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 212 - The saint and the lion
The following is the story of a place near Rishikesh, near the river Ganges in India. On one side of the Ganges lived a number of saints, and on the other, was another saint who was all the time absorbed in the only thought “I am God” and uttering it, too. Day and night, this sound was heard "I am God. I am God. I am Shiva". One day, a lion came towards the saint. The saints, of the other side of the Ganges, were witnessing this. Even by seeing the lion, the saint was not terrified. He continued to repeat, "I am God. I am Shiva," as if this was ingrained in his mind that he was the lion or the lion was he and that he himself was roaring in the form of a lion. "I am Shiva, I am God." The lion caught hold of him. But the saint was, as if enjoying the taste of. human flesh in the form of the lion, still calmly repeating, "I am God, I am Shiva," as though nothing had happened. During Dewali (an Indian festival) sugar-toys are made. There is a deer made of sugar and there is also a lion made of sugar. Will the deer considering himself to be a deer on account of his name and form, fear that the lion made of the sugar will eat him? If he considers himself to be sugar, then he will just say that, by virtue of his being made of sugar, he is deer here and a lion there. Similarly, when you know yourself to be the universal God, like sugar in the toys, you can say in His capacity that you are a saint here and a lion there.
If you examine the realities of handkerchief or the coat, they are all, in fact, cotton yarn or only cotton. Likewise, when the armlet is melted, it can be reshaped into a bracelet or any other ornament. But in the eyes of Truth, it is all gold (God).
O dear Ones! This saint had the same sight of truth. When the Hon was eating him, he was enjoying, as if, he himself, was the Hon that day, tasting the human blood. When the lion was eating his legs, he was still saying, "I am God, I am Shiva". To him the roars of the lion seemed to be saying, "I am God. I am Shiva". The curtain was already thin and now it had been removed for good.