You had better give me the chapattis cooked by you

(Even till the middle of the twentieth century the Indian society was in the grip of a rigid cast system i.e. a system of segregation of people, each with a traditional hereditary occupation. Basically there were four casts, the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and the Shudras. Apart from this there were a set of people who were excluded altogether from all these casts and treated as untouchables. According to the customs of those times, any body from the above four casts (including monks) could be polluted and loose their status if they were to come into contact with an untouchable or if they were to accept food or gifts from them. People dealing with human and animal waste, scavengers, leather workers (i.e. cobblers) and those who handled the dead were considered to be untouchables. These unfortunate people generally lived on the outskirts of cities, towns or villages in separate colonies. They had absolutely no rights, were extremely poor and lived in miserable conditions.)

Once speaking to a friend about his life as a wondering monk, Swami Vivekananda mentioned a very touching incident that took place in Khetri. According to the story, at this place people came to Vivekananda in crowds and asked for instructions. They made him talk for three days and nights without giving him a moment's rest. They did not even ask him whether he had eaten. On the third night, when all the visitors had left, an untouchable, a cobbler, came up to Vivekananda and said, “Swamiji, I am much pained to see that you have not had any food these three days. You must be very tired and hungry. Indeed, I have noticed that you have not even taken a glass of water.” When Vivekananda heard this, he thought that the Lord Himself had come in the form of this low caste man to test him. Vivekananda asked him, “Can you give me something to eat?” The man replied, “Swamiji, my heart is yearning to give you food, but how can you eat chapattis (Indian flat bread) baked by my hands (as he was an untouchable)! If you allow me I shall be most glad to bring flour, lentils, and other things, and you may cook them yourself.” But Vivekananda said, “You had better give me the chapattis cooked by you. I will gladly take them.” Hearing this, the man became frightened. Being a subject of the prince of Khetri, he was afraid that if the latter came to hear that he, a cobbler, had given chapattis to a Sannyasin, he would be severely dealt with and possibly banished from the State. Vivekananda assured him that he need not have any fear and that the prince would not punish him. The cobbler did not believe him. Even though he feared for the worst, he out of the kindness of his heart brought Vivekananda the cooked food. To Vivekananda this poor man’s food tasted heavenly and later when he was recounting this incident to his friend he remarked, “I doubted at that time whether it would have been more palatable if Indra, the King of the Devas (Gods), should have held a cup of nectar in a golden basin before me. I shed tears of love and gratitude and thought, 'Thousands of such large-hearted men live in lowly huts, and we despise them as low castes and untouchables!'”

Later on when the prince of Khetri became his disciple, Vivekananda mentioned this noble act of the cobbler to the prince. The prince had this cobbler brought to his presence. When this poor man was brought he was shaking all over with fear thinking he may be punished by the prince for some mistake he had made. But the prince praised him and put him beyond all want.