(Dec 4,2013 ) Spiritual (Story) Message
for the Day –The Parable Of The Seeker And The Stinker by Swami Chidananda
The Parable Of The Seeker and The Stinker
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, had several Ashrams and had to pay attention to a flock scattered in
different places. Every year he used to come to the little village where this
disciple was. This disciple was a really good man, very devoted to his Guru.
Every time the Guru came, he went and paid homage, served him, lived by him
constantly, sat at his feet, listened to his discourses as long as the Guru was
there. Upon one of his visits after a period of two years, the Guru casually
asked him, “How is everything? How is your Sadhana, how are you getting on? How
is everyone in the village?”. The disciple answered that everything was
alright, except one little trouble. In another part of the village there lived
a certain man—and there could not be a nastier man—very troublesome, very
violent, always giving trouble to others. He went on detailing his catalogue of
what that man had done during the previous two years—always troubling, always
bullying others, getting into problems, sometimes even robbing. 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; so there was this distance between you
two; so I had a little satisfaction that you were safe, your spiritual life had
not been affected. 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.
You must be Truth-centered;
you must be Reality-conscious. If the mind takes you away from the center and
makes you conscious of things other than the Divine, then you are creating
Karma for yourself. You are weaving the web of bondage stronger and
stronger—enmeshing yourself by your own action, by your own ignorance, by your
own wrong thinking, into the world process.
Excerpts from:
The Parable of The Seeker and The Stinker: The Eye Of The
Hurricane by Swami Chidananda
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