Light the Lamp

People, today I came across a very beautiful short story and I wanted to share with all my fellow writers.

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One night Sri Adi Shankaracharya, a great Advaita Master, was desperately searching for something on the street outside his small hut.

One of his pupils was returning after completing an errand. On seeing his Master in desperation, he could not control his curiosity & asked , “Acharya, what are you looking for here in the street at this hour?”

To which he replied “I lost my needle, I’m looking for it”. The pupil joined him in the search but after searching for a while he asked, “Can you try and recollect where you might have dropped it?”

Shankaracharya said, “Of course, I remember. I dropped it near the bed in the hut.”

The pupil, utterly astonished at the strange answer, said, “Acharya you say you lost it in the house then why are we looking for it outside?”

Shankaracharya innocently replied, “There is no oil left in the lamp, it is pitch dark inside the house. Hence I thought searching for it outside since there is enough street light here.”

While holding back his laugh the pupil said, “if you lost your needle inside the house, how could you even expect it to find outside?”

Shankaracharya simply smiled back and pupil understood the deep message behind the Acharya’s puzzling act.

Isn’t that what we do?

We run to various shrines and religious places, walk up the mountains in search of what we lost inside, in ourselves.

Why?

Just because it’s pitch dark inside!

Silly, aren’t we?

Light the lamp inside you and find your lost treasure.

Source:Unknown

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Sri Adi Shankaracharya- an early 8th century Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is a school of Hindu philosophy and religious practice, and one of the classic Indian paths to spiritual realization

Acharya- Master