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 poor tramp begs b.ead from the lady of a ranch. She, poor soul, envies the freedom of the homeless wanderer. When the tramp is gone, she feigns before her husband to have received a letter announcing the death of her mother. Thinking that the mother may have left some property for them, the husband allows her that evening to leave home for the departed mother's. The lady purchases a ticket and gets off at the nearest station. Away she flies into the woods like a bird let loose from the cage after along wearisome imprisonment, relieving long wearisome burden by laughing a hearty laughter in the woods. Freely she roamed, bought her meals from the country peasants, and slept under a haystack when the sunset over her head. Next morning she resumes her happy wandering, and lo! To her utter horror, what voice does she hear? It is her own husband's wandering with the tramp of yesterday. He had been suffering from the distressing burden of ennui just as much as she, and wanted a life of liberty and vacation for some time, but neither would disclose the anguish of the heart to the other for fear of seeming faithlessness. Of this nature are all our pains to please others. To your own Self be true, and just as night follows the day, to none could you be false.
MORAL: All our pains are mostly due to pleasing others without being true to our own Self. In being true to one's own Self alone can one be truly happy and a light to the world.