Swami Vivekananda lecture on Vilvamangala

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Volume 1, Lectures And Discourses

 

This is a story from one of the books of India, called " Lives of Saints " .

There was a young man, a Brahmin by birth, in a certain village. The man

fell in love with a bad woman in another village. There was a big river

between the two villages, and this man, every day, used to go to that girl,

crossing this river in a ferry boat. Now, one day he had to perform the

obsequies of his father, and so, although he was longing, almost dying to go

to the girl, he could not. The ceremonies had to be performed, and all those

things had to be undergone; it is absolutely necessary in Hindu society. He

was fretting and fuming and all that, but could not help it. At last the

ceremony ended, and night came, and with the night, a tremendous howling

storm arose. The rain was pouring down, and the river was lashed into

gigantic waves. It was very dangerous to cross. Yet he went to the bank of

the river. There was no ferry boat. The ferrymen were afraid to cross, but

he would go; his heart was becoming mad with love for the girl, so he would

go. There was a log floating down, and he got that, and with the help of it,

crossed the river, and getting to the other side dragged the log up, threw

it on the bank, and went to the house.

 

The doors were closed. He knocked at the door, but the wind was howling, and

nobody heard him. So he went round the walls and at last found what he

thought to be a rope, hanging from the wall. He clutched at it, saying to

himself, " Oh, my love has left a rope for me to climb. " By the help of that

rope he climbed over the wall, got to the other side, missed his footing,

and fell, and noise aroused the inmates of the house, and the came out and

found the man there in a faint. She revived him, and noticing that he was

smelling very unpleasantly, she said, " What is the matter with you? Why this

stench on your body? How did you come into the house? " He said, " Why, did

not my love put that rope there? " She smiled, and said, " What love? We are

for money, and do you think that I let down a rope for you, fool that you

are? How did you cross the river? " " Why, I got hold of a log of wood. " " Let

us go and see, " said the girl. The rope was a cobra, a tremendously

poisonous serpent, whose least touch is death. It had its head in a hole,

and was getting in when the man caught hold of its tail, and he thought it

was a rope. The madness of love made him do it. When the serpent has its

head in its hole, and its body out, and you catch hold of it, it will not

let its head come out; so the man climbed up by it, but the force of the

pull killed the serpent. " Where did you get the log? " " It was floating down

the river. " It was a festering dead body; the stream had washed it down and

that he took for a log, which explained why he had such an unpleasant

odour.

 

The woman looked at him and said, " I never believed in love; we never do;

but, if this is not love, the Lord have mercy on me. We do not know what

love is. But, my friend, why do you give that heart to a woman like me? Why

do you not give it to God? You will be perfect. " It was a thunderbolt to the

man's brain. He got a glimpse of the beyond for a moment. " Is there a God? "

" Yes, yes, my friend, there is, " said the woman. And the man walked on, went

into a forest, began to weep and pray. " I want Thee, Oh Lord! This tide of

my love cannot find a receptacle in little human beings. I want to love

where this mighty river of my love can go, the ocean of love; this rushing

tremendous river of my love cannot enter into little pools, it wants the

infinite ocean. Thou art there; come Thou to me. " So he remained there for

years. After years he thought he had succeeded, he became a Sannyasin and he

came into the cities. One day he was sitting on the bank of a river, at one

of the bathing places, and a beautiful young girl, the wife of a merchant of

the city, with her servant, came and passed the place. The old man was again

up in him, the beautiful face again attracted him. The Yogi looked and

looked, stood up and followed the girl to her home. Presently the husband

came by, and seeing the Sannyasin in the yellow garb he said to him, " Come

in, sir, what can I do for you? " The Yogi said, " I will ask you a terrible

thing. "

 

" Ask anything, sir, I am a Grihastha (householder), and anything that one

asks I am ready to give. " " I want to see your wife. " The man said, " Lord,

what is this! Well, I am pure, and my wife is pure, and the Lord is a

protection to all. Welcome; come in sir. " He came in, and the husband

introduced him to his wife. " What can I do for you? " asked the lady. He

looked and looked, and then said, " Mother, will you give me two pins from

your hair? " " Here they are. " He thrust them into his two eyes saying " Get

away, you rascals! Henceforth no fleshy things for you. If you are to see,

see the Shepherd of the groves of Vrindaban with the eyes of the soul. Those

are all the eyes you have. " So he went back into the forest. There again he

wept and wept and wept. It was all that great flow of love in the man that

was struggling to get at the truth, and at last he succeeded; he gave his

soul, the river of his love, the right direction, and it came to the

Shepherd. The story goes that he saw God in the form of Krishna. Then, for

once, he was sorry that he had lost his eyes, and that he could only have

the internal vision. He wrote some beautiful poems of love. In all Sanskrit

books, the writers first of all salute their Gurus. So he saluted that girl

as his first Guru.

 

Source:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/L\

ectures_And_Discourses/Vilvamangala