Parables of Rama

by Swami Rama Tirtha | 102,836 words

Stories in English used by Swami Rama to illustrate the highest teaching of Vedanta. The most difficult and intricate problems of philosophy and abstract truths, which may very well tax the brains of the most intellectual, are thus made not only simple and easy to understand but also brought home to us in a concrete form in such an interesting and ...

Story 118 - The Whole World Within

A Drop of Water

A drop of water in the shape of a tear fell from the clouds. The tear fell, and when asked, 'Why this weeping?' It replied “O, I am such a tiny, puny, insignificant thing. I am so small, Oh, too small, and the ocean is so big. I weep at my smallness." It was told, "Weep not, do not confine yourself to name and form only, but look within you; see what you are. Are you not water; and what is the ocean? Is it not water too? Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. Don't look yourself as being confined in space and time. Look beyond this Space and Time, and see your Reality." You become miserable when you confine yourself within time. Lift yourself above all. Not only matter and spirit are the same, but all are the same. True Self is beyond all time. The whole world is within you. Just as in your dreams, you think yourself to be in the woods or forests, on the mountains, by the rivers, they seem to be outside, but all are within you. If they were outside, then the room would be weighed down, and the bed would be wet with the water you saw.

Similarly, Vedanta says, "All the world is within you; the astral, the psychic worlds, are within you; and you think that you are in them. Just as a lady carrying a mirror on her thumb looks into the mirror and thinks she is in the glass, but it is just the reverse, so as a matter of fact, the world is in you, and you are not the world.

MORAL: The time and space, comprising the whole world, though seem to be outside, are really within you. Hence, confine not yourself to name and form only hut rise above them and realise your Reality.

Vol. 3 (163-164)

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: