Ramana Maharshi says The sastras are like the words of the father in the story

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One evening a young boy went for a stroll with his father. When dusk had

almost set in, he beheld a tree-trunk from which the branches and leaves had

been cut off. He was terrified and screamed, “Oh Father! There, see, a

ghost!” Though his father knew the truth that it was just the stem of a

tree, he assured the boy,” Oh, that ghost! It cannot do you any harm. I am

here and will see to it, Come on”; so saying, he led the boy away. On

hearing the encouraging words of his father, the boy took them to mean, ‘My

father is stronger than the ghost and that is why he says that it can do me

no harm’. This conclusion of the boy is similar to the understanding of the

pandits about the meaning of the Yoga and Vedanta sastras !.

 

Next evening, while going, for a stroll with his teacher along the same

path, the boy exclaimed, “Sir, look ! There’s the ghost; we saw it yesterday

also ,” The teacher pitied him for his ignorance and said, “That is not a

ghost”, But the boy persisted, “No sir, my father also saw it yesterday; he

even assured me that he would see to it that it could do me no harm; but

sir, you say it is not a ghost at all’” Would the teacher yield so easily?

He said, “Go near it and see for yourself; I will shine the flashlight on

it. If it turns out to be a ghost, I too will see to it !”

 

The sastras are like the words of the father in the story. The father also

knew well that it was not a ghost. Similarly, the great Sages who gave these

sastras also knew well the absolute truth (paramarthika satya) that nothing

such as the ego, body, or world has ever come into existence at all. The

father, knowing that his son was quite unfit to make a closer examination on

account of his much frightened state at that time, talked to him as if he

were also accepting the existence of the false ghost imagined by his son.

Even while talking like that, he was not telling a lie. To allay quickly the

fear of his son, he said, ‘The ghost cannot do you any harm: That was indeed

the truth! However, what the teacher told him the next day was the absolute

truth (paramarthika satya). Although the, teacher’s statement that it was

not a ghost seems to contradict the father’s statement, does it not in fact

lend more support to the objective of the father’s statement that the ghost

could do the boy no harm, by making him see for himself that it was after

all only the stem of a tree? By thus fulfilling the father’s objective does

not the statement of the teacher breathe new life into that of the father”?

Instead of understanding thus, if the boy were to conclude,’ Either my

teacher has condemned my father, Of my father has told me an outright lie’,

it would be utterly wrong on his part. Similarly, Sri Bhagavan has neither

condemned the sastras, nor shown them to be false; nor have the sastras

stated untruths. If any reader were to come to this mistaken conclusion

about Sri Bhagavan, ‘he would be just as much wrong as would have been the

boy in our story.

 

“Reason does not contradict, but fulfils. No Sage has ever come to

contradict”. Jesus Christ meant the very same thing when He said, “I am not

come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Sermon on the Mount) !

 

The revolutionary teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana,who steer clear of all

the roundabout routes in the sastras and shows the aspirants the direct and

easy path, will appear to be a condemnation only in the eyes of those

pandits who are attracted and deluded by the darkness of the vast forest of

the sastras, and who never had the benefit of their study but suffer from

mere scriptural fanaticism,and who use their learning only to show off their

skill in intellectual acrobatics on the platforms and to write commentaries

in bombastic style on the sastras in order to earn name and fame; but those

sincere aspirants who want to have the real benefit of the sastras will see

the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana as the crest-jewel adorning the crown

of the sastras, imparting a new life and fresh glory to them !

 

Source: The Path of Sri Ramana Part 1 book By Sri Sadhu Om