DANGERS OF MISUNDERSTOOD PHILOSOPHY

A Rajah was once taught by his Guru the sacred doctrine of Advaita, which declares that the whole universe is Brahman. The king was very much pleased with this doctrine. Going in, he said to his queen, ' There is no distinction between the queen and the queen's maid-servant. So the maid-servant shall be my queen henceforth.' The queen was thunderstruck at this mad proposal of her lord. She sent for the Guru and complained to him in a piteous tone, Sir, look at the pernicious result of your teachings," and told him what had occurred. The Guru consoled the queen and said, " When you serve dinner to the king today. have a potful of cow-dung also served along with the dish of rice." At dinner-time the Guru and the king sat down together to eat. Who could imagine the rage of the king when he saw a dish of cow-dung served for his meal! The Guru, seeing this, calmly interrogated, Your Highness, you are well-versed in the knowledge of Advaita. Why do you then see any distinction between the dung and the rice ? The king became exasperated and exclaimed, " You who pride yourself to be such a great Advaitin, eat this dung if you can. ' The Guru said, " Very well," and at once changed himself into a swine and devoured the cow-dung with great gusto and afterwards again assumed his human shape. The king became so ashamed that he never made again his mad proposal to the queen.

A Brahmin was laying out a garden. He looked after it day and night. One day a cow- strayed into the garden and browsed on a mango sapling of which the Brahmin used to take special care. When he saw the cow destroying his favourite plant, the Brahmin became wild with rage, and gave such a severe beating to the animal that it died of the injuries received. The news soon spread like wild-fire that the Brahmin had killed the sacred animal. When any one attributed the sin of that act to him, the Brahmin, who professed himself to be a Vedantin, denied the charge, saying, " No, I have not killed the cow; it is my hand that has done it; and as God Indra is the presiding deity of the hand, it is he who has incurred the sin of killing the cow, not 1." Indra in his heaven heard of this. He assumed the shape of an old Brahmin, and coming to the owner of the garden, said, " Sir, whose Garden is this ?

Brahmin: Mine.

Indra : It is a beautiful garden. You have got a skilful gardener; for see how neatly and artistically he has planted the trees.

Brahmin: Well, sir, that is also my work. The trees were planted under my personal supervision and direction.

Indra: Very nicely done, indeed ! Who has laid out this path ? It is very well-planned and neatly executed.

Brahmin : All that has been done by me.

Then Indra said with folded hands, " When all these things are yours, and when you take credit for all the work done in this garden, it is not proper that poor Indra should be made responsible for killing the cow.

A serpent dwelt in a certain locality. No one dared to pass by that way ; for whoever did so was instantaneously bitten to death by that serpent. Once a holy man passed by. As usual the serpent pursued the sage with a view to bite him, but when it approached the holy man, it lost all its ferocity and was over-powered by his gentleness. Seeing the snake, the holy man said, Well, friend, do you want to bite me? ' The snake was abashed and made no reply. At this the sage said again, " Hearken, friend, do not injure any one in future." The snake bowed and nodded assent. After the sage had gone his own way, the snake entered its hole, and thenceforth began to live a life of innocence and purity without even wishing to harm anyone. In a few days it became a common belief in the neighbourhood that the snake had lost all its venom and was no more dangerous, and so people began to tease it. Some pelted stones at it, and others dragged it mercilessly by the tail. Thus there was no end to its troubles. Fortunately, sometime after, the sage again passed that way, and seeing the bruised and battered condition of the poor snake, was very much moved to pity and inquired the cause of its distress. At this the snake replied, " Sir, I have been reduced to this state, because I have not been injuring anyone since I received your instruction. But alas ! they are so merciless ! " The sage smilingly said, Dear friend, I simply advised you not to bite anyone, but I never asked you not to hiss and frighten others. Although you should not bite any creature, still you should keep every one at a considerable distance from you by hissing.' Similarly, if you live in the world, make yourself feared and respected. Do not injure anyone, but do not at the same time let others injure you.

A teacher once instructed his disciple, " Everything that exists is God. " The disciple understood this instruction literally and not in its true spirit. One day, while he was passing through a street, he came across an elephant. The driver (Mahut) shouted aloud from the back of the animal Move away, move away ! The disciple however, argued within himself, " Why should I move away ? I am God and so also is the elephant. What fear has God from Himself.' Reflecting thus, he did not move. So the elephant caught hold of him by his trunk and dashed him aside. He was hurt severely, and going back to his teacher, related the whole story. The teacher then said, " All right. You are God, and the elephant too is God ; but God in the shape of the elephant-driver was warning you from above. Why did you not pay heed to:his warning ? "