Gautama Buddha is one of the greatest spiritual leaders the world has seen. His life and teachings are of profound influence and inspiration for millions of people all over the world even today .The relevance of his teaching are increasing day by day in this violent and chaotic world .Given below is one of the many stories he has told during his life time .It is said that he used to narrate stories from his previous many births .
Once a merchant was travelling through a forest .While walking he came face to face with a tiger , terrified he ran for his life with the tiger giving him a hot chase .Running blindly he reached the top of a mountain .The tiger was closing in , there was no place to run , the other side of the mountain was a deep gorge .He had no idea what to do now ,he looked a round and saw a tree at the edge of the mountain .Looking closely he found the there was a big vine of the tree hanging down the gorge.H e caught hold of the vine and started climbing down the gorge .The tiger reached the top of the mountain and was looking at its prey and waiting .The merchant was relieved as he escaped from the tiger and continued his climb down. Then he looked down and saw that horrific sight , a bunch of poisonous was waiting for him to climb down , terrified he just hung on the vine.On the top the tiger waiting and down there are snakes he had no idea what to do .Suddenly heard a sound from the top, he looked up and saw two mice ,one black and another white ,eating away the vine .The vine will break at anytime and he fell in the midst of the snakes .Terrified he cried out loudly opening his mouth wide,at this time from the beehive that was on the top of the tree a drop of honey fell into his mouth .He forgot everything about his terrible situation in life and tasted the honey and exclaimed : what a sweet honey "
This story describes the situation of a man of no knowledge (ajnani) .This describes the life and life experiences of this man.The mountain and the gorge described represents the world we live in ,the tiger and the snakes are the two ends of life ,birth and death.The vine represent the life span of the man .It is been eaten away by two mice ,white represents day and black represents night,which symbolishes the passing of time .The life of the man can end at anytime but even in this critical stage of his life ,he forgets his actual status and find happiness in food and other unimportant ,temporary things and says life is so sweet.
This story describes the state of life for most of us today .. will discuss in detail about this in the next post
Once a merchant was travelling through a forest .While walking he came face to face with a tiger , terrified he ran for his life with the tiger giving him a hot chase .Running blindly he reached the top of a mountain .The tiger was closing in , there was no place to run , the other side of the mountain was a deep gorge .He had no idea what to do now ,he looked a round and saw a tree at the edge of the mountain .Looking closely he found the there was a big vine of the tree hanging down the gorge.H e caught hold of the vine and started climbing down the gorge .The tiger reached the top of the mountain and was looking at its prey and waiting .The merchant was relieved as he escaped from the tiger and continued his climb down. Then he looked down and saw that horrific sight , a bunch of poisonous was waiting for him to climb down , terrified he just hung on the vine.On the top the tiger waiting and down there are snakes he had no idea what to do .Suddenly heard a sound from the top, he looked up and saw two mice ,one black and another white ,eating away the vine .The vine will break at anytime and he fell in the midst of the snakes .Terrified he cried out loudly opening his mouth wide,at this time from the beehive that was on the top of the tree a drop of honey fell into his mouth .He forgot everything about his terrible situation in life and tasted the honey and exclaimed : what a sweet honey "
This story describes the situation of a man of no knowledge (ajnani) .This describes the life and life experiences of this man.The mountain and the gorge described represents the world we live in ,the tiger and the snakes are the two ends of life ,birth and death.The vine represent the life span of the man .It is been eaten away by two mice ,white represents day and black represents night,which symbolishes the passing of time .The life of the man can end at anytime but even in this critical stage of his life ,he forgets his actual status and find happiness in food and other unimportant ,temporary things and says life is so sweet.
This story describes the state of life for most of us today .. will discuss in detail about this in the next post
No comments:
Post a Comment