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 ...
There was a man carrying a heavy weight upon his shoulders; he was old, weak, and feverish, and lived in a hot country, India. He sat down under the shade of a tree and threw off his burden from his shoulders and rested a while, and cried, "Oh Death! Death!! Death!!! come, Oh Death! Relieve me, relive me." The story says that there appeared the God of Death unto him on the spot, when he looked at Him, he was astonished, he was surprised. He trembled, what is that hideous figure, that monstrous something? He asked the God of Death, "Who are you"? The God of Death said, "I am he whom you called; you have called me just now and I have come to satisfy your wish." Then the old man began to v tremble and said, "I did not call you to put me to death, I called you simply to help, me to lift this burden and put it on my shoulders."
That is what the people do. All your,, difficulties, all your troubles and sorrows, what are called sorrows, are brought about by your own self; you are the master of your own destiny, but when the thing comes, you begin to cry and weep; you invite Death, and when Death comes, you begin to cry. But that cannot be. When once you bid the highest price in an auction, you will have to take the thing. When you make the horse run, the carriage follows the horse. So when once you desire, you will have to take the consequences.
MORAL: Troubles and sorrows are the inevitable consequences of your desires.