Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa narrated many parables to convey the essence of his teaching to his disciples. This is one of my favourites. Once a pundit (someone who is well-versed in the scriptures like the Vedas and Upanishads etc) got onto a boat to cross the river to the temple on the other side. He was full of himself, proud of his knowledge about the metaphysical and the religious aspects of life. Since it was a fairly long journey, he started chatting with the simple boatman. The pundit asked the boatman, ‘Say, have you ever read the Vedas, my man?’ To which the boatman said, ‘No sir, I have not’. ‘Ah, what a waste of life’, said the pundit, ‘have you read the Upanishads at least?’ ‘No sir, I have not read them, I started working very early so never could go to school.’ ‘What a waste my man, what a waste of life’, said the pundit feeling sorry for the boatman. He went on to ask more questions along the same vein, whether the boatman had read or even heard of the Puranas, ithihasas (epic stories), to which the boatman replied in the negative. ‘What a waste my man, you have wasted the precious gift of life on insignificant things,’ said the pundit. Just then the river began to swell and start getting choppy. It was becoming very hard to steer the boat which was in danger of capsizing in the flood. ‘Sir, looks like the river is going to be difficult to cross by boat today, do you know how to swim?’ Asked the boatman. The pundit, alarmed, exclaimed, ‘No I don’t, I spent all my life studying scriptures!’ The boatman said, ‘What a waste sir, you have wasted your life’, and jumped off the boat and swam across. Ramakrishna would draw a parallel from the story and say that a man doesn’t gain much by memorising scriptures when the only thing essential was to know to cross the ocean of samsara and realise that only God is real and everything else is false.
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AuthorWorking with the available light as Ramana Maharishi said. Archives
November 2020
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