THE BANE OF WORLDLINESS

PARABLES

[The bane of worldliness—Sex and its bondage—Spiritual progress depends on mind—Dangers of misunderstood philosophy—The foolishness of fanaticism—Faith, devotion and resignation—Yoga and Vairagya—Nature of Maya—Realisation of the Divine]

God is like the wish-yielding tree of the celestial world (Kalpataru), which gives whatever one asks of it. So one should be careful to give up all worldly desires when one's mind • has been purified by religious exercises. Just hear a story. A certain traveller came to a large plain in the course of his travels. As he had been walking in the sun for many hours, he was thoroughly exhausted and heavily perspiring; so he sat down in the shade of a tree to rest a little. Presently he began to think what a comfort it would be if he could but get a soft bed there to sleep on. He was not aware that he was sitting under the celestial tree. As soon as the above thought rose in his mind, he found a nice bed by his side. He felt much astonished, but all the same stretched himself on it. Now he thought to himself how pleasant it would be were a young damsel to come there and gently stroke his legs. No sooner did the thought arise in his mind than he found a young damsel sitting at his feet and stroking his legs. The traveller felt supremely happy. Presently he felt hungry and thought: " I have got whatever I have wished for; could I not then get some food ? Instantly he found various kinds of delicious food spread before him. He at once fell to eating, and having helped himself to his hearts content, stretched himself again on his bed. He now began to revolve in his mind the events of the day. While thus occupied, he thought, " If a tiger should attack me all of a sudden I " In an instant a large tiger jumped upon him and broke his neck and began to drink his blood. In this way the traveller lost his life. Such is the fate of men in general. If during your meditation you pray for men or money or worldly honours, your desires will no doubt be satisfied to some extent; but, mind you, there is the dread of the tiger behind the gifts you get. Those tigers—disease, bereavements, loss of honour and wealth, etc.,—are a thousand times more terrible than the live tiger.

A group of fisher-women, who were on their way home from a distant market held on an afternoon, were overtaken by a heavy hail-storm at nightfall, and were compelled to take shelter in a florist s cottage near by. Their kindly host allowed them to sleep that night in a room where he had kept some baskets of sweet-smelling flowers for supplying his customers on the morrow. The atmosphere of the room, filled with the fragrance of flowers, was too good for the fisher-women, and they could not, therefore, get even a wink of sleep. At last one of them suggested a remedy. Let us sprinkle, she said " a little water on our empty fish-baskets and place them close to us. That would keep this troublesome smell of flowers from spoiling our sleep." Every one gladly agreed to the proposal and did accordingly; and soon all began to snore. Such, indeed, is the power and influence of habit! The worldly soul, brought up in, and accustomed to materialistic thoughts and surroundings, cannot breathe long in an atmosphere of purity and renunciation without feeling restlessness and discomfort.

Once a sage was lying by the roadside deeply immersed in Samadhi. A thief, while passing by that way, saw him and thought: " This fellow here must be a thief. He must have broken into some houses last night, and is now sleeping through exhaustion. The police will be very soon here to catch him. So let me escape in time. ' Thus cogitating, he ran away. Soon after a drunkard came there, and seeing the sage, said, Halloa! you have fallen into the ditch by drinking too much. Eh ! I am steadier than yourself and am not going to tumble down.' Last of all there came a sage, and realising that a great saint was lying in the state of Samadhi, sat down by his side and began to press his holy feet gently. (Thus do our worldly tendencies prevent us from recognising true holiness and piety.)

With regard to the priestly class, Sri Rama-krishna used to tell an incident from the life of Gauranga. When Sri Gauranga, being wholly self-absorbed in Bhava Samadhi, fell into the ocean, he was Hauled up in a net by the fishermen ; but as they came into contact with his sacred person through the net, they too were thrown into a trance. Abandoning all their work, they roamed about like maniacs simply chanting the sacred name of Han. Their relatives could not cure the malady by any means, and finding no other remedy, they came at last to Sri Gauranga artd told him about their sorrow. Sri Gauranga then said to them, " Get some rice from a priest s house and put it into their mouth, and you will see them cured." They did accordingly, and the fishermen lost their blissful ecstasy. (Such is the contaminating influence of worldliness, and impurity •on spiritual growth.)

