There was once a very poor man, who woke up hungry with only
10 rupees left in his pocket.
He decided to go to the market and see if his 10 rupees could buy him some food.
At the market, he met a fancy clothed man behind a table with a beautiful oil lamp on it, and a sign that read, "10 rupees".
The poor man could not believe his eyes, and asked the man what the catch is. "It's true, the lamp only costs 10 rupees", the man said. He further explained, that in the lamp there lived a genie, who fulfilled all your desires.
"Then why do you sell it?", the poor man asked.
"Well, the genie is always active and rather impatient", said the man.
"And if you don't pay attention to him, he will start taking things away".
"Well OK", said the poor man,
"Since I don't have much to lose,
I will buy it from you".
On arriving home, he rubbed the lamp and the genie appeared. "How can I serve you, master?", he asked.
"Prepare me a meal worthy of a King", the poor man commanded. Within a second the genie served an opulent meal with multiple courses.
The poor man was delighted, but when he started eating,
the genie asked again - "And now, how can I serve you master?"
Keeping in mind that the genie can also take away all the goodies, the poor man commanded, "Build me a beautiful castle, suitable for a King."
Only a few seconds passed by, and the man found himself in a beautiful palace. He started to explore it, but there came the genie again, and asked "How can I serve you, master?"
The man got annoyed at the pace of the genie hence went to the village sage, and explained his problem.
After a silent conversation with the sage he returned and now when the genie asked him for work, the man said, "Genie, build me a large pole and stick it in the ground".
The genie immediately built a pole and stuck it in the ground.
"Now genie, I want you to climb up and down the pole, over and over again", the man said.
The genie started to climb up and down the pole, right away.
The man now had time to eat his meal, explore his palace and do other things. The sage came to meet him and when they both went to see what the genie was doing, they saw that he had fallen asleep next to the pole.
"And so it is, with the thinking genie of every man...the Mind", said the sage. "It is restless in its desire to satisfy every desire, and thus fragments our being. The pole is a tool called a 'mantra' or 'divine name'. By repeating it over and over again, our restless mind is kept busy until it gets so absorbed in it, that it falls asleep. And this way our true self can enjoy peace and calm."
*Lesson:* We are more than our mind but very often we act as per the dictates of the mind, due to our inability to keep it in check.
A mighty warrior like Arjuna too, had expressed his inability and despondency to control the mind,
to Lord Krishna. The Lord agreed to Arjuna but advised that mind can be slowly got under control with the continuous practice of chanting the divine name.
Contributed by
Mrs Ojasvita ji
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