Spiritual

Directions: Read the passage and select appropriate contextual meanings for the words underlined.

The Road to Heaven

Once upon a time, there lived a famous saint. He was blessed with spiritual powers. The saint had a large following and needed to travel a lot to give sermons to his followers. Realizing the saint’s needs for comfort on such journeys, he was promptly provided with a palanquin and bearers by one of his wealthy disciples. The comfort of travelling in shade overruled all his moral arguments. His popularity and wealth grew. One day on such a journey, he was stopped by a very unkempt figure of a man. “I want to go to heaven,” the man said. “Stretch your arms upwards and look towards the sky. You will find the way to heaven”, the Sage said.
Many years passed and the saint had an even larger following. One day he was passing through the same way, when he saw the same man standing in the middle of the road with his hands stretched towards the sky. The man had grown a beard up to his knees and his clothes were torn but on approaching him, the sage saw a strange light in his eyes. The man was in a trance.  Soon a miracle happened. He started to rise above the ground. The sage ran and caught hold of the feet of the mad man.
Later the sage gave his last sermon and said that the road to God’s abode is not through reading scriptures.