The steward of a certain rich man was left in charge of his master's property. When asked by someone as to whose property it was, he used to say: " Sir, this is all my property ; these houses and these gardens are all mine. He would speak in this strain and go about with an air of vanity. One day he happened to catch fish in a pond of his master s garden-house in contravention of his strict prohibition. As ill-luck would have it, the master came upon the scene just then, and saw what his dishonest steward was doing. Finding out the faithlessness of his servant, the master at once drove him away from his estate, disgraced and dishonoured, and confiscated all his past earnings. The poor fellow could not take with him even his rickety box of utensils which was hi# sole private property. Such is the punishment that overtakes false pride.

A barber, who was passing under a haunted tree, heard a voice say, " Will you accept seven jars full of gold ? " The barber looked around, but could see no one.

The offer of seven jars of gold, however, roused his cupidity, and he cried aloud, " Yes, I shall accept the seven jars.' At once came the reply. "Go home, I have carried the jars to your house.' The barber ran home in hot haste to verify the truth of this strange announcement. And when he entered the house, he saw the jars before him. He opened them and found them all full of gold, except the last one which was only half-full. A strong desire now arose in the mind of the barber to the seventh jar also ; for without it his happiness was incomplete. He therefore converted all his ornaments into gold coins and put them into the jar; but the mysterious vessel was as before, unfilled. This exasperated the barber. Starving himself and his family, he saved some amount more and tried to fill the jar; but the jar remained as before. So one day he humbly requested the king to increase his pay, as his income was not sufficient to maintain himself. Now the barber was a favourite of the king, and as soon as the request was made the king doubled his pay. All this pay he saved and put into the jar, but the greedy jar showed no signs of filling. At last he began to live by begging from door to door, and his professional income and the income from begging all went into the insatiable cavity of the mysterious jar. Months passed, and the condition of the miserable and miserly barber grew worse every day. Seeing his sad plight, the king asked him one day, " Halloa! When your pay was half of what you now get, you were happy, cheerful and contended ; but with double that, pay, I see you morose, care-worn and dejected. What is the matter with you? Have you got ' the seven jars ' ? '

The barber was taken aback by this question and replied, ' Your Majesty, who has informed you of this?" The king said, " Don't you know that these are the signs of the person to whom the Yaksha consigns the seven jars. He offered me also the same jars, but I asked him whether this money might be spent or was merely to be hoarded. No sooner had I asked this question than the Yaksha ran way without any reply. Don't you know that no one can spend that money ? It only brings with it the desire of hoarding. Go at once and return the money." The barber was brought to his senses by this advice, and he went to the haunted tree and said, " Take back your gold, O Yaksha." The Yaksha replied, "All right." When the barber returned home, he found that the seven jars had vanished as mysteriously as they were brought in, and with it also had vanished his life-long savings. Such is the state of some men. in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who do not understand the difference between what is real expenditure and what is real income, lose all they have.

Once in the month of June a kid was playing near its mother. With a merry frisk it told her that it intended to make a good feast of Ras-flowers (a species of flowers budding abundantly during the festival of Rasa lila in November). " Well, my darling," replied the dam, it is not such an easy thing as you seem to think. You will have to pass through many a danger before you can hope to feast on Ras-flowers. The ensuing months of September and October are not very auspicious to you ? For someone may take you to be sacrifice^ to the Goddess Durga. Then there is the terrible time of Kali-puja ; and if you are fortunate enough to survive that period also, there is still the Jagaddhatri-puja when almost all that remain of the male members of our species are sacrificed. If your good luck carries you safely through all these crises, then you can hope to make a feast of Ras-flowers in the beginning of November." Like the dam in the fable, we should not hastily approve of all the aspirations which our youthful fancies may entertain, considering the manifold crises which we may have to pass through in our lives.