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 ...
Story 182 - The Sweepress and the fallen pearls of the queen
There was a sweepress who used to sweep and dust the palace of a certain king. Often, she got pieces of gold or pearls, while sweeping. She would pick up those fallen pearls. She had a son who had been out of the country, since his child-hood. After about fifteen years, he returned home. He found that his mother had accumulated precious stones in her hut. He enquired of his mother the source of those precious articles. The sweepress replied, "I am in the employ of the local king. This accumulation consists of the pearls fallen from his queen."
The son pondered, "If the pearls of the queen are so beautiful, how much more beautiful the queen herself would be". He was lost in love for the queen and requested his mother to show him the queen.
These stars, the moon, the sun, the shining rivers and the worldly beauties are but the fallen pearls, the beauty of that Reality. If such is the attraction of the fallen pearls, the beauty of that Reality must simply be exquisite. It can better be realised than described.
It is He who distributed the beautiful flowering plants in this garden of the world, and decorated it with the sun, the moon and the stars.
When girls are married, their relations throw over the palanquin silver and gold coins in charity for the welfare of the bride sitting inside the palanquin.
O, Worldly Souls! You may pick up these coins. Others may pick up the pearls. Rama does not possess even a piece of cloth to keep them in, nor does he need them. He is in love with the Bride and only wants to become one with Her, that Beloved, God.