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 ...
In a village in India, a boy became quite a scholar. He had studied in the University, and while living in the university town he got some of the European ways. He purchased a clock in the university town, and during the three months' vacation he lived where his grandmamma was and he felt the need of this clock, and so he took it with him to his grandmother's house. Now the grandmamma was naturally averse to this intrusion in the house. The young man brought no English clothing with him, but he felt that this clock was indispensable for him in his study. He dared not bring any English chairs or tables for they were regarded as awful, but he brought the clock at all hazards. The whole family was against it and especially the grandmamma. She could not bear this intrusion, it was something terrible, "Oh" said she, "It is all the time giving forth tick, tick, such an odious sound; break it up, destroy it, throw it out, it is a bad omen, it will engender something awful, it will be the cause of some disaster." She would not be reconciled. The young man did his best to explain, but she would not be pleased. The boy kept the clock in his study despite his grand mamma‟s remonstrance.
It happened that thieves broke into the house and some jewellery and money were stolen, and the grandmamma got additional evidence in her favour, and exclaimed, "Did I not tell you. that this clock would bring disaster? Thieves came and have stolen our jewellery and money, but the clock is not stolen. They knew if they took the clock they would be ruined. O, why do you keep this dreadful thing in the house? The boy was very headstrong, and all her ravings were of no avail. The boy kept the clock in his study, and not long after, the father of the boy died, and then the grandmamma became fearful. She cried, "O audacious boy, throw away this terrible omen from the house. How can you dare keep it longer? The boy still kept the clock; and again after a short time the mother of the boy died, and then the grandmamma could not tolerate the clock in the house any longer. Like so many other people, she thought the clock to contain a worm, for they had never seen anything run by machinery. So she thought there must be a worm in the clock to make it move, she could not conceive of its ticking and running of itself. She thought the clock to be the cause of all the troubles in the family; so she caught hold of the clock and took it into her private parlour and put a stone under it, and by the aid of another stone she broke the clock into pieces, she wrecked vengeance on the clock.
Just so the people very often put this and that together and jump at wrong conclusions.
MORAL: Superstition leads to wrong conclusions.