Once Upon A time .. In a Cave !!

Well.. I would like to start this blog with a story i remember.. A story of a old sage, but the facts presented nicely fit into present day society even.. Happy Reading !

"Once upon a time there lived a sage who was wandering from forest to forest in search of peaceful place to practice yoga for the rest of his life..He found a cave in one forest where he experienced the calmness he expected. Having decided to stay there, he started cleaning the surroundings to make it a clean place fit for his practice.While doing so, he found a little rat squeaking, running around here and there out of fear and insecurity.Our sage felt pity for the rat and assured that it would be protected under his supervision in the cave and has given strict instructions to rat not to disturb him when he is practicing yoga.

Days passed on..sage was happily performing his routines and practicing yoga as he expected. suddenly on one day while the sage was about to reach a deeper stage in meditation, the little rat came running to the sage and started squeaking. Having been disturbed, the sage opened his eyes and questioned the rat about its behavior. Rat showed a wild cat that is hunting it and wanted to get protected from the cat.. sage went and shoo away the cat and continued with his meditation. Again on the second day, rat came to him with the same complaint and wanted sage to shoo away the cat, sage did so... it continued for some days and our sage is not able to concentrate properly in his practice. On one day, sage decided to use the powers he acquired to turn the rat into a wild cat, so that it can protect itself from all the cats and would not disturb him. Having decided so, the sage called the rat and explained his decision to turn this rat into a cat !! rat felt happy and agreed with the decision.

Again days passed on... our 'Rat turned Cat' is enjoying its new avatar and started going outside the cave since it believes that it can protect itself. On one day to its surprise, it has seen a pack of dogs hunting . Having been scared of the dogs, the rat turned cat went running to the sage for protection. Sage got disturbed again, and asked the cat about its new problem. After hearing the cat, the sage now decided to turn this cat into a wild dog so that it can protect itself from other dogs.. having acquired a new avatar again, this 'rat turned cat turned wild dog' started hunting happily in the forest and returned to the cave during nights.Sage continued his practice as expected..

Days are never the same !!! this time as the 'rat turned cat turned dog' started wandering in the forest it confronted a pack of wolves, unable to fight the wolves the dog ran back to the cave for protection and disturbed our sage..This time the dog advised the sage, why to get disturbed every time it faces a problem and asked the sage to convert it into a lion so that any animal would be scared to hunt it. Having pleased with its explanation, the sage used his powers again to turn this dog into a 'Lion'. Now our rat which acquired the status of  a Lion is happy, thanked the sage went back to the forest. It was enjoying its life hunting other small animals, ruling the forest.

Now our rat which is a mighty lion needs more feed to satiate its hunger. One day it found no prey and hungrily returned to the cave.It observed the sage meditating deeply.The mere smell of human increased its already burning hunger. It fought with itself for long time not to launch an attack on sage. Unable to fight its hunger the lion decided on having the sage, and started walking slowly towards him. Foot by foot as it walked the sage could smell something wrong going around and opened his eyes. To his surprise 'the then rat, now a lion' is ready to launch an attack on him.No sooner does he gained his senses, wasting no time, he immediately turned the mighty lion into a little rat...

The sage then understood the course of nature and thought it was foolish to protect a rat from a cat or a cat from dog or anything from its natural course. The rat is destined to become food for cat, if not one day the other day.Our sage tried to change the course of its destiny and almost fell prey to his doings."

We can compare the sage to our mind which we always set to do something fruitful. The rat can be compared to the desires that we face in between. One cannot proceed with one`s course of actions if one starts protecting one`s desires. Desires are different from dreams and destinies. There is a fair chance that we can mistake desire as a dream. One should know how to control one`s unwanted desires. As in our story, sage is determined to do yoga (destiny) and wished to protect rat (desire). Finally he almost fell prey for his desire..

As they say 'Human desires are Endless', fulfilling dreams and achieving targets is not a mistake but one must keep an eye on one`s growing desires, else we will fall prey for our own desires.