There was a farmer who had three sons. The father died of an illness and after completing his funeral rites, the sons set out to check his will and testament.
His will read like this —
‘One half of my property should go to my first son; one third should go to my second son and one ninth should go to my third son.’
After reading this, the three sons gave up in total confusion. Because, the farmer had left behind 17 elephants and nothing more. How could seventeen elephants be divided into half, or one third or one ninth?
As they were grappling with the problem, a sage came by and offered to help them. He read the will carefully and smiled. He made the elephants stand in a row and asked them to bring one elephant from his ashram and make it stand alongside the other elephants. The total number would then be 18. “Let the eldest son take one half of the total number of elephants — that is, nine,” he said. The eldest son got nine elephants.
Next he called the second son and gave him six elephants, being one third of his share, and to the third son, two elephants being one ninth of his share, as mentioned in the will.
Then he told them, “As per your father’s will, I have divided the elephants among you. Now all three of you together have seventeen elephants. One elephant remains, which is mine that was just added for calculation purposes. So now I will take back my elephant!”
Yet another story from Vedic culture explains the philosophy of maya or illusion. It is very important to understand the way illusion engulfs us. A master was teaching his disciple under a lamp. The flame disappeared due to heavy winds. Now the disciple asked the master, “Guruji! Where has the flame gone?”
“It has gone back to wherever it came from,” said the master.
So instead of focusing on endless debate as to whether god exists or not, we must realise the divine potential within us. Let us focus on strengthening this potential. There is no stronger divine power than this!
The inner ecology is disturbed if your soul is disturbed. The internal ecology disturbs the external ecology. God is constantly speaking. Do we have time to listen?
Heart has its own logic that the head cannot understand. Be in harmony with life and nature will bless you thousand folds. An unwise man fights his own shadow.
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