EXAMPLE STORY

SPARROW WHO LOST HER EGGS

One should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked the ocean to return her eggs lest he himself take up the work of the sparrow. The ocean was frightened at this, and returned the eggs. Thus the sparrow became happy by the grace of Garuda.

MORAL: Similarly, the practice of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga in Krsna consciousness, may appear to be a very difficult job. But if anyone follows the principles with great determination, the Lord will surely help, for God helps those who help themselves.

JUMPING MONKEY

Once there was a who was jumping around in the forest when he saw a big tree that was half cut through with a plug wedged in it. The system of the wood cutters was that they would sometimes half cut through a big tree, leave it for the day, and then come back and cut the rest of it the next day. In the meantime, to preserve their cut, they would put a plug there. So this monkey became very curious about the half-cut tree, and he managed to push out the plug. And the big tree suddenly joined and cut off his tail.

MORAL: Mind your own business

FOUR BULLS

Four bulls in a field always kept near to one another and fed together. A lion, watching them from a distance, wanted to eat them, but while he could have attacked any one of them alone, he dared not risk it while they were all together because he knew they would defeat him. So he thought of a plan. He started unkind rumours about the bulls, and spread them about as though they had been talking about one each other. The bulls heard the rumours, and became so distrustful of each other that they separated, and each fed by himself. The lion then fell upon each one of them in turn, and ate them all up.

MORAL: We have to stick together and then maya cannot work her conspiracy upon us.

GOPAL AND MINISTER

No-one, not even an emperor, can be serious without relief. But since everyone had to treat the king very respectfully, there would be one person allowed to spoof with the king. The king would also be able to joke with him, because if the king were to do that with his prime minister, the prime minister's prestige would be reduced. So King Krsnacandra was always engaged in a battle of wits with his joker, Gopala.

One time Gopala walked into the king's court and the king said, "Gopala, you are an ass." "My lord," said Gopala. "I am not an ass. There is a difference between me and an ass." Then Gopala measured out the difference between himself and the king and said, "Six feet."

One day the king's wife gave birth to a male child, and so the king was rejoicing. At that moment, Gopala came into a room, and the king said, "Gopala, on this very, very happy occasion, please tell me what do you have to say? Tell me exactly how you feel at this moment." Gopala replied, "Frankly, at this moment, I feel very happy after passing stool." "Gopala! How could you say such a thing?" The king was mortified. "On this auspicious moment, that's all you have to say? I'm completely disgusted. It's not funny and I don't appreciate your humour at all." After that, the relations between the king and Gopala were strained for some time. But one day, Gopala was rowing the king down the river, when the king suddenly had an urgent call of nature. Gopala said, "On this side there is a very heavy jungle area. It's not very suitable. Let us go a little further down and we'll find a suitable place." The king said, "Go over to the side!" Gopala said, "Not here. There is danger. Some thieves and dacoits. Your life may be endangered. There's a place ahead." The king said, "Gopala, I cannot wait any longer. Immediately go over!" Gopala had to go over and the king jumped out. He could hardly contain himself. When the king returned, Gopala asked him, "How are you feeling?" The king replied, "I am feeling very happy after passing stool." Then Gopala said, "Don't you remember? This was exactly the situation I was in after your child was born. When you asked me at that moment what exactly I was feeling, I was in the same situation as you are now. I told you how I was feeling, but you thought I was insulting to your son and you never appreciated it. Now do you understand?"

Gopala was building a new house, and according to the Vedic custom, before you open a house you have to have a sacrifice called a grha-pravesana. This means that there is a yajna so that the house is pure and offered to God. No one is allowed to pass any stool in the house or it will be considered contaminated. Nothing is used by anyone until the Brahmins enter with sankirtan-yajna, reciting mantras and sprinkling Ganges water. Thus in the Vedic culture, everything, including building a house and conceiving a child is regulated so that at every point one is conscious of Krsna. But the king wanted to defeat Gopala, and so he offered a large reward of gold coins if anyone could outsmart Gopala and pass stool in his newly constructed house.

One day Gopala was inspecting his house when a man sent by the king came up and pretended to be suffering from an urgent call of nature. "Gopala," he said, "I have to immediately pass stool. Please show me your bathroom. I cannot contain myself." "All right," said Gopala, "come on." He took him over to the bathroom of the newly constructed house and allowed the man to squat down inside. But when he tried to close the door for privacy, Gopala stood there by the open door. "Gopala, why are you standing there and not allowing me to close the door? Why are you holding that big stick in your hand. Gopala said, "No, you can pass stool in my bathroom, but if you pass one drop of urine I'm going to smash your head." Then the man laughed and confessed, "You are very clever," and he ran off defeated.

