The Big Moth

The two moths were friends and used to play in the wild forest. The wise one always gave instructions to the other and he followed. Slowly the feeling of ego was building up in the foolish one. He wanted to do everything on his own. He told his friend,

“Shall we go to the nearby village for a sight seeing? I am fed up with the usual things here”.

So they both went. Both the friends wandered for some time and enjoyed. Now the wise one said,

“Shall we go back to our home?”

But the other one was not ready. He wanted to be there for some more time. He saw a boy reading in the light of a lamp. He told his friend,

“See the big moth there! I will make friend with him and he will protect me”.

He misunderstood the flame of lamp as a big moth. But the wise one warned,

“It is dangerous, don’t go near the children. They are crazy that they will catch you”.

But he didn’t give ear to his wise friend, who tried his best to discourage him. He was in the hold of his ego. Finally he went to say hello to the big moth. He went near to greet him.

Alas! Both he and his ego became ash.

Renunciation

Once a bird sat absent-minded on the mast of a ship, anchored in the Ganges. After some time the ship sailed into the sea, but the bird was not aware of this. When it came to its senses the ship had gone very far from the shore. The bird could see only sea all around. It tried to fly towards the shore. First it flew towards north, till it became tired. Since it couldn't see the land it returned to the ship and sat on the mast. After sometime it flew towards south, but came back to the ship as before. Likewise, it flew towards east and then towards west, but couldn't find the land and finally rested on the mast of the ship. It didn't make any further effort and sat there calmly.

Usually worldly people wander everywhere in search of happiness. But they do not find it anywhere and finally become tired and weary. Attachment to worldly things result in misery and suffering and finally people feel an urge to dispassion and renunciation.

Fish Perfume

Once a fisherwoman came to visit one of her friends who was a gardener who raised flowers to sell. She came there with her empty fish basket, after selling fish in the market. The friends had dinner and after their friendly chat, the hostess offered her a room to sleep where the flowers were kept. She couldn't get to sleep for a long time. Her hostess noticed this and asked, "why are you tossing from side to side so restlessly?".


The fisherwoman said, "I don't know, may be the smell of flowers disturbing me, can you please give me my fish basket? Perhaps that may help me".

Her friend gave the basket to her and she sprinkled some water on it and kept it near to her head. Then she got a very sound sleep!.