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 ...
Once two Indian Rajputs went to the court of Akbar, the great Moghal Emperor of India, and sought employment.
Akbar inquired about their qualifications. They said they were heroes. Akbar asked them a proof of their heroism. Both drew out their daggers from the scabbards. There the two lightning flashes shone in Akbar's court. The flash of the dagger was symbolic of their inner heroism. Immediately the two lightning flashes joined the two bodies. Each kept the point of his dagger on the other's breast, and both gave proofs of their heroism by running through the daggers with stoic calmness. Their bodies met on earth and fell bleeding to the ground, but their souls united in Heaven. A very queer proof of their heroism was given to the emperor. This is an illustration of the fact that true work is accomplished only when the self-asserting worker is sacrificed.
MORAL: Sacrifice your little self, forget it in the performance of your work, and success must be yours. It cannot he otherwise. The desire for success must die in your work before achieving success. This is the secret of success. When shall I be free? When I shall cease to be!