INDIA: Mixed Blessing

As the sun rose higher & higher, Swami Saraswati Maharaj, who is a holy man and a beggar, got hungrier & hungrier. At last, in the poor Indian village of Jagraon one day last week, he bent his tired footsteps to the door of a large hut.

A middle-aged Hindu housewife opened the door and gave the holy man two freshly baked chapatis (wheat pancakes). "May God have mercy on you," the swami cried, and then added a blessing: "May you have seven more sons."

Before he could take a bite of chapati, the woman excitedly bent low and said, "Sir,...

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