# Story about Pride...something to help insight



## Rozanne (Feb 24, 2006)

http://pathofthemother.com/excerpts8.html



> There once was a great king who became puzzled as to the underlying cause of the universe. After observing the behaviors of countless learned men who seemed to lack faith in the divine, the king, in order to clarify his own doubts, sought the wisdom of a sage. The revered wise one responded by telling the monarch about an ancient conflict between the demons and the gods. The world had been in danger of being destroyed. By the mercy of the Devi, the deities won the battle. Not remembering the cause of their victory, the gods became proud and haughty, vainly repeating stories of their great conquests. Upon seeing that the gods had become deluded, Devi took pity on them. She appeared before them as a great and holy light, resplendent like ten million suns, yet cool like ten million moons, and dazzling like ten million lightning flashes.
> 
> They all wondered what this bright and incomparable light might be. Indra, lord of the heavens, in order to resolve their quandary, sent the mighty fire god to question the light. As the fearless fire god approached the light, a heavenly voice called out and asked him who he was. He announced to that great light that he was the strongest being in the universe, and that through his strength alone he was capable of burning everything. The brilliant light showed the fire god a piece of straw and challenged him to burn it up. When he was unable to burn this dried fragment of grass he quickly returned to the devas, told them to give up their pride, that their sense of supremacy was false.
> 
> ...


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## Rozanne (Feb 24, 2006)

Here's another really beautiful piece:
http://www.spiritual-teachers.com/returntoshiva.htm

The Sage Vasishtha said: The Goddess dances with her arms 
outstretched, moving like a swaying forest of tall pines against the 
empty sky. 
She is the power of the intellect, ignorant of herself and ever 
prone to action, continuing to dance about, bedecked with diverse 
emblems and devices. 
She is arrayed with all kinds of weapons in her thousand arms - 
the bow and arrow, the spear and lance, the mace and club, the sword, 
and all sorts of missiles. Conversant with all the elements of being 
and non-being, she is engaged in every moment of passing time. 
She contains the world in the vibration of her mind, as airy 
cities and palaces are contained in the power of imagination. She 
herself is that world, as the imagination itself is the utopian city. 
She is the volition of Shiva, like the wind in the air. As the 
air is still without its vibration, so Shiva is quiescent without his 
volitional power. 
This arupa volition becomes the rupa creation, just as the 
formless sky produces the wind which vibrates into sound. Thus does 
the will of Shiva bring forth the world out of itself. 
When this volitional energy of Kali dances and plays within the 
void of the Divine Mind, the world springs forth, as if by union of 
the active will and the infinite field of that Supreme Mind. 
Touched by the dark volitional power, the Supreme Soul of Shiva 
is dissolved into the waters, just as submarine fire is extinguished 
by its contact with the waters of the sea. 
No sooner does this power come in contact with Shiva, the prime 
cause of all, than it inclines and turns to assume the veil of nature 
and its conversion to external forms. 
Forsaking her boundless and elemental form, she takes upon 
herself the gross and limited shapes of land and hills, and then 
becomes the beautiful forms of forests and flowers. 
In the great round she rebecomes the formless void, and again is 
one with the infinite vacuum of Shiva, just as a river with all its 
impetuous speed enters into the immensity of the sea. 
She becomes as one with Shiva by giving up her identity as an 
aspect of Shiva. This feminine form of Shiva is merged back into 
Shiva, the prime male, who is the form of the formless void and 
perfect tranquillity. 
Rama asked: Tell me, O Sage, how that sovereign Goddess Shiva 
could obtain her quietude by coming into contact with the Supreme God 
Shiva? 
Vasishtha replied: Know, Rama, that the Goddess Shiva is the will 
of the God Shiva. She is styled as nature and famed as the Great 
Illusion of the world. 
The great God is said to be the lord of nature and the prime 
male. He is of the form of air and is represented as Shiva, calm and 
quiet as the autumnal sky. 
The great Goddess is the energy and will of the Intellect and is 
ever active as force in motion. She abides in the world as its 
nature, 
and roves about as the great delusion. 
She ranges throughout the world as long as she is ignorant of her 
lord, Shiva, who is ever serenely self-contained, without decay or 
decrease, beginningless and endless, and without a second. 
No sooner is this Goddess conscious of herself as one and the 
same with the Lord of self-consciousness than she is joined with her 
Lord Shiva and becomes one with him. 
Nature touching Spirit forsakes her character as gross nature and 
becomes one with the sole Unity, as a river is absorbed into the 
sea. 
The river falling into the ocean is no more the river but the 
ocean. Its waters mingling with sea waters become the salt sea. 
Just so, the mind cleaving to Shiva is united with him and finds 
rest therein, as the blade is sharpened by its reduction upon the 
stone. 
The mind engrossed in its own nature forgets the Eternal Spirit 
and must return again to this world, never attaining spiritual 
felicity. 
An honest man dwells amongst thieves only so long as he does not 
know them as such. No sooner does he come to know them than he is 
sure 
to shun their company and flee from the spot. 
So too the mind dwells amongst unreal dualities as long as it is 
ignorant of the transcendent One. But when it becomes aware of True 
Unity, it is sure to be united with it. 
When the ignorant mind comes to know the Supreme Bliss attendant 
on the state of Nirvana, it is ready to resort to it, as the inland 
stream runs to join the boundless sea. 
The mind roams bewildered in its repeated births in this 
tumultuous world so long as it does not find its ultimate felicity in 
the Supreme, unto which it may fly like a bee to its honeycomb. 
Who is there that would abandon Divine Wisdom, once having tasted 
its bliss! Who would forsake the sweet, once having known its 
flavour. Tell me, Rama, who would not run to sip the delicious nectar 
which pacifies all our woes and pains, prevents our repeated births 
and deaths, and puts an end to all our delusions in this darksome 
world?

Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana


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