The Self, a tale from the Upanishads
There were Ten students studying in a Gurukul. They went to a neighbouring village crossing a river. On their return, while crossing the river there was a flash flood and they were inundated by torrent of water. They managed to reach to the shore but the team leader wanted to make sure that all ten have returned. He made a quick count and found only none were present. To avoid mistake, he lined them up again and counted each one of them by touching their bodies. Still the count was nine. One of the students offered rechecking. He changed the side and place the group leader to his place and counted. But the count was nine. The count of nine was confirmed and all went into grief, sat on the river bank and started crying for the lost kin in the floods.
At that time, a wise man passed that way. He stopped and ask the reason of their crying. The student narrated the story. The wise man counted their number and understood the problem. He told them that no one was missing. It was just a delusion or ignorance. He told the leader to count them once again. The leader counted them and found them nine again. The wise man interrupted and asked the leader whether he has counted himself also. They immediately realised the mistake and realised that the missing tenth person was the leader himself who was doing counting. They rejoiced in the knowledge and thanked the teacher ans returned to the Gurukul happily.
The Self was not missing. He was counting others and searching for the missing 10th, but not counting himself. The Self was never missed.
Meditate on the Self. The answer is within you, ‘the self’.
Punamchand
7 April 2022
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