Guest guest Posted August 15, 2008 Report Share Posted August 15, 2008 There was an old sage who was walking through themountains with his young disciple. The disciple wasalways talking about the family he had left behind tobecome a recluse. The sage would often tell him that it was not properfor a recluse to remember his family ties. Either heshould go back to them and give up asceticism or heshould forget them altogether. But the disciple coulddo neither. He yearned for spirituality so he didn?twant to go back. At the same time his thoughtscontinued to go back to the delicious food his mothercooked and to the childish pranks he once played withhis little sister. Despite the efforts and lecturesmade by the sage, the boy was somewhat hanging midway. They continued to walk. Dusk fell and the duo satdown to rest. The sage fell asleep, so the boy too laydown to take a nap. After a while the boy was rudely awakened by thevoice of his guru shouting, ?Help me, this tree is notleaving me. It won?t let go. Help! Help! ? The boy wasstartled to see the sage hugging the trunk of an oldtree stump. The sage shouted again, ?Help me! The treeis not leaving me.? The boy tried to pry away the fingers of the sage fromthe dried up tree trunk, but the grip of the sage wasfar too strong. After having tried desperately, theboy said, ?Sir, why don?t you let go of the treetrunk. You are holding on to it so tightly. It is notdoing anything to hold you. You are refusing to letgo.? Immediately the sage left the tree and said to theboy, Likewise, you too are holding on fast to theworld, to the memories of your family. No amount ofeffort from my side can help you to detach yourself.? Detachment from unnecessary ties, just ties you downunnecessarily. All of us don?t have to renounce theworld. We just have to do our duty; yet remainunattached. The world does not cling to us; it is wewho cling on. We refuse to let go. The world shall bethe same even if we are not there. It always has been. Let us not dwell upon how important we are to theworld, but upon how unimportant the world is to us. Wehave to understand that attachment is like a handcuffwe have clamped upon ourselves. But where is the key?It is with us. We need to use the key to unlock thehandcuff and set ourselves free. Best Regards,K.s.Vishwanathan.Tel No: 022-28738192 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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