An argumentative tendency

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Source: Chinna Katha

http://www.saibaba.ws/stories/storiesparables.htm

 

An argumentative tendency

 

By reading many books and developing an argumentative tendency, it

is quite common today that young people get into arguments with

others. Once a young man aged 22 years went to Sankara. When Sankara

was giving spiritual lessons to his disciples he interrupted and

asked Sankara if all human beings in this wide world should not be

regarded as equal since the same kind of blood flows in all of them.

Sankara smiled at this young man and said that the blood flowing in

that youngster is hot and fast and so he was trying to push things

too far. It is not possible for man to distinguish between permanent

and impermanent things. One can adopt the notion of non-duality or

advaita in one's own thoughts and attitudes but it is not possible

to equate everything in the world in practice. The young man

insisted that this does not seem right. He stated that to him, the

proper thing appeared to be to treat all living being in the same

manner.

 

Sankara recognised that if this young man was allowed to go on in

this strain, he was likely to reach some absurd conclusions. Sankara

decided at once to teach him a lesson and immediately asked whether

he had a mother. The young man replied that he had a mother who was

alive and that he respected her very much. He again asked if the

young man was married. The young man replied that he was married and

that his wife also had come with him to the ashram. Sankara then

asked him if he had a mother-in-law. The young man replied that the

mother-in-law was quite hale and healthy. Sankara again asked if he

had any sisters and the young man replied in the affirmative and

said he had two sisters. Sankara asked if all these people were

women. The young man asked how it should be otherwise. Sankara asked

if he regarded all of them as equal and was treating all these

people in the same manner and if in particular, he was treating his

wife as mother and his sister as his mother.

 

In this world of multiplicity one has to recognize qualitative and

quantitative differences. Each electric bulb is varying in power and

wattage. Therefore the light radiating from the bulb is not due to

electric current. The current is the same everywhere but the

difference arises from the bulbs with different intensities. God's

power is like electric power and our bodies are the bulbs.