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 ...
A very wealthy merchant in India was at one time going to give a grand feast to the people living in his city. To the grand feast is often invited a bevy of dancing girls. This custom is now being given up in India, but at one time it was prevalent in full force.
One of the girls began to dance and sing. She sang a song which was awfully lewd awfully bad, a song which nobody would have enjoyed, and still on that particular occasion, the song sank deep into the hearts of the whole audience. What was the reason? You know, learned men and young gentlemen in India never like such bad songs, vulgar songs;. but on that occasion the song so much insinuated itself into the hearts and souls of the audience that they were enraptured by it. Months and months after that occasion, most of the learned scholars, who had heard that song once were seen walking through the streets humming it by themselves, and gentlemen were whistling it to themselves. And all of them, who had once heard it, were loving the song and liking it, were cherishing it, and nourishing it in their hearts.
Here the question is, in what lay the charm? Ask any one of those people who heard the song, in what lies the charm, and what is it that makes the song so dear to you? All these will say, the song is so beautiful, oh, the song is so sweet, oh, the song is so ennobling, so elevating, and the song is very good. But it is not so. The same song was abominable to them before they heard it sung by this dancing girl, but now they like it. This is a mistake. The real charm lay in the tone, the face, the looks, the appearance and the manner of singing employed by the girl. The real charm lay in the girl, and that real charm was transferred to the song.
That is what happens in the world. There comes a teacher who has a very sweet face, who has got very sweet eyes, who has a beautiful nose. His voice is very clear, and he can throw himself this way and that way. Oh, whatever he says is beautiful, is most attractive, oh, it is so good. It is so charming. That is the mistake made by the world. Nobody examines the truth by itself. Nobody thinks anything of the song. It is the acting or the way of putting things, or it is the manner of speaking, the delivery, it is the charm in the outward things which makes the teaching so attractive, so dear, so lovely to the audience.
MORAL: Although the charm really lies within, yet people deceive themselves believing it to the outside.