Bakula flowers are small, white, star-shaped flowers which are edible and can be cooked as a vegetable. Gopala Bhan was once making a garland of such flowers, and a friend approached him and asked him what he was doing. "I am making a garland for Lord Krsna," Gopala said. "You mean to say that Lord Krsna will come and take that garland from your hand?" asked Gopala's friend. "Yes," Gopala said, "And if he doesn't I shall cook it and eat it."

GOPAL BHAR

Sometimes great authorities will teach asat sastra, a teaching which is not actually bona fide, but is just something to beat the heads of the atheists and kick them out. There is one story of Gopala Bhar. He was employed by king Krsnacandra, who lived about 300 years ago in Bengal, and Gopala was the joker. He was also very intelligent, and very bold. There was a digvijaya pandita, who came to Bengal. At that time, the main king or emperor of Bengal was a Muslim, but in different provinces there were also Hindu kings, and Maharaja Krsnacandra was one such Hindu king, he was king in that area of Navadvipa. So this digvijaya pandita had been going all over India defeating all the panditas, and getting it written down, "I have defeated this one, I have defeated that one." So he came to the muslim emperor, saying, "I am the great digvijaya pandita, I have come now to Bengal and I'm making a challenge. You bring your best pandita. I will defeat him." What he expected was that whoever he defeated had to become his disciple. So he made a very strong challenge. The muslim emperor turned to his adviser and said, "What should we do?" The minister replied, "Well, you know all our best panditas are down in Navadipa." That was the centre of learning. So a message was sent to Maharaja Krsnacandra that a big pandita has come to the muslim emperor and given challenge. "Send your best panditas, and if I defeat them they must become my disciples." So it was very heavy for Maharaja Krsnacandra, because he knew, "The muslim emperor is expecting that I send some panditas that can defeat him. It is all now on my shoulders." So then, together with his advisers, he decided to bring in the big panditas. They explained to the panditas what was going on, but all the panditas in Navadvipa said, "No. We're not getting involved in this." They didn't want their prestige to be diminished, they were thinking, "If we go there and he defeats us then it means we have to become his disciples, and then our prestige will be diminished. So we'll just stay out of this." The king was very much worried, because he was a ksatriya, he cannot force Brahmins to do his will. He can only ask, and if they say no then he's in a helpless situation. So he was very worried. Then Gopala Bhar came in, and saw the king sitting there very morose. "Hey king! What's wrong?" "Oh Gopala, look don't bother me now." Gopala said, "Oh, come on, What's the matter." The king was very sober, "Look Gopala, we don't want to laugh now. We don't want to hear jokes. Please come back another day." "No no," Gopala said, "Why don't you just tell me?" "All right," the king said, and then he explained everything. Then Gopala said, "All right, then I will go." "You?" the king asked. "Yes, I will go, and I will defeat this pandita. No problem." So then Gopala went home, and he dressed himself up like a big Brahmin. Cut his hair with a big sikha, huge tilaka and a harinam chadar, looking very bonafide. And Brahmins used to carry their sastra in a roll, a scroll wrapped in silk cloth, under their arm. So he was looking for something to wrap up, and he had in his house one old broken bed. So in Bengal these beds are strips of cloth which are woven together, like a deck chair, and in Bengali they call such a bed a kata. Because the English settled India, many English words come from the Indian language. In English such