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 in India a great wrestler and athlete. He wanted a barber to tattoo him, to engrave on his arm the picture of a lion. He told the barber to paint great, magnificent lion on both his arms. He said he was born when the sign of Zodiac, the Lion or Leo, was in Sinha Rashi. So he was born under the right influence of the sign Zodiac—Lion, Leo, and he was supposed to be a very brave man. The barber took up the needle to paint or tattoo him, and just when he was pricking a little, the athlete could not bear it. He began to pant for breath, and addressed the barber, "Wait, wait, what you are going to do?" The barber said that he was going to draw the tail of the lion. This fellow, in reality, could not stand the pricking sensation, but made a very queer pretence, and said, "Don't you know that fashionable people cut off the tails of their dogs and horses, and so that lion which has no tail is considered a very strong lion. Why are you drawing the tail of the lion? The tail is not needed," "All right", said the barber, “I
won't draw the tail. I will draw the other parts of the lion”. The barber took up the needle again, and just pricked it through his skin. This too the fellow could not bear. He remonstrated and said, "What are you going to do next?” The barber said, "I am going to draw the ears of the lion”. The man said again, "O barber, you are very foolish. Don't you know the people cut off the ears of their dogs? They don't keep dogs with long ears. Don't you know that the lion which is without ears is the best?" The barber desisted. After a while the barber took up his needle and was again pricking him. The man could not bear it and remonstrated, saying, "What are you going to do now, O barber?" The barber said, “I am going to paint now the waist of the lion." There the man said, "Haven't you read our poetry, haven‟t you read the accounts given by Indian poets? Lions are always painted as having a very small, thin, nominal waist?
.You need not draw the waist of the lion." The barber now threw aside his colours and his painting needle and asked the fellow to go away from his presence.
Here is a man who asserts that he is born under the influence of the sign of the Zodiac called the Sinha Rashi or Leo. Here is a man who pretends to be a great wrestler, a great athlete; here is a man who calls himself a lion. He wants to have lions tattooed all over his body, but he cannot bear the sting of a needle.
Such are the majority of people who want to see God, who want to realise Vedanta, who want to know the whole truth this moment, this second, who want to accomplish everything, to become Christ in half a minute. When the time comes, to get that lion (Truth) painted in their souls, to get that lion of Righteousness painted or tattooed in their being, they cannot bear the sting, the stinging sensation, there they hesitate. The price I will not pay, but the thing I want.
MORAL: Sufferings are necessary for the achievement of the Goal, as there is no gain without pain.