adhering to a symbolic description intended only to help the illiterate people, without knowing the sacred inner meaning, he deprived himself of food and water for a long time.