a bed is called a cot. So he took a leg from that old broken bed, and he wrapped in cloth. He went back to the king, and showed himself. Everyone was astonished. "Wow, he looks like a real heavy Brahmin." He was really getting into the role. "What is this sastra?" the king asked, and Gopala replied, "This is my Khatvanga Purana." "But we never heard of this sastra," everyone was saying. "When I come back I will tell you," Gopala said, and then he left. Actually what it was, was that khata means "bed", anga means "part of" or in this case the leg, and purana means "old." So it was "an old leg of a bed," or "Khatvanga Purana." So this was his sastra. Then he went to the emperors palace, and he came walking in. "Oh, what great pandita is this?" "My name is Gopala Bhar Das Pandit Maharaja. I have been sent by the king Maharaja Krsnacandra to defeat this so-called digvijaya. I am master of the four Vedas, and especially my field of expertise is the Jyotir-Veda (which includes astrology." He was speaking so confidently, and he was looking fearless. Everyone was very impressed, and even this digvijaya pandita was thinking, "He's not at all afraid of me. He must be a heavy one." So the digvijaya pandita saw this scripture that Gopala was carrying, and he asked, "What is this scripture, may I ask?" "This," Gopala replied, "Is my Khatvanga Purana, of which I am a master." The pandita was saying, "Wait a minute, I've heard of Visnu Purana, Skanda Purana. I've never heard of Katvanga Purana. May I see this?" Then Gopal Bhar exclaimed, "Ohh!" He was looking into the sky and going, "Ohhh! I have just noticed the angle of the sun, and I am remembering now the date today. We have just now entered a most auspicious moment, according to the Jyotir-Veda. Anybody who takes a hair from the head of this pandita," pointing to the digvijaya, "will immediately be granted with long life, and wealth in this lifetime, and liberation in the next. All auspicious result will come in this life and the next, simply by taking a hair from such a great digvijaya pandita as this." So then immediately everyone in the court ran and was taking hairs from the pandita. The pandita was being driven, and they were taking from his beard and everything. He went running and they were all chasing him. He was gone. Gopala Bhar returned to Navadipa with his head in the air. "Don't worry King, he is gone. That pandita has run off. He's completely defeated, completely finished." "Oh!" the king said. "How did you do this?" "As you were saying, I have this Katvanga Purana. I am a master of the learning of this." And when he opened it he showed a leg of a bed, and everyone was astonished. Then he explained the story, and they could all understand that he had just played a big joke, that's all. Then they asked him, "How is it that you could go so confidently, so boldly into that courtyard of the muslim emperor, simply dressed up like a brahmin and carrying an old bed leg under your arm. How were you so sure that you could defeat him jus by a trick?" Gopala replied, "As soon as I heard that this pandita was going to the muslim king and declaring that he is a great learned scholar, and that he would defeat any other scholar, then I knew that he must have been a fool. He must have actually been a kind of rascal because what do muslims know about Vedic learning. Why did he go to the muslim, why didn't he come down here or go to another Hindu king. He was going to the muslim king, so I knew that he must just be a rascal, trying to make a big show, so I did not think I had anything to fear when I went there." MORAL: The digvijaya pandita was just actually a rascal, which means not really one who's situated on the platform of knowledge, just someone who's trying to gain some name and fame. That's a rascal. Rascals can be defeated by rascal means.

