Thus Spake The Lord

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Thus Spake The Lord

 

 

 

Consider this incident; A man suddenly loses his son and is in grief. So a neighbor goes to him and tries to console and comfort him by various arguments and anecdotes. "My dear friend! Why is a man born? Why does he die? The reason why he was born also explains why he died. Birth means death. Fate plays strange games with us. We are but puppets in the show. What is the use of grieving over the dead?" He pours into the ears of the bereaved person all the Vedanta (philosophy of detachment) he knows. But the grief continues as before until the man becomes aware of the truth himself, unaided.

 

A few months later, the neighbor loses his son. Now the man who received all the Vedanta a few months ago comes to him and repeats the same questions seriatim. He says that one lives so long as one's karma lasts, and that one's life is cut short when one has no more karma to atone for. It is all a question of paying old debts. But these statements do not console the aggrieved neighbor, for the loss is entirely his. When ego is awake, no wisdom can appeal. The feeling, "my son", is the root cause of one's grief and another's calm.

 

 

 

Reference: Sathya Sai Speaks; Vol. XIV, P. 84-85.