04/12/2022
The Parable Of The Seeker and The Stinker
From Divine Life Society Publication:
The Eye Of The Hurricane
by Swami Chidananda
There was once a very devout seeker after God who had made a holy man his Guru. This Guru was a wandering monk. Every year he used to come to the little village where this disciple was. Upon one of his visits after a period of two years, the Guru casually asked him, “How is everything? How is your Sadhana?”. The disciple answered that everything was alright, except one little trouble. In another part of the village there lived a certain man—very troublesome. The master cautioned him, advised him forbearance, saying, “He’ll change, don’t worry, pray for him”. And the master took his leave.
After a couple of years again the master visited and casually inquired after the welfare of the disciple. The latter started recounting once again all the terrible developments that had taken place due to that one “stinker”, that notorious character. The master listened, patiently, for some time. When the disciple had finished, he said, “Look sir, I am very sorry. Last time when I came, I was not very anxious about you, because you live in this part of the village and this very notorious, bad character was living in that other part; But now, my dear disciple, the situation is very serious”. The disciple said, “No sir, he is still living in the same place”. The master said, “No, no. Now he is living inside you. He was living outside you, far off; now you have brought him right inside here”. This disciple filled his consciousness not with the advice of the master or the remembrance of the Lord or the Mantra, or meditation or prayer, but with that other man and his history.
This is one story for you to reflect upon—how the progress of the soul onward towards its grand destiny of self-unfoldment can be thwarted by this unnatural condition of the interior consciousness, by its failing to abide in its center.
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