Crossing The Sea Of Samsara

Anecdotes

-Staff

By Staff

on August 1, 2008

There was a monk near Haridwar who had given up since years both hearth and home and was living on alms; he used to heap all the food he collected on a flat rock that jutted out of the Ganga and used it as a plate from which he took his meal. One day he came to his rock and found another monk sitting there, taking food! He got enraged at this trespass on his 'property'.

Then the new-comer said: "Alas! you have renounced all sense of "I and mine"; you have shaved your head, so that you may not be recognised by erstwhile companions; you yearn to be free from all bonds; but, you have tied yourself up with this rock! How can you swim across this Sea of Samsara with this rock around your neck? You are leading a life of hypocrisy". That opened his eyes to the error.