Sunday, July 28, 2013

(July 28,2013) (Story) Prince or Fisherman?

Prince or Fisherman?
Divine Life Society Publication: Vedantic Stories by Swami Sivananda

A prince, the royal heir to a great kingdom, son of a great emperor, set sailing in a ship. The ship is caught in a cyclone and dashed upon a rock. In the shipwreck all perish except for the prince who clings on to a floating piece of wood. He is washed ashore to an unknown land where no one knows him, and the land is strange and he is penniless, and starvation has made him ill. Some fishermen take pity on him and nurse him back to health.  After some time he gains strength and becomes part and parcel of the fishermen's colony. He has almost completely forgotten everything about his former state; but for faint memories of his previous life in the palace. In this way he grows up as a fisherman, putting up with all the hardships of a fisherman's life.

Likewise, the Jiva is the ship-wrecked prince which has forgotten its home. Searchers are going country after country but who can recognize the prince among millions of people? Such is the condition of Jiva.

From a state of plenitude it has come to the position of beggary, ill-fed, sometimes starving.  And just like searchers have been sent by the king for the Prince, searchers who are the saints, the children of God, and the spiritual books, are there to help rescue the lost Jiva.

Ultimately, after years of searching, someone who is closer to the emperor manages to recognize the prince. By way of certain birth-marks on the prince, he could identify the prince without any fear of error, and he informs him that he is a prince, heir to a royal heritage.

Even though the prince is finally convinced, he declines to leave the fishermen. Deep attachment has grown between him and the fishermen and he cannot entertain the idea of leaving his foster-mother and foster-father. But the searcher tries to convince him.

This is the process that takes place when the Guru tells the Jiva that his real nature is bliss. In spite of the unlimited wealth, the Jiva is attached to this miserable existence.

So, Guru has to wean the aspirant from the state of forgetfulness. An inner struggle ensues when the prince finally gets convinced by the knowledge given by the searcher. To get back his lost heritage, he has to make efforts to break the attachment, and this going back is called Sadhana.

Divine Life Society Publication:
Vedantic Stories by Swami Sivananda


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