There was one Gopal Ban. He was a very cunning fellow in the Muhammedan period in Bengal. So the Muhammedan Nawab asked him, "Gopal Ban, can you prepare a Mahabharata in my name?" "Oh yes!" Gopal replied. "I'll engage so many panditas, and they will make a Mahabharata describing your activities, your glories, everything. So give me one hundred thousand rupees, just to begin." Gopal was taking more and more money. Then the king asked him, "When will it be published?" "Just a few days more," Gopal replied. Then finally, "Yes sit, everything is prepared. But one last thing is, you have to give me information about how many husbands your wife has got. How many?" So this was a great insult. "What? You nonsense!" the king exclaimed. "No," Gopal replied, "This is the main feature of the Mahabharata. Draupadi had five husbands, so how many husbands does your wife have? Tell me that." "I am the only husband!" the king shouted. "Then how can I write Mahabharata?" Gopala asked. "If you want Mahabharata you must tell me how many husbands your wife has. That he cannot say, so Mahabharata finished. And he kept the money. MORAL: So scientists are doing like that. They are taking taxpayer's money, but then in the end they make up some excuse why they couldn't do it. Politicians take votes and make so many promises, but in the end they break all their promises.

GURU PARAMARTHA HAD FIVE DISCIPLES

The bogus spiritual master Guru Paramartha had five disciples. These disciples were obedient, but unfortunately not very intelligent. On one occasion, Guru Paramartha was riding a horse, and he was very nicely dressed. As his horse rode under a tree, a low branch happened to knock Guru Paramartha's hat off his head. The disciples saw the hat fall to the ground, but they neglected to pick it up. After some time, Guru Paramartha realized that his had had fallen off, and he turned around to his disciples, who were walking behind the horse. "Where is my hat?" Guru Paramartha asked his disciples. "It fell off, guruji," they replied. Guru Paramartha inquired from one of his disciples, "Why did you not pick my hat up, if you saw that it had fallen off?" One disciple replied, "You never told us to pick it up, guruji." Guru Paramartha then said, "Look, if something falls off the horse, pick it up." After a while, the guru's hat happened to fall off again. Obediently, the hat up. But being completely devoid of any trace of common-sense, they also picked up the stool that the horse passed later on. This placed this in the hat, and when Guru Paramartha later on asked for his hat, he got a nasty surprise. "You fools!" he yelled at them. "Don't you have one brain between the five of you? Look, here is a list. If something falls off the horse, only pick it up if it is on the list." So after riding for a while, the hat fell off again. His disciples saw it on the list, so they picked it up. The guru's cane then fell from the horse, so after checking the list, the disciples picked it up. After some time, the horse sped up to a gallop, and the disciples had to run behind to keep up. The the horse rode under a low branch, and this branch knocked Guru Paramartha to the ground unconscious. When the disciples looked at the list, they couldn't find "Guru Paramartha" anywhere, so they walked off and left him.

One other time, Guru Paramartha was instructing his disciples that they had to come to the mode of goodness before advancing. And this meant that they had to eat in the mode of goodness. After instructing his disciples, Guru Paramartha, being a yogi, went into samadhi, and his disciples began to talk amongst themselves. "Guruji has told us to eat in the mode of goodness. So what can we eat that is in the mode of goodness?" One disciple piped up, "I remember guruji saying once that the cow was in the mode of goodness." The disciples then set off to find a cow, and when they did they slaughtered it and took it back tothe asrama to eat. The guru was just coming out if trance when he saw what his disciples were eating. "You fools!" he screamed. "You have just committed the greatest sin by eating your mother! What do you think you are doing?" One disciple replied, "We are just trying to eat in the mode of goodness, like you told us." "The cow is in the mode of goodness, yes, but you're not supposed to eat her! Find something which is really in goodness." So then Guru Paramartha went back into samadhi, and his disciples again talked amongst themselves. "Well then," one said, "What is in the mode of goodness." After a long silence one said, "I know. Guruji is in the mode of goodness."

