Parables of Rama
by Swami Rama Tirtha | 102,836 words
Stories in English used by Swami Rama to illustrate the highest teaching of Vedanta. The most difficult and intricate problems of philosophy and abstract truths, which may very well tax the brains of the most intellectual, are thus made not only simple and easy to understand but also brought home to us in a concrete form in such an interesting and ...
Rama lived at one time in a cave in the Himalayas, which was noted for being haunted by ghosts. The people who lived in the neighbouring villages spoke of several monks having died by remaining inside that cave for a night. Some of the visitors were said to have been frightened to swooning. When Rama expressed a desire to live in that cave, everybody was amazed. Rama lived in that cave, for several months, and not a single ghost or shade appeared. It seems that they all fled. There were snakes and scorpions inside the cave and tigers outside it. They did not leave the neighbourhood but never did any harm to Rama's body.
It is proved by Vedanta that free souls or the jiwan-muktas never live after death as ghosts; it is only the slaves of their own phantoms that have to assume the garb of ghosts or spirits. It is only the bound souls that are enchained in those shadowy shapes.
MORAL:—Ghosts are bound souls, hence they cannot withstand the presence of a free soul (jiwan-mukta) and can therefore cause him no harm.