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 ...
It is said of Imam Ghizali, a Mohammeden saint, that in his student life, one night, after his usual strenuous work, he fell asleep in the study. In a vision appeared to him Khawaja Khizar, the God of Learning, offering to convey all the knowledge of the world to him by the simple act of breathing into his ears and mouth. Imam Ghizali's sound sense of self-respect refused, and he asked instead the boon of being provided with oil for his midnight reading. He preferred the longer road to the short cut not caring to steal Into the back-door of heaven.
MORAL: Sound sense of self respect does not allow one to accept an object of gift, when the same can be achieved by one's own labour however hard it may be.