Spiritual Stories by Ramana

[Guest guest]

UNKNOWN TENTH MAN

 

D. Not having realised the Truth that the Self alone exists, should

I not adopt bhakti and yoga margas as being more suitable for

purposes of sadhana than vichara marga? Is not the Realization of

one's Absolute Being that is, Brahma jnana, something quite

unattainable to a layman like me?

 

M. Brahma jnana is not a knowledge to be acquired, so that acquiring

it one may obtain happiness. It is one's ignorant outlook that one

should give up. The Self you seek to know is verily yourself. Your

supposed ignorance causes you needless grief like that of the ten

foolish men who grieved the `loss' of the tenth man who was never

lost.

 

THE TEN FOOLISH men in the parable forded a stream and on reaching

the other shore wanted to make sure that all of them had in fact

safely crossed the stream. One of the ten began to count, but while

counting others left himself out. " I see only nine; sure enough we

have lost one. Who can it be? " he said. " Did you count correctly? "

asked another, and did the counting himself. But he too counted only

nine. One after the other each of the ten counted only nine, missing

himself. " We are only nine " they all agreed, " but who is the missing

one? " , they asked themselves. Every effort they made to discover

the `missing' individual failed. " Whoever he be that is drowned "

said the sentimental of ten fools, " we have lost him " . So saying he

burst into tears, and the rest of the nine followed suit. Seeing them

weeping on the river bank, a sympathetic wayfarer enquired for the

cause. They related what had happened and said that even after

counting themselves several times they could find no more than nine.

On hearing the story, but seeing all the ten before him, the

wayfarer guessed what had happened. In order to make them know for

themselves that they were really ten, that all of them had come safe

from the crossing, he told them, " Let each of you count for himself

but one after the other serially, one, two, three and so on, while I

shall give you each a blow so that all of you may be sure of having

been included in the count, and included only once. The

tenth `missing' man will then be found. " Hearing this they rejoiced

at the prospect of finding their `lost' comrade and accepted the

method suggested by the wayfarer.

 

While the kind wayfarer gave a blow to each of the ten in turn, he

that got the blow counted himself aloud. " Ten " said the last man as

he got the last blow in his turn. Bewildered they looked at one

another, " We are ten " they said with one voice and thanked the

wayfarer for having removed their grief. That is the parable. From

where was the tenth man brought in? Was he ever lost? By knowing

that he had been there all the while, did they learn anything new?

The cause of their grief was not the real loss of any one of the

ten, it was their own ignorance, rather their mere supposition that

one of them was lost – though they could not find who he was –

because they counted only nine.