Guest guest Posted January 13, 2002 Report Share Posted January 13, 2002 Namaste, Once upon a time there lived a Crow, the most intelligent in his community. One day, he met a friend who flattered his extra-ordinarily bright color of the bodyand feathers and likened it to a Nightingale. The Crow thought that his voice was not appreciated by his friends, and he would better off with a group of nightingale. He asked the nightingales to let him try his voice; they promptly flew away saying they never wanted him to be in their company. Another day, he heard another friend flatter him about his graceful walk. He thought he would join the swans, as they were so famous for their gait. The swans refused to accept him unless he changed his color. When he asked how he could achieve it, they said he could wash himself with soap in the Ganges. He tried that for month after month; failing to succeed, he gave up the idea. On another occasion, another friend remarked on his stately walk, like a peacock's strut. So he thought he would compete with the peacocks. When they found out he could not spread his plumage, they refused him. He then thought that he could perhaps equal the eagle in its flight. The eagles befriended him, but told him to leave when they saw him indiscriminately eating from carcasses and excreta. Finally, he thought he must be a jnani, for he was 'equal-sighted' towards food and whatever else! So he went to an ashram of a jnani. When he told him his qualifications, the ashram residents were furious and almost struck him. The jnani, however, was very compassionate. He told the Crow, you are indeed a jnani, an enlightend one, but you give yourself away every time you open your mouth. If you keep silent people will treat you like a jnani. The crow listened to the advice. After a few months, the visitors to the ashram were astound by the 'silent' Crow. His fame grew far and wide. Nobody asked him to leave, and on its death he was given an honorable burial, as the 'Enlightened Crow.' The moral of the story is: [i am still trying to figure out!!!!!!] [source: Unkown Regards, Sunder advaitin, "R. Viswanathan" <drvis@h...> wrote: > Hi! > There is no end to the intellectual gymnastics of the mind and its collected > so-called knowledge from books, no matter how lofty the books are (the books > are not at fault, by the way). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 13, 2002 Report Share Posted January 13, 2002 Dear Sunder, Great story. My take on it is the following: The most intelligent Crow wanted to be recognized and appreciated by its brethren (for its intelligence)! That is where the problem started. Then it tried to mimic other species based on other people's opinions, which are often quite fleeting anyway! This got the most intelligent Crow no where. When everything failed the Crow decided to be a Jnani (How sad!!) -- after all it needed only intelligence! In its community it has the best intelligence afterall. Fortunately it got to a real Jnani, who explained it clearly. Jnani's advice was perfect -- >He told the Crow, you are indeed a jnani, an > enlightened one, but you give yourself away every time you open your > mouth. If you keep silent people will treat you like a jnani. The best part is that the intelligent Crow listened to the advice, kept silent and was recognized as the Jnani!! The moral of the story is -- the Power of Silence is extraordinary and it has to be experienced!!! -- Vis - "sunderh" <sunderh <advaitin> Sunday, January 13, 2002 5:35 PM Parable of the Elightened Crow > Finally, he thought he must be a jnani, for he was 'equal-sighted' > towards food and whatever else! So he went to an ashram of a jnani. > When he told him his qualifications, the ashram residents were > furious and almost struck him. The jnani, however, was > very compassionate. He told the Crow, you are indeed a jnani, an > enlightend one, but you give yourself away every time you open your > mouth. If you keep silent people will treat you like a jnani. > The crow listened to the advice. After a few months, the visitors to > the ashram were astound by the 'silent' Crow. His fame grew far and > wide. Nobody asked him to leave, and on its death he was given an > honorable burial, as the 'Enlightened Crow.' > > The moral of the story is: [i am still trying to figure out!!!!!!] > > > [source: Unkown > Regards, > > Sunder > > > > advaitin, "R. Viswanathan" <drvis@h...> wrote: > > Hi! > > There is no end to the intellectual gymnastics of the mind and its > collected > > so-called knowledge from books, no matter how lofty the books are > (the books > > are not at fault, by the way). > > > > Discussion of Shankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy of nonseparablity of Atman and Brahman. > Advaitin List Archives available at: http://www.eScribe.com/culture/advaitin/ > To Post a message send an email to : advaitin > Messages Archived at: advaitin/messages > > > > Your use of is subject to > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 14, 2002 Report Share Posted January 14, 2002 > The moral of the story is -- the Power of Silence is > extraordinary and it > has to be experienced!!! Namaste Sunder and Vis, The Power of Silence? Is there the Silence and emanating in it...vibrating....not separate....the Power? Is this the Siva / Sakti state of consciousness/awareness? Maybe we should put that aside for a while. This thread made me think of the word 'silence' in relation to my present study of Vaak in various traditions and I just made a very brief search in indexes for references to silence...there were not any under that English word so I turned to the Gita and a favourite verse...2.9: uktvaa tusnim babhuvaa ha Having spoken silently he became indeed (in truth). I would refer you to my posting on the Jesus/Pilate posting of yesterday...the Brian/atma thread... as an example of such a powerful moment. The next step was to have look at 'tusnim' and Jacobs gives the following refs: Kaush. 4.19 Chha. 1.10.11 Brih. 2.1.13 Prasna. 6.1 Pranag. 1 Gita 2.9 The Chhandogya ref. is very appropriate: The story is of Cakraayana who requires sustenance and his going to the priests who chant at the sacrifice. The priests are challenged as to the usefulness of chanting without knowing intimately the object/subject of the chant: 'In this way he told the Pratiharta,"O Pratiharta, if you sing without knowing of him who is the deity associated with pratihara, your head will fall down." And they having refrained, sat silently.' The teaching in all these refs. is clear. Without resting/knowing in silence it is not possible to sing/chant/speak/type at the keyboard with full effect. Usually our words emanate from some scattered ripples/vibration rooted in ahankaara...that is certainly so in my case and I should not speak for others in this.....and so the words have little effect. 'My words are not like your words,' God speaks in Isaiah, 'They do not return to me unfulfilled.' If, like the priests, we find ourselves singing without really knowing the object of our words, then our heads will fall. We must become silent. Then, unlike the crow, we have a sweet voice and through that voice ......remember that Arjuna was told to teach words of the Gita....the cow of language can nourish all as She intends. Having said that I had better shut up, Om sri ram Ken Knight Send FREE video emails in Mail! http://promo./videomail/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.