UNKNOWN TENTH MAN

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UNKNOWN TENTH MAN

Source: Spiritual Stories told by Sri Ramana

Maharshihttp://www.ramana-maharshi.org

 

D: Not having realised the Truth that the Self alone exists, should

I not adopt bhakti and yoga margas as being more suitable for

purposes of sadhana than vichara marga?

Is not the Realization of one's Absolute Being that is, Brahma

jnana, something quite unattainable to a layman like me? M: Brahma

jnana is not a knowledge to be acquired, so that acquiring it one

may obtain happiness. It is one's ignorant outlook that one should

give up. The Self you seek to know is verily yourself. Your supposed

ignorance causes you needless grief like that of the ten foolish men

who grieved the `loss' of the tenth man who was never lost.

 

THE TEN FOOLISH men in the parable forded a stream and on reaching

the other shore wanted to make sure that all of them had in fact

safely crossed the stream. One of the ten began to count, but while

counting others left himself out. " I see only nine; sure enough we

have lost one. Who can it be? " he said.

 

" Did you count correctly? " asked another, and did the counting

himself. But he too counted only nine. One after the other each of

the ten counted only nine, missing himself. " We are only nine " they

all agreed, " but who is the missing one? " , they asked themselves.

Every effort they made to discover the `missing' individual

failed. " Whoever he be that is drowned " said the sentimental of ten

fools, " we have lost him " . So saying he burst into tears, and the

rest of the nine followed suit. Seeing them weeping on the river

bank, a sympathetic wayfarer enquired for the cause. They related

what had happened and said that even after counting themselves

several times they could find no more than nine. On hearing the

story, but seeing all the ten before him, the wayfarer guessed what

had happened. In order to make them know for themselves that they

were really ten, that all of them had come safe from the crossing,

he told them, " Let each of you count for himself but one after the

other serially, one, two, three and so on, while I shall give you

each a blow so that all of you may be sure of having been included

in the count, and included only once. The tenth `missing' man will

then be found. " Hearing this they rejoiced at the prospect of

finding their `lost' comrade and accepted the method suggested by

the wayfarer.

 

While the kind wayfarer gave a blow to each of the ten in turn, he

that got the blow counted himself aloud. " Ten " said the last man as

he got the last blow in his turn. Bewildered they looked at one

another, " We are ten " they said with one voice and thanked the

wayfarer for having removed their grief.

 

That is the parable. From where was the tenth man brought in? Was he

ever lost? By knowing that he had been there all the while, did they

learn anything new? The cause of their grief was not the real loss

of any one of the ten, it was their own ignorance, rather their mere

supposition that one of them was lost – though they could not find

who he was – because they counted only nine.

gokulmuthu narayanaswamy <gokulmuthu