Guru Paramartha and his five disciples represent everything bogus. They are simply the personification of bogusness. Whatever bogus philosophy there is, Guru Paramarta will teach it to his disciples. And whatever bogus activity there may be, his disciples will engage in it. The point of these stories is not only to make us laugh, but to show us the foolishness of material endeavour, especially of the sort which is sometimes passed off among ordinary people as something spiritual. So one of Guru Paramartha's disciples was sitting in a tree, and he was sawing through the branch he was sitting on. He wanted to build something for his spiritual master. So immediately we have a good lesson is just this. This is the nature of all material activity. Like it is said, vipariyo smrti. This means "competitive mentality." One actually wants to enjoy in this material existence. Krsna is the supreme enjoyer, in the spiritual world. One is thinking "I will become the supreme enjoyer" here in the material world. So by that consciousness then attachments are established, one becomes attached to some other thing. Our every endeavour to enjoy in this material existence will be condemned. We may be maintaining so many attachments, but they will all be broken, no matter what. One is working hard, one is thinking, in his foolishness, "I am accomplishing something," but he's cutting his own position out from under him. So as he's doing this, one brahmin walks by underneath the tree, and looks up. He says, "My dear young man, if you continue to saw like that the branch will break and you will fall and hurt yourself." The boy said, "Don't talk, you don't know what you're saying. I am doing this as a service to my guru, and everything will be alright. You go away." "All right, I'll go away," the brahmin said. "I have no desire to stay here and watch you do something foolish." So he walked off. So the disciple kept sawing, and finally the branch he was sawing reached the thickness where it could no longer hold his weight, it cracked and he fell. He banged his head and it raised a big lump. So he was sitting there rubbing the lump moaning, when he thought, "Oh, but that brahmin came by, and he actually saw the future! This is amazing." So he began to think of this brahmin as a very mystical person who could actually see the future. So picking up the branch, he was runnning to catch up with the brahmin. So the brahmin was walking along and he happened to look behind him and see this boy running with a branch in his hand, "Stop! Stop!" So he began to run also, thinking, "This fellow is a madman! First he's cutting the branch he's sitting on, and now he's going to beat me, simply because I told him this would happen." So they were running over hill and dale, and finally the brahmin became weak and could not run any more, so he turned to face his adversary, and the boy came up, but the boy was very respectful to the brahmin, and he was touching his feet. "Oh dear sir, I'm glad you've stopped. I understand now that you are a great seer of the future. So you please tell me, because myself and my other four godbrothers, we're very worried about the time when our spiritual master will pass on from this world. So can you tell us when this will happen?" So this brahmin knew he was dealing with someone very foolish. Actually this brahmin didn't have any power to see the future. He simply had common sense. So in order to pacify this young man, he made a sanskrit statement. Asana sitam, jivana nasham. This means that when the seat or the asana (meaning the material body), becomes cold you will know your spiritual master has passed on. So he was making a very simple, common sense statement which anyone could have said. The boy was saying, "This is a very perceptive, mystic statement." So he ran back and announced that he now has the secret of preserving the life in the spiritual master. So he told his godbrothers, and they became excited, and they went to see guru maharaja, Guru Paramartha. "Guru Paramartha, now we know that we simply have to always keep you warm, and you will not die." "What is this," Guru Paramartha asked. And then they told him, Asana sitam, jivana nasham. "Oh!" Guru Paramartha said, "Yes, it's obvious. Then especially my seat, my backside should be not become cold. So then I will no longer clean myself after passing stool." "Yes, wonderful idea," the disciples said. So then he was becoming very dirty and filthy, and smelly also, but as he told his disciples, "Better dirty than dead." So in this way life was going on. Then one day there was a rainstorm, and there happened to be in the roof above the asana a little hole. Water dripped down and soaked the seat. So Guru Paramartha was going to give a lecture to his five disciples. He came and sat down on the seat, and he began to speak. Then as he was speaking, he began to notice that his seat was becoming cold. He was then in great terror. "Oh no! It's happening! My seat is becoming cold!" And because of the psychological state he was in, he fainted. Then his disciples began to lament. "Ohhh! Guru Maharaja has left his body!" They were lamnting and crying. So they carried the body to the bathing tank to wash it for interrment. They wanted to put the body in samadhi, so they had to wash it first. So they put the body in the tank and they were pressing it down. So because Guru Paramartha was only unconscious, this water revived him and he began to struggle. The disciples were thinking, "Oh, a ghost has entered Guru Maharaja's body! Let's drive this ghost out!" So they were pushing him down further and he was struggling. "No, you fools! I'm still alive!" So finally he somehow got free of their grasp, and he was able to stand up. He was rebuking them, but they were still thinking that a rakshasha has entered Guru Maharaja's body, so they all ran away, and Guru Paramartha was left standing there. So these stories illustrate the foolish predicaments the living entitiy gets himself into when he accepts false shelter, and the prime predicament is that whatever we do is going to be cut off by impending death.

Ghoda-dimba means "horses egg," and this point of logic means to confuse the effect with the wrong cause. There were five disciples of a foolish guru, Guru Paramartha

and they wanted to do some service for him by getting him a horse so he wouldn't have to walk everywhere. But horses were very expensive, and they didn't have much money. Then one disciple came running in with the news that he had seen horses eggs in a field. There were horses grazing in a field, and on the ground near them, there were big eggs. "So all we have to do is buy a horses egg and sit on it. Then it will hatch and we will have a little horse. Then he grow up and carry guruji around." So they very excitedly went there, and sure enough they saw in a field where there were very nice expensive Arabian horses grazing, there were big eggs. Or what they thought were eggs, actually they were pumpkins. But the owner of the horses and that plot of land, he immediately recognized what is known as "a killing" when he sees one, how to make a lot of money out of nothing. So when they approached him and asked, "We want to buy a horses egg." He replied, "Huh? Oh yes, the horses eggs! Well, these are expensive horses you know, so the eggs are also not so cheap." Then they haggled, and finally five gold coins were paid for one pumpkin, whihc is of course an outrageous price. So very excitedly they went running back to the ashrama, but the one carrying the pumpkin happened to trip, and the pumpkin went end over end through the air, crashed in a bush and broke open. So they were very sad, but instantly from out of the bush ran a rabbit which had been hiding there. They were pursuing the rabbit. "Get the little horse!" But they failed to catch the little horse, so they had to come back to the ashrama and tell their spiritual master their big mistake.

MORAL: This ghoda-dimba story illustrates false cause. There has always been a class of scientists who think that life comes from matter, but this is based on a similar philosophy.

Once a group of rabbits were being eaten by a lion. So they made an agreement and met with the lion, pleading with him to limit his killing. They said, "We are all terrified, and you also are not getting to eat every day. So why don't we make an agreement that every day one of us will come to you, and you can eat us. In that way, we will not be so terrified, and you will at least get one rabbit a day." The lion agreed to the proposal. But one day, one of the more intelligent rabbits thought, "What is this? Why am I rushing into death? Today is my last day. Let me enjoy on the way." So in a very leisurely way, stopping sometimes beside a river and then a well, the rabbit finally arrived late before the lion. The lion was very angry and roared, "Why have you come late?" The rabbit replied, "It is not my fault, because on the way another lion said he was going to eat me. It was all I could do to get away from him." The lion said, "Who is challenging my authority? Let me find him." So the rabbit led him to the edge of a well and said, "He's in there." The lion looked inside and saw the shadow of a lion. When he roared, the reflection lion roared back, and so the lion jumped into the well to attack. In this way the rabbit finished the lion.

MORAL: If a high-level man says something favourable, then you can go back to him and complain on his behalf. Tell him that you have told one of his clerks or ministers that the top-level man says they must give permission but the clerks are not caring for his word. Then the top minister will say, "Oh? Then I will finish him."

LION TIGER JACKAL AND A CROW

Once there was a lion, a tiger, a jackal and a crow. These are all carnivorous animals. So the lion, the tiger, the jackal and the crow were having plentiful times, with a lot of food to eat. There were little rabbits and mice and birds. The lion was the king of the forest, and he was big and fat. The crow was also very healthy, as were the tiger and jackal. So they were thinking, "Look at this camel over here, eating the thorny bushes. He's a vegetarian. He's all alone, so let's bring him into our camp. Come on over camel, and join us." "Oh no," said the camel, "You're meat eaters. I'm not going to associate with meat eaters." "Oh come on, don't be a stick in the mud. Come and stay with us. We've got plenty of food, we won't eat you." So this stupid camel came over to the lion and said, "But I don't want to live with you, because you'll kill me." So the king of the forest said, the lion, said, "No no. I promise you, in front of all my friends, that I will not kill you." So with that assurance, the camel began to live with all the animals, the crow, the jackal, the tiger, and the lion all began to live together. But then times changed, and there was a drought, and as the months went on, there was no food food for the lion, the tiger, the crow or the jackal. And they started to get very skinny. But the camel was getting fatter and fatter, because he was eating the cactus, the thorns. He had plenty of things. So then the other animals were looking at him, "Yum yum!" but a promise had been made that they wouldn't kill him. So the jackal, who was very cunning, he went to the lion and said, "We have to eat this camel, because we're going to die otherwise." The lion said, "But I promised I would not kill him." The jackal said, "Yes, you promised you wouldn't kill him, but you didn't promise you would not eat him." "You clever little fellow," the lion said, "What do you mean by this? How is it possible that I eat him if I don't kill him?" The jackal said, "I have a plan." So that evening when they were all sitting down together, the lion was saying, "Oh I'm so hungry. I think I'm going to die." So the jackal stood up and said, "My dear king of the forest, you cannot die. If you die, everything is lost. Please, you eat me. Right now, pounce on me, eat me!" So the lion said, "No, you're just a dirty little creature. I couldn't eat you. I'd getr sick if I ate you. So the tiger stood up and said, "Eat me. We can't lose you, O king." The lion replied, "No, you're part of the cat family. I can't eat one of my relatives." Then the crow said, "You should eat me then. I am so little, if I am lost what is the difference?" So the lion said, "You are but a mouthful. What would be the use of eating you, I would still starve." So the stupid camel stood up and said, "All right, then eat me." Then they all pounced on him and had a big feast.

MORAL: Although in the beginning he didn't want to associate with them because he knew they would eat him, nonetheless by the power of association he lost his good intelligence and he was devoured. In the same way, by material association we can become convinced about material life and become devoured. Also by good association one can become convinced about spiritual life.

Once a yogi was giving a talk at the Kumbha Mela in India. As he was talking, a snake came out in fromt of everyone. This snake had red ants crawling all over him, and the red ants were biting him. The snake's skin was hanging off its body. Upon seeing this, the yogi laughed, and some of the audience were surprised. "Why are you laughing at this poor creature? Don't you have any compassion?" The yogi replied, "You don't understand. In his last life, this snake was a guru, but he accepted his disciple's service for his own sense gratification. Now his disciples are getting back at him."