A lazy tramp sauntering along the road saw an old man
sitting at the door of his house and stopped to ask him the whereabouts of a
certain place. ‘How far is the village of Rampur?’ he asked.
The old man remained silent.
The man repeated his query several times. Still there was no
answer.
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| Thousand Pillars Hall of Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. |
Disgusted at this, the traveller turned to go away.
The old man then stood up and said, ‘Rampur is only a mile
from here.’
‘What!’ said the tramp, ‘Why did you not speak when I asked
you before?’
‘Because then,’ said the old man, ‘you seemed so halting and
careless about proceeding; but now you are starting off in good earnest, and
you have a right to an answer.’
Many of us journey through life like the lazy tramp in this
story. This is especially true in the case of our spiritual life which is
figuratively an inner journey to freedom. Even after resolving to tread the
spiritual path, we are often unable to progress on the path with one-pointed
effort.
Source – Vedanta Kesari editorial – September 2016
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