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 woman in India who had nine sons. One day a mendicant passed her house and she gave him some alms. The mendicant was so highly pleased that he invoked a blessing upon her. He said, "O blessed Lord! Make this gracious lady the mother of seven children." When the well-meaning mendicant asked God to make her the mother of seven children, she was offended, for she had already nine children, and that meant a loss to her. She begged the mendicant to bless her again, and the mendicant again asked God to make her the mother of seven children. The lady became enraged and the people were attracted to the scene and inquired as to the cause of excitement. They were of course amused to know that the blessing was not a blessing but a curse.
Similarly, there is indescribable joy within you, and let that be enjoyed by you. That will make you free of all worldly things in this world.
Let the body, the personality, like the lily on
Himalayan glaciers, bloom unknown, unnoticed by anybody. Let this body be crucified, let it be put into prison, let it be swallowed by the waves of the ocean, let it be scorched by the heat of Torrid Zone, let anything come to it, that joy cannot be abated. Feel that happiness, that joy supreme within, and rise above all worldly vanity, worldly tomfooleries, and all gloom.
But the Lord of lords, the God of gods. That ye are! That ye are!!
MORAL: A blessing of the worldly pleasures is a curse as compared with the indescribable joy within.