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 ...
Story 213 - Two men and the pigeons
Two persons approached a saint and requested him to initiate them as his disciples. The saint said that he would first test their merit, before initiating them. After a few days, the saint gave each one of them one pigeon, and promised to initiate the man who comes first, after killing his pigeon. He also put a condition that nobody should ' see the pigeon being killed.
Both the young men left the place with their respective pigeons. One of them twisted the neck of his pigeon in a corner in the market itself, after turning his back towards the crowd of the passersby. He returned to the saint and asked him to initiate him as his disciple. The saint asked him to wait till the arrival of the other candidate. They waited for the other man's return for further two days, but he did not turn up. On the third day he returned and said, "Sir, I could not fulfill your condition. Please put some other condition." On being asked the reason, he said "When I went to the jungle to kill this pigeon in a lonely place, its beautiful and enchanting eyes were looking at me. Every time I tried to twist its neck, I noticed that its eyes were staring at me. I was then reminded of your condition and abstained from killing it. Some one sitting inside the pigeon was always looking at me. How could I have killed it? I am sorry, I could not do it." The saint was very much pleased at this man's version and remarked that it was God Himself who was looking at him through the eyes of the pigeon. God is everywhere* He is omnipresent. One who feels His presence everywhere and in everything is a real saint.