Hari
OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and
parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
Last
week we explored the issue of 'pearls' and how they ought to be kept. Majority of us, though, are not in a position to drop pearls of wisdom to anyone. Rather, we are in the position of learning and seeking out the pearls others have to offer... or we are guilty of not paying attention and missing opportunities to raise ourselves. There is
a little story Gurudev once told, and many of the swamis now repeat it as an
example.
"There
was a sadhu, once, who travelled from village to village offering satsangs on
various different subjects. He arrived at a new place and he said that he could
teach anything to any creature. The villagers where he was staying were dubious
about this. They didn't sit in satsang with him for a few evenings. Then a few
of them came and sat and asked him, 'sir-ji, you say you can teach anything to
any creature, but we think that you cannot… prove it to us!' and they brought
in a donkey.
The
sadhu nodded. 'Leave it with me for five days.'
The
villagers left and returned after five days. The sadhu brought the donkey
before them. They in turn laid a book before the donkey. It brayed and turned
to the hay. 'HAH! See, you haven't taught it anything!'
'Not
at all,' replied the sadhu, 'I taught it everything I knew all the hours of
these five days. Whether or not it learned is
up to the donkey.'"