Stick To Your Innate Nature

Anecdotes

-Staff

By Staff

Thursday, August 28, 2008, 13:57

A hermit was one day bathing in the Ganga, when he saw a scorpion. This is God encased in the scorpion form and name, he felt; he wanted to save the scorpion, so he took it on his palm, but, when it stung him, he dropped it on the waters. Then he was stricken with remorse and so, he lifted it up again. Thus it stung him five or six times; but, he persisted in his mission of mercy and at last, managed to drop it on dry land so that it could go its way, alive and happy.

Many people who watched his efforts laughed at him for his stupidly exaggerated sympathy. The hermit told them that the scorpion had taught him a lesson and he was thankful for it. They asked, what? The hermit said, "Stick to your innate nature; whatever may happen that is what it has taught me."

Its nature is to sting, regardless of whom or when. Man's nature is to achieve jÑna; nanda is man's essence; love is the blood-stream that sustains him; peace is the vision that guides and directs him. That is the reason why he is addressed as 'Amritasya Putra', in the Upanishads; he is the son of immortality; he has no birth, no death!