OUT OF THE TIGHT CORNER

 
A child who could but go about in the house on all fours once found a shining new coin, a rupee (Maya), lying in a tight corner of a small niche in the wall of his house. The child at once determined to get hold of the rupee. The niche, being small and of an intricate pattern, at first defied the attempts of the little fellow. But being irresistibly drawn to it, the child, after twisting and torturing his body, went into the niche and pounced upon the rupee.

Unfortunately the pleasure of possession of the coin did not last long, as on trying to come out the child found himself blocked in. Being thus imprisoned in Maya, the child began to cry with pain.

The mother (another jiva involved in Maya) at once came running to the child on hearing it cry but found to her dismay that she could not relieve him, because the child had got himself fixed in the niche in such a way that to get him out forcibly meant the additional pain of a scratch or a twist.

Luckily the father (Sadguru) arrived on the spot at that moment, and, by way of bringing the child out without doing him any harm, placed a piece of sweetmeat (Maya) just outside the niche. At the sight of the sweetmeat the child ceased crying and forthwith began to squeeze himself out of the tight corner with the same determination and vigor with which he had gone in after the rupee.

And in this way the father (Sadguru) relieved the child from the clutches of Maya (rupee) through the medium of Maya itself (sweetmeat), both of which were then discarded as soon as the purpose was served.