Preface

While going through the Complete Works of Swami Rama, “In Woods of God Realization” one is struck with the vast number of simple stories, so profusely 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 attractive style that even a dullard or a child finds delight and pleasure in reading them and can easily apply their truths in daily life and practice.

And yet there are some who cannot at once go in for the full set of Complete Works owing to financial difficulty, or are rather not well inclined to go through a work bearing any such label as Vedanta, thinking it to be either too abstruse for their comprehension or to be prejudicial to their own particular forms of faith or ways of belief. For such specially, and generally for those who take interest mostly in light reading only, as of stories and fables, and are averse to study any subject requiring serious attention, it is a great pleasure to us that we have been able to bring out in this cheap and handy volume a complete and classified collection of all the illustrations and stones spread throughout the Complete Works of Swami Rama; for abstract Truths, otherwise most difficult to comprehend and to remember are easily understood, kept in mind, and applied in life, if available in the form of interesting stories.

To make these Parables still more useful and easier to remember, they have been numbered and divided subject-wise, each with an appropriate heading giving the subject dealt with and a subheading giving the actual story related. A brief and fitting moral is also drawn for daily practice and added in bold type at the end of each story.

Each story is given a number above the heading to denote its general serial position, a number on the left of heading denoting its number in the subject dealt with, a number on the right of the main subject giving the total number of stories under that subject, while all the subjects are also alphabetically arranged and numbered serially in Roman figures. A reference, as to the Volume of Swami Rama's Works of Fifth Edition and its pages from which the story is taken, is also given at the end of the moral of each story. The morals of all the stories in the book have also been collected together and given at the end as 'Bouquet, of Morals'. There are altogether 171 stories with morals, given in 27 chapters. The table of Contents is also arranged chapter wise, with headings and subheadings, to serve as an Index for all the subjects used in the book. Thus the classification and arrangement is made as complete as possible.

To give the general public a taste of spiritual food in the most delicious and wholesome form, easy of digestion and giving full spiritual vigour and strength at a nominal cost the present, edition under the name of 'Parables of Rama' has been brought out as one more addition to the series of similar volumes of 'Heart of Rama‟ and 'Poems of Rama' already published.

We are confident that this volume will appeal equally to the highest cultured as well as the man in the street, and will not only serve its purpose to give a foretaste for the study of Rama's Complete Works but will also create an ardent desire for an unprejudiced and unbiased search after Truth, and a real and earnest longing to live the Higher Life of Self-realization and Eternal Happiness.

May 23, 1956
Rameshwar Sahai Sinha
Secretary, Rama Tirtha Pratisthan,
Sarnath, Banaras