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 famine days a poor woman died. The Judge of Death in his post-mortem investigation into her case, while assorting her good and bad deeds, could discover no act of charity except that she had once given a carrot to a starving beggar. By order of the Judge the carrot was reproduced. This carrot was to take her to Heaven. She caught hold of the carrot and it began to rise lifting her with it.
There appeared the old beggar on the scene. He clutched at the hem of her tattered garment, began to be elevated along with her, a third candidate for mercy began similarly to be uplifted being suspended from the foot of the beggar, nay, a long series of persons, one below the other, began to be drawn up by that single carrot elevator. And strange to say, the woman felt no weight of all these souls hanging from her!
These saved persons rose up higher and still higher till they reached the Gate of Heaven. Here the woman looked below, and don't know what moved her, she said to the train of souls behind her, "Off, you fellows! This is my carrot!"
And unconsciously waved her hand to keep them away. The carrot was lost and down fell the poor woman with the entire train.
MORAL: One selfless act of piety is enough to lift up to the Heaven not only the doer of the deed but many other souls connected with him. On the contrary a single selfish act brings all down.