Shree Swamiji often says: To experience reality in life, we must look at the world with a spiritual vision and not with materialistic vision. We need to have a spiritual telescope to help us free from the clutches of illusion. He narrates an interesting parable to bring home the truth of his argument.
A disciple practicing ‘Hatayoga’ told his Guru that he was unable to give up his attachment to family-life as his wife loved him deeply. The Guru said: “Love born of physical attraction was not pure love. It was inspired by desire. It is your illusion to think that it is real love”. The Hatayogi was not convinced by Guru’s words. “The wife says she loves him more than her own life and is ready to sacrifice anything for his sake. The Guru dubs such love as not real” He inturn expressed his feelings with his Guru candidly and said he did not agree with the His ideas as far as the wife’s love was concerned. He also said that her love was so deep that she would not survive without him. Guru wanted to expose the real love of the wife. He laid a plot for his disciple and said: “With your skills of Hatayoga, control your breath and keep lying on the ground like a corpse. Let us see what happens next.
The Hatayogi agreed. The follwing day there was a great commotion in the house of Hatayogi. There was loud wailing and crying and the entire household was grief-stricken neighbours and people from around rushed to the house to see Hatayogi lying dead with his limbs twisted. Everyone took him to be dead as there was no breathing or any other sign of life. The wife’s grief was uncontrollable. Close-relatives and friends arrived and started making preparations for the last rites.
They readied a cot and began removing the body from inside the house. The limbs of the Hathayogi were tightly twisted and they were a block in bringing out the body through the door. A neighbour brought a pickaxe and began hitting the door frame in a bid to loosen the frame to facilitate the body to come out. Hearing the sound, the wailing wife came running from inside and asked why they were breaking open the door. The people gathered said there was no other way to bring the body out as the limbs had twisted.
The wife then said: “Please, do not break the door. I have become a widow and I have the difficult task of bringing up these small children and there is no one to support me. If you break this door frame, is it possible for me to replace the same. My husband anyway is dead and his earthly debts have come to an end. You better cut the twisted limbs and take the body out. Hatayogi, who was only acting dead, sprang up and his illusion had left him completely.
His anger at the wife’s false love made him blurt out the following words: “Wretched woman! She wants to cut my limbs” He then set out his journey with his Guru immediately. He had the realization of true nature of his wife’s love. While picturising the true nature of physical infatuation and the attachment to wealth Shree Swamiji makes it clear that all those whom we consider as our’s are not really our’s. The story is quit entertaining and at the same time it uncovers the truth